The Tourism Child-Protection Code of Conduct is the only voluntary set of business principles travel and tour companies can implement to prevent child sex tourism and trafficking of children. The Code is a joint venture between the tourism private sector and ECPAT. Companies that endorse The Code are supported by ECPAT-USA to:
1. Establish an ethical policy regarding commercial sexual exploitation of children.
2. Train the personnel in the country of origin and travel destinations.
3. Introduce a clause in contracts with suppliers, stating a common repudiation of commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children.
4. Provide information to travelers by means of catalogues, brochures, in-flight films, ticket-slips, homepages, etc.
5. Provide information to local “key persons” who will be informally supportive of the Code, at the travel destinations.
6. Report annually to the Code of Conduct Steering Committee.
Why is the Code important in the United States?:
In the United States, 200,000 American children are at risk for exploitation a year. Our youth are strategically targeted and manipulated by pimps who use hotel rooms as venues to abuse children, knowing that systems are not in place to protect the victims. With the use of online classified ads, child trafficking is moving off the streets and behind the closed doors of local hotel rooms.
The children are transported from city to city via U.S. owned airlines and buses by traffickers. Air travel is also a primary means of transportation for child sex tourists– individuals who travel overseas to sexually exploit local children. The Code helps these travel and tour companies create programs and policies to identify victims and traffickers so that they can effectively react.
For more information about The Code, please visit the Code of Conduct website.
To learn about what you can do to promote the Code and an updated list of United States based signatories, visit our Take Action page.