Child sex tourism

Last month, the FBI asked for public help in a case involving a suspected serial child predator who for years taught in private international schools overseas.
The suspect committed suicide after his employer saw pornographic images on his thumb drive, but as part of our subsequent investigation—when we began the process of identifying and notifying the victims,—we also asked that possible victims and others who may have information come forward, not only to aid investigators but to potentially access our victim assistance services.

Sex tourism—people traveling to another country specifically to engage in illegal sexual conduct with children— is a very real issue that causes devastating and long-lasting psychological and physical consequences for victims.
And the problem is growing, thanks to the relative ease of international travel coupled with the popularity of the Internet in helping individuals exchange information about how and where to find child victims in foreign locations.
The U.S. State Department estimates that more than a million children are exploited each year in the global commercial sex trade. That’s in addition to the untold number of young victims of non-commercial sexual conduct.
But whether it involves commercial or non-commercial sex acts, the FBI— in conjunction with our domestic and international law enforcement partners— investigates U.S. citizens and permanent residents who travel overseas to engage in illegal sexual conduct with children under the age of 18. Since 2008, our Child Sex Tourism Initiative has employed proactive strategies to address the crime, including working with foreign law enforcement and nongovernmental organizations to provide child victims with support services and to investigate and prosecute individuals engaging in child sex tourism.
The FBI also shares intelligence products with our overseas law enforcement partners that focus on trends, methods of operations, offenders, etc.
And we offer training to foreign law enforcement and non-governmental organizations to build capacity and develop an effective team approach to address the problem. Intelligence sharing and training help develop cohesive multi-disciplinary teams, which in turn enable better international cooperation during the investigation of these crimes.