Update: Choice Hotels has agreed to take important and proactive steps to protect children from child prostitution and sexual exploitation. Congratulations, Choice Hotels, and thank you for joining us in this fight to protect children.

Right now, children are falling prey to sex trafficking in American-owned hotels all over the world, and even right here at home. Just last month, 5-year-old Shaniya Davis was sold for sex at a Comfort Inn in North Carolina. The tragedy of Shaniya Davis and the abhorrence of child prostitution are universally acknowledged.  Companies like Choice Hotels, the parent company of the Comfort Inn where Shaniya was sold, have the power to help prevent it.

Choice Hotels can help prevent child prostitution with one simple action: signing the ECPAT Code of Conduct.  More than 900 companies around the world (very few of them from the U.S.) have been willing to take this simple, effective action.  Without their commitment to eradicating child sex trafficking, American-owned hotels are signally their indifference to the plight of children. 

You can take action to prevent child prostitution by sending a letter to Choice Hotels CEO Steve Joyce, telling him to sign the ECPAT Code of Conduct and commit to preventing child sex tourism in Choice Hotel hotels.