( CNN ) Melissa was sold into the sex trade by a family member when she was only 12 years old . Her life became a prison : Chained to a bed in a warehouse , she endured regular beatings , rapes and once was even set on fire by her captors as she was forced to serve 5 to 30 men every day . The experience was enough for her to wish she was dead . And this all took place in Texas -- right here , in our own country . Melissa miraculously escaped her captors but , as is the case with so many other victims , she struggled for years to distance herself from her past , even finding herself in jail on multiple occasions . And while institutionalized slavery has long been cast from America 's history books , thousands of children still suffer from the bonds of sex trafficking . Indeed , with the average age of a victim only 13 years old , these horrific crimes are stealing the innocent childhoods of kids across America . And the problem is n't confined to one part of the country . In , Minnesota , for example , a 12-year-old girl received a text message that she thought was from a friend . It invited her to go to a party and asked her to go to a fast food restaurant nearby . But she did n't get to a party . Instead , she was taken to a hotel and raped by a 34-year-old pimp , forced to take explicit photos of herself that were then posted on Craigslist , before being forced to have sex with two more men who saw the post . These heartbreaking stories demonstrate what is broken about our current system , and why we both feel committed to fixing it . Instead of treating people like these young girls as the victims they are , they are often thrown into the criminal justice system , labeled prostitutes and left with few options but to return to a nightmare that shockingly still exists in the United States . Meanwhile , instead of treating their perpetrators as child rapists and traffickers , they are often simply treated as `` Johns '' who , if caught , often pay a fine and go on their way . This is outrageous , and should not be tolerated any longer . That is why we 've joined forces with more than 200 advocacy groups to fight this modern-day slave trade and provide hope and opportunity for its victims . Two bills we have introduced to combat this horrific crime recently passed the Senate Judiciary Committee with strong support and will have the opportunity for consideration by the Senate . The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act ( JVTA ) would support victims by taking fines and criminal assets from convicted human traffickers and directing them toward services and treatment to help victims restore their lives . The JVTA does n't only help victims , it also arms law enforcement with more tools to go after human traffickers . It ensures these criminals , including `` Johns , '' are brought to justice under our laws , because a financial transaction should not mask assault on a child . The second bill is modeled after Minnesota 's `` Safe Harbor '' law , which helps make sure minors sold for sex are n't prosecuted as defendants , but are instead treated as victims . The Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act ( SETT ) would give incentives for all states to have a safe harbor provision . When a state passes a safe harbor law , it means that kids sold for sex are steered towards child protection services , rather than being arrested , charged , or convicted under a state 's criminal statutes . All across the country , from Texas to Minnesota , young people are being robbed of their innocence and subjected to unthinkable horrors and abuse . We must do everything we can to free them from the shackles of sex trafficking . We must join together and take action to combat this modern-day slavery once and for all .
Sens . Cornyn and Klobuchar : Trafficking stealing kids ' childhoods . Two bills introduced to combat problem passed The Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act , they say .