Colorado is in the top ten, but on a list that should horrify every Coloradan. Current Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) data records place our state 10th in the nation for reported commercial sex trafficking victims age 19 or younger. Between August 2021 and August 2026, 256 young victims were reported in Colorado. Thirteen of these victims had not even reached their 10th birthday. Another 243 were between the ages of 10 and 19.

Yet even those numbers fail to convey the full brutality of this crime. They do not count every time a child was bought, sold, or sexually exploited. A single victim may be sold repeatedly, to buyer after buyer, over days, months, or even years. 

Think about what that means. Children young enough to be losing baby teeth, learning multiplication tables, and deciding what to be for Halloween are instead being subjected to horrors most adults can barely bring themselves to imagine. Somewhere along the way, an adult looked at an innocent child and saw someone to exploit, and another adult was willing to pay for sexual access to that child.

Under 10. Between 10 and 19. Do you have a child or grandchild that age? A niece or nephew? What about your neighbor’s child? Picture that face. Can you imagine someone putting a price on sexual access to that child, and someone else willing to pay it? What punishment would you believe fits the crime?

Imagine one of those children is eight years old. We’ll call her Emma, not because Emma is the name of an actual victim, but because the real children behind these numbers deserve privacy. She is in third grade. She should be thinking about what is packed in her lunch, who she will play with at recess, or what she wants for her birthday. Instead, imagine an adult exploiting her in the very place a child should feel most protected: a home. That is the disturbing reality reflected in the FBI data. The most commonly reported location for these crimes is not a dark alley of some distant, hidden place, it is a residence or home.

Now picture a 14-year-old freshman in high school, maybe with braces, a first crush, and a phone filled with pictures of friends. She is old enough to understand the terror of what is happening to her, yet still young enough to need a parent’s permission for a school field trip. While her classmates are thinking about football games, homework, and learning to drive, imagine an adult handing over money for sexual access to her, turning her body into a commodity and taking from her something that no passage of time can simply give back. 

The numbers reported by the FBI cannot tell the whole story. The FBI cautions that many trafficking crimes never come to law enforcement’s attention. Further, statistics cannot measure the nights a child cannot sleep, the trust that has been shattered, or the years of debilitating shame and trauma that follow because an adult treated her body as something that could be bought and sold. A spreadsheet of data cannot measure a stolen childhood.

That is why this conversation cannot begin and end with numbers. We also have to look directly at the adults responsible for the crime: the person who knowingly sells a child for sex and the person willing to exchange something of monetary value to buy sexual activity with that child.

Colorado lawmakers had an opportunity to act on this issue before it reached voters. During the 2026 legislative session, HB26-1082, the Children Are Not For Sale Act, sought to strengthen the penalty for human trafficking of children for sexual servitude to life in prison without parole. The House Judiciary Committee postponed the bill indefinitely on a 7-4 vote.

For thousands of concerned Coloradans who believed the existing laws were inadequate, however, the legislature’s decision was not the end of the effort. Protect Kids Colorado (PKC) took a different path: let the people decide. Through the citizen-led ballot initiative process, PKC brought forth Proposition 133 directly to voters, seeking life in prison without parole for those convicted of trafficking a child for sexual servitude.

At the heart of the effort was a question: “When should someone convicted of knowingly trafficking a child for sex receive another opportunity to victimize another child?” 

More than 3,300 volunteers across Colorado helped gather more than 170,000 signatures, far exceeding the 124,238 required to qualify Proposition 133 for the November ballot. Parents, grandparents, faith leaders, and concerned Coloradans carried petitions in their communities because they believed Colorado could, and should, do more to protect children.

When Proposition 133 qualified for the ballot, former Colorado state senator Kevin Lundberg, president of PKC’s board, described what drove that citizen effort: “When efforts to strengthen penalties for child sex trafficking stalled in the legislature, Coloradans took action through the citizen initiative process to bring the issue directly to voters.”

PKC’s Executive Director Erin Lee credited the thousands of Coloradans who carried petitions in communities across the state, saying, “This moment belongs to the people of Colorado.” Their grassroots effort had succeeded in putting the measure on the ballot.

This November, Colorado voters will decide the question on the statewide ballot by voting on Proposition 133: Penalties for Human Trafficking of a Minor. The measure would make human trafficking of a child for sexual servitude a class 1 felony and require a sentence of life in prison without parole. 

Life without parole is a serious punishment. It should be. The severity of the sentence must reflect the severity of the crime. We are talking about an adult who knowingly turns a child into a commodity by putting a price on that child’s body and choosing to buy or sell that child for sex.

At the same time, accountability must distinguish between perpetrators and victims. Colorado’s current law (C.R.S. § 18-3-504(2.5)) provides an affirmative defense for a trafficking victim who was forced or coerced into engaging in human trafficking for sexual servitude. Proposition 133 leaves that protection intact. It also expressly preserves the governor’s standing authority to grant a pardon, commutation, or clemency. The distinction matters: protect the victim, hold the perpetrator accountable, and prevent another child from becoming a victim.

No child can erase what was done, and no judge can restore the childhood stolen by adults who knowingly exploited that child, but our laws can say something unmistakable about the value of childhood and what we will not tolerate. Our laws can say a child’s body is not merchandise. Our laws can say knowingly trafficking a child for sex is a crime of extraordinary gravity that demands the most serious consequences. Our laws can ensure that a person sentenced under this measure does not someday walk out of prison with another opportunity to prey upon another child.

The leadership of Protect Kids Colorado who drafted the initiative included that principle into its legislative declaration: “It is the measure of a fair and compassionate society to ensure that children are not for sale.”

This November, the responsibility to live up to those words belongs to us. Colorado can send a message to anyone contemplating the commercial sexual exploitation of a child: this is a state where children will be protected, perpetrators will be held accountable, and we will not give a convicted child sex trafficker another opportunity to destroy another childhood.

Now think one final time about that eight-year-old. Imagine her hand in yours. Imagine having to explain to her that an adult knowingly put a price on her body, and another adult was willing to pay to sexually exploit her.

This November, please join me in voting YES. Together, we can protect our children, hold those who exploit them accountable, and make our message unmistakable: Colorado’s children are not for sale.

Lori Gimelshteyn is a board member of Protect Kids Colorado, the citizen-led organization that helped qualify Proposition 133 for the ballot, and executive director of the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network and Parents United. A mother and speech-language pathologist with more than 20 years of experience working with children and families, she advocates for parental rights and policies that protect children.