On this day, June 25, in 1910

Congress passed the Mann Act, or the White Slave Traffic Act, prohibiting interstate or international transportation of women for "immoral purposes." The legislation was intended to protect white women from being forced into prostitution or "sex slavery," and was a xenophobic response to the increasing number of immigrant men in America, particularly from China. The law was also broadly worded and was often manipulated to criminalize consensual sexual activity and perpetuate the idea that women were property. Unfortunately, forced sexual exploitation still exists all over the world and the sex trafficking of women and children has been steadily increasing with the rise of globalization.