First lady Laura Bush gathered with the queens and first ladies of eight other countries in Paris last week to discuss the worldwide epidemic of child pornography.
The first lady spoke of the responsibility of governments to end global threats to children, "because the abuse of a child anywhere is an offense to civilized people everywhere," she said.
"Every year, approximately one million children are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation. Every country must educate its citizens, especially women and children, so they can avoid this degradation. Governments must also reduce the demand for child prostitution among their own citizens."
The conference was hosted by Madame Bernadette Chirac, wife of French prime minister Jacques Chirac. Ernie Allen, president of the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, worked to bring the world's most powerful women together.
"We had seen over and over again that the kinds of things that are happening to children in the world today are really perhaps of greatest concern to mothers," he said.
The women discussed solutions like international Amber Alerts and media campaigns.
But with 50 percent of the world's child porn coming from the U.S., Daniel Weiss, media and sexuality analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said the U.S. is the key player.
"The U.S. can really show the world how serious this is by taking the problems within our own borders far more seriously than we're doing now," he told Family News in Focus.
