In the United States, a teen escort company, also called a youth transport firm or secure transport company, is a business that specializes in transporting teenagers from their homes to various facilities in the troubled teen industry.[1][2] Such businesses typically employ a form of legal kidnapping, abducting sleeping teenagers and forcing them into a vehicle. Teen escort companies in the United States are subject to little or no government regulation and commonly result in permanent trauma.[3]
Children to be transported are often picked up during the middle of the night to take advantage of their initial disorientation and to minimize confrontation and flight risk. Aggressive tactics, such as being punched, restrained with handcuffs, or hogtied with cable wires, are common.[4][8][9] Children are sometimes picked up at school, with the school staff unaware of the escort company's employees' true intentions.[10]:568
Children who resist are frequently threatened, restrained with handcuffs or zip ties, blindfolded, or hooded.[7] Children who have been gooned frequently report post traumatic stress disorder, problems sleeping at night, and recurring nightmares into adulthood.[4]Paris Hilton's documentary This Is Paris details her experience at age 17 with gooning, culminating in her transport to Provo Canyon School where she was abused.[11][12]
In 2004, it was estimated that there were more than twenty teen escort companies operating in the United States.[17][18] Parents may use this type of service when they believe their child needs treatment outside the home, but are unable or unwilling to travel there.[19] The service can cost $5,000 to $8,000 U.S. dollars (up to $10,500 in 2024).[4] Many teen escort companies do not have any training or background requirements for prospective employees.[10]:568
The use of such services is controversial, because the services are subject to little or no government regulation[18][20][21][15] and because they are associated with treatment services which are themselves controversial. For teenagers seized in the middle of the night by strangers, being abducted by a teen escort company may result in permanent trauma.[15] Attempts to establish similar services in other countries have been quickly closed down by the authorities under their laws against child abuse, assault and torture.[citation needed]
↑ "The Troubled Teen Industry's Troubling Lack of Oversight". www.law.upenn.edu. Archived from the original on December 27, 2024. Retrieved July 27, 2025. Teens may be subject to legally and ethically dubious tactics before they ever step foot on the grounds of the RTF, with the advent of an industry practice dubbed "gooning" by which youth are placed into these facilities against their will. Some parents hire transport services to stage kidnappings of their children, violently extracting teens from their homes in the middle of the night and delivering them to RTFs thousands of miles away
↑ Hilton, Paris (August 14, 2023). "Paris Hilton: my boarding school hell and how I survived". The Times. ISSN0140-0460. Archived from the original on April 7, 2025. Retrieved July 27, 2025. Mom cooked. No one acted angry or odd or nervous. I was sound asleep at about 4.30 in the morning when my bedroom door crashed open. A thick hand grabbed my ankle and dragged me off the mattress. I was instantly awake.
↑ Touretzky, Dave (January 23, 2016). "The Lisa McPherson Clause". www.cs.cmu.edu. Archived from the original on June 24, 2025. Retrieved July 27, 2025.
Magnuson, Doug; Dobud, Will; Harper, Nevin J. (2024). "Can Involuntary Youth Transport into Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Treatment Programs (Wilderness Therapy) Ever Be Ethical?". Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal. 41 (3): 417–425. doi:10.1007/s10560-022-00864-2.
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