Mexico’s Senate Unanimously Approves Tourism Law Reform to Combat Child Sexual Exploitation

Mexico City — The Mexican Senate unanimously approved reforms to the General Tourism Law aimed at combating the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents, sending the measure to the president for publication in the official gazette.

Under the reform, tourism service providers must ask travelers accompanied by minors to prove their relationship to the child — whether through parental authority, guardianship or custody. Providers must also verify legal age with official documents, and if that cannot be done, they must deny service and notify investigative authorities of a possible crime.

The legislation obliges tourism businesses to carry out the prevention protocols and measures defined by authorities to detect possible violations against the physical and emotional integrity of children and adolescents.

The reform combines proposals from the ruling Morena party, the conservative National Action Party (PAN) and the Labor Party (PT). It passed with 104 votes in favor and no votes against or abstentions.

Citing data from the organization World Vision, the text notes that Mexico is the world’s second-most-common destination country for the sexual exploitation of minors and ranks first globally in child pornography consumption.

Digital Platforms Deepen the Risk, Senator Says

The reform states that abuse of children and adolescents in the tourism sector is carried out by those who use the industry’s infrastructure and services, including hotels, motels and rented properties; land, air and sea transport companies; food and beverage establishments; and spas and entertainment venues.

Senator Alejandra Barrales of the Citizens’ Movement party said that between 17,000 and 20,000 minors are trapped in sexual exploitation networks, according to various estimates, and warned that digital platforms have only deepened the danger they face.

Speaking with regret, she said Mexico is today a paradise for child sex tourism, and criticized the pace of the legislation: the initiative was approved in the Chamber of Deputies in April 2025 and in Senate committees last October, meaning the measure sat waiting for a plenary vote for a year.

Carolina Viggiano of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) said the victims of this crime are mostly people made vulnerable by poverty, and blamed Morena for dismantling the institutional safety net that protected them, including daycare centers and full-time schools.

Morena’s Gerardo Fernández Noroña accused the PRI and the PAN of hypocrisy on the issue, saying that during their 36 years of neoliberal governments “they did not lift a finger to end the exploitation of children and adolescents,” and now “they vote against” constitutional rights meant to support minors.