NEW YORK - FILMMAKER Libby Spears wanted to to make a documentary about the sexual exploitation of kids in Asia and Latin America, but that changed when she discovered that child sex trafficking is a big problem in the United States.

'Playground', which premiered at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival, looks at the child sex trade in the United States and discrepancies in laws and the perception of the exploitation of foreign and US children.

'Here (in the United States) when it's a 12-year-old girl they like to call it prostitution, they like to call her a prostitute, when that's not accurate,' said Ms Spears, who hopes her film will raise awareness and help push policy change.

The film quotes figures from the group End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT), which says US citizens account for 25 per cent of child sex tourists worldwide.

The international group also says 300,000 US children are at risk of being forced into the sex trade.

Ms Spears credits an interview with Ernie Allen, president and chief executive of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, for changing the direction of her film.

'People don't think it happens in this country. It may look in some cases different than it looks in other parts of the world, but vulnerable kids are targeted by procurers, by exploiters, by pimps, lured into the sex trade,' Mr Allen says in the documentary.

Throughout the film Ms Spears searches for a child named Michelle who was abused by foster parents and then abducted from Portland, Oregon when she was 11 years old. She was discovered soon after in Vancouver by police doing a so-called 'baby stroll' and being paid by men for sex.

She was returned to foster care in the United States, but went missing again 2004 when she was 14 years old and it was never reported to authorities. Ms Spears found her in 2008. Ms Spears used Michelle's story as an example of the lack of help given to exploited children. 'She's not well. She's five months pregnant and she's in an abusive situation.' Among the executive producers of the film are director Steven Soderbergh and actor George Clooney.

Ms Spears is hoping the film will be distributed in the university and school system. 'We're just trying to get it in front of as many eyes as possible.' -- REUTERS