Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

Paris Hilton joins lawmakers introducing a bill to end abuse in the 'troubled teen' industry: 'What I went through will haunt me for the rest of my life'

Paris Hilton joins lawmakers introducing a bill to end abuse in the 'troubled teen' industry: 'What I went through will haunt me for the rest of my life'

Sen. Jeff Merkley told Insider the bill was the first step in bringing transparency and oversight to end abuse in residential treatment centers.
Paris Hilton joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers at the Capitol on Thursday to announce the introduction of a new bill aimed at ending abuse in the "troubled teen" industry.

Sens. Jeff Merkley, John Cornyn, and Tommy Tuberville along with Reps. Ro Khanna and Buddy Carter said at a press conference they were introducing the "Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act." Hilton, who has spoken openly about the abuse she said experienced at such programs as a teen, appeared alongside the lawmakers.

"From the ages of 16 to 18, I was sent to four troubled teen industry facilities, each one more horrific than the last. I witnessed and experienced sexual abuse from adult staff, as well as endured verbal and emotional abuse," Hilton said, continuing: "When I attempted to tell my parents about the abuse on the phone, the staff would immediately hang up the phone and punish me. On top of this, we had no access to the outside doors, no sunlight, no fresh air."

"What I went through will haunt me for the rest of my life," Hilton, now 42, added.

The "troubled teen" industry refers to a range of residential treatment centers nationwide that are aimed at kids struggling with emotional or behavioral issues. Programs have been accused of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, and teens have died while attending such facilities. Critics say the programs continue to operate without sufficient consequences and too little government oversight, allowing abusive centers to remain open and profit off of the abuse of kids.

According to the lawmakers, the bill introduced Thursday would "provide greater oversight and data transparency for institutional youth treatment programs, begin implementing urgent recommendations to develop robust information sharing systems among states, and promote dissemination of best practices for identifying and preventing institutional child abuse."

"Institutional care, without oversight, all too often becomes institutional abuse," Merkley said in a statement. "Reforming our residential care system would improve the lives of thousands of children across our country, and it merits our urgent attention."

Merkley told Insider that the bill would help gather information on the programs, including where these programs are, how many people they employ, how many youths they treat, what therapeutic practices they use, and what kind of oversight, if any, they currently have.

He said that when lawmakers first started looking into the troubled teen industry, they found they "didn't know what sort of oversight and regulation are appropriate, or even what already exists within different states, and therefore didn't have the ability to create the momentum for a coherent framework to provide that oversight."

With the information that would be gathered as a result of the new bill, Merkley said they can come back and determine the best strategies for oversight and monitoring the programs.

"I think just the passage of this bill will educate so many legislators about the issue and will kind of lay the grounds for regulating this industry," he said.

"There's just a huge amount to learn," Merkley added. "These things have really been hiding out of sight until Paris led the effort to shine a light on them."
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×