Paris Hilton Was Back On Capitol Hill Talking About Child Abuse—Here's Why

 

US media personality Paris Hilton arrives to testify at a House Committee on Ways and Means hearing on "Strengthening Child Welfare and Protecting Americas Children," on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on June 26.

Paris Hilton testified before the House Wednesday on the importance of modernizing child welfare programs—a cause she has been vocal about in recent years after opening up about her own trauma and abuse from facilities she stayed in as a teenager.

KEY FACTS

Hilton, 43, made her third appearance on Capitol Hill on Wednesday—following one in 2022 and one in 2023—when she spoke before the House Ways and Means Committee, which is tasked with shaping fiscal legislation around taxes, tariffs and social service programs.

In her opening remarks, she spoke about her time in “youth residential treatment facilities,” saying she was “ripped from her bed in the middle of the night” at age 16 and taken to one of four facilities she spent time at.

Hilton told lawmakers she was “force-fed medications and sexually abused by the staff” for two years, adding: “I was violently restrained … stripped naked, thrown in solitary confinement.”

Hilton encouraged lawmakers Wednesday to reauthorize Title IV-B of the Social Security Act, which provides funding for child welfare issues, and to pass the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, which would create an interagency Federal Work Group on Youth Residential Programs to support best practices in residential programs.

CRUCIAL QUOTE

“This $23 billion-a-year industry sees this population as dollar signs and operates without meaningful oversight,” Hilton said, referring to kids whose parents couldn’t support them or passed away and kids who have already experienced trauma. “What is more important: Protesting business profits or protecting foster youth lives?”

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

Whether the Stop Instituational Child Abuse Act passes. It is sponsored by Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and was introduced in April 2023. Since then it has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, then subcommittee on health. It has bipartisan support from 103 cosponsors, 43 of whom are Republicans, but has not been moved since last April. If the act is approved, a work group would be created with members across the administration that would make formal recommendations, risk assessments and outreach to states on how to best operate youth residential programs.

KEY BACKGROUND

As a teenager, Hilton—daughter of hotelier Rick Hilton and Kathy Hilton—was a socialite in New York City who would often sneak out and “go missing,” her mother told People, leading them to send her to Provo Canyon School in Utah, a behavioral health center and boarding school. In her 2020 documentary, “This is Paris,” Hilton first made allegations against the Utah school, saying “I’ve never discussed this publicly with anyone, so it’s going to be a shock to people, because no one knows.” Universal Health Services, which owns the school, has repeatedly declined to comment on Hilton’s claims because it didn’t own the school at the time, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Hilton—who has said she was part of the “troubled teen industry”—wrote about her time in there and other child facilities in a 2021 opinion piece in The Washington Post, saying she had been “locked in solitary confinement in a room where the walls were covered in scratch marks and blood stains.” Hilton also wrote that she wasn’t able to report the abuse because her communications were monitored. In the opinion piece, Hilton called on Congress to “enact a basic federal ‘bill of rights’ for youths in congregate care” and provide states with funding to improve oversight. In another piece the following year, Hilton detailed sexual abuse she suffered in facilities, saying she often had internal exams done to her in the middle of the night without explanation. Since coming out with allegations of her abuse, she has continued to be an advocate for child welfare, saying that while she didn’t go through the foster system, she is familiar with the abuses that happen to children in need of advocates.

SURPRISING FACT

Hilton said Wednesday part of the issue with these facilities is that adults largely don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. Hilton said her parents were “completely deceived, lied to and manipulated by this for-profit industry about the inhumane treatment” she was experiencing, adding: “So, can you only imagine the experience for youth who were placed by the state and don't have people regularly checking in on them?”