Last month was Human Trafficking Awareness Month. Now is a great time to have a conversation with your teen about how NOT to become a victim.
How to Keep Your Child Safe from Sex Traffickers
Every year, thousands of children are trafficked right here in the United States and each year, the number is increasing.* While some of them are kidnapped, sixty percent of them are groomed and lured in over time. It’s not just homeless or runaway kids who are at risk. Traffickers target kids from all walks of life, all social and economic statuses, and all types of neighborhoods. It may surprise you to know that a child in your school district, local university, or even the neighbor next door might be a victim of trafficking.
I’m not writing about this topic to scare you. By increasing our awareness of how traffickers work, we can keep more children safe.
Traffickers watch their victims and get to know them, then offer them something desirable to bring them in. They use the same brainwashing techniques as terrorists and cultists: sleep deprivation, shame, fear, and threats to the victim’s loved ones or pets to coerce and keep their victims in line. After a while, most victims will willingly stay with their traffickers.
The majority of trafficked kids are girls between 13-15 years old, but there is a growing desire for younger kids. And boys and transgender kids are being sold as well.
So how do you protect your children? Here are a few steps:
Be Social Media Savvy – Talk to your kids about what they can and cannot post online. Traffickers are stalking the Internet, reading Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, Snapchat, and wherever kids hang out. They can find out what kids like, dislike, their hobbies, favorite books, pets, etc. just by watching what they post. Traffickers use this information to make a connection with teens, so they can come across as “a friend” with like interests. If your daughter loves a certain rock band and hangs out at the local coffee shop, the trafficker may show up there wearing her favorite band’s t-shirt and bump into her “by coincidence”.
Because trafficking is such a lucrative enterprise, predators don’t mind spending the time or money it takes to build a relationship with your kid (usually online, but sometimes in person), and many have a big enterprise set up. “Hunters” look online for potential victims. “Historians” gather details about their interests, and then send in a good looking and charming “talker” to build up the relationship. After trust is established, your daughter (or son) will be asked to meet them someplace, and eventually go away with them. RARELY does a trafficker ever grab a kid and try to abduct them. It’s too noisy and difficult. Instead, if they can get their victim to willing go away with them, it reduces all kinds of problems for them.
Keep Their Emotional Tank Full – Traffickers prey on lonely kids without strong family connections. What young teen girl wouldn’t be enamored by a handsome young man who lavishes her with attention and has her favorite interests in common? Likewise, younger children are lured in with gifts. The very best defense against traffickers is to make sure you are the one who provides the emotional support your kids crave. It sounds obvious, but spending time with them, going to their sporting events or concerts, asking about their day, and listening as they talk are all buffers against them looking elsewhere for attention.
Provide Strong Male Role Models: If a daughter has a strong relationship with her father, there won’t be a need to go looking for love somewhere else. If there isn’t a dad in her life, find a grandfather, an uncle, or a trusted friend to spend time with her. Boys, too, can benefit from a positive male role model who respects women. Which leads to the last point:
Eliminate Pornography: This is where it all starts. If you have sons, they need to hear this. If you have daughters, be sure to emphasize how destructive sexting is. The male brain is wired to become visually stimulated from viewing nudity. Soon, just “looking” no longer gives the appropriate high, and many begin to seek out a higher form of stimulation. For many this leads to addiction, and to satisfy their “cravings” they turn from viewing porn to needing to act out their desires physically. That’s one reason the sex trafficking industry is so lucrative. There is a growing need to fill.
Because of easy availability now of porn on our phones and tablets, children as young as eight and nine are exposed to these pictures from friends in school, on the school bus, and in other places. Having safety controls in your home only protects them there. It’s essential that you have a discussion with your kids at a young age as to the addictiveness and destructiveness of porn. The pornography industry is huge, bringing in billions of dollars in revenue every year. Estimates are that it currently generates more money than all four of the major US Sports leagues combined: (football, basketball, baseball, hockey).
There is no guarantee that we’ll be safe in this world, but if your kids know what to look out for, and know they have a trusted parent or teacher to come to, that goes a long way towards protecting them. You don’t need to fear the trafficking statistics. Instead, start talking to your kids about this issue when they are young, and you can give them a way to stay safe from predators.
Pamela Gossiaux is the bestselling author of Ordinary Girl, a young adult novel about a high school senior who is on her way to college, but gets lured into sex trafficking. Based on the true accounts of survivors. Available here. Proceeds from sales benefit The Sparrow Freedom Project and Lost Voices, two non-profits who fight to protect victims from trafficking, and help them regain their lives.
*https://humantraffickinghotline.org/what-human-trafficking/human-trafficking/victims,
https://polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/facts,
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