What You Need to Know about Child Trafficking
As we transition from National Human Trafficking Awareness Month into National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month, it’s an ideal time to discuss how parents, guardians, and caring individuals can help keep youth in our community safe from child trafficking.
Like all the victimizations the Center for Safety and Empowerment serves, teen dating violence exists on a broader spectrum of violence. Traffickers exploit those who are most vulnerable, which includes children and teens who have experienced violence in the past. Additionally, children and teens who don’t have a strong support system, are runaway youth and/or are experiencing homelessness, and those who are pushed to the margins of society are at greater risk of trafficking.
One study found that sexual abuse was the strongest predictor of human trafficking; girls with a history of sexual abuse are 2.52 times more at risk of trafficking and boys who have experienced sexual abuse are 8.21 times more at risk of trafficking. While this study did not include gender non-conforming youths, LGBTQIA+ youth are exceptionally vulnerable to sex trafficking. Where one vulnerability meets another, there becomes an even greater risk for trafficking. Polaris Project reports up to 40% of unhoused youth identify as LGBTQ+, and of these, 46% ran away from home due to family rejection.
This tells us that children and teens are not all equally at risk for sex trafficking. A common myth about child sex trafficking is that all children are equally at risk of being victimized and the crime always involve strangers and kidnappings. Polaris states, “While situations like these do exist, they are more of an exception than the rule.” Traffickers use covert means of psychological abuse, like acting as a friend to gain their trust and love bombing them. These are examples of grooming, “a manipulative behavior that the abuser uses to gain access to a potential victim, coerce them to agree to the abuse, and reduce the risk of being caught.”
The access online perpetrators have to children, coupled with the adaptability of traffickers, makes online platforms and social media prime recruitment grounds. Polaris reports that online recruitment increased by 22% during 2020. While regulating children’s technology use is already a difficult task, parents are likely wondering how to keep their children safe from online predators and traffickers. SOSA (Safe from Online Sex Abuse) is a nonprofit that combats child sexual exploitation with prevention, intervention, and support measures. SOSA identifies 5 common grooming tactics used by online perpetrators and traffickers: giving compliments, saying the child looks old for their age, offering an opportunity, playing a “white knight” and pressuring a response. We must be aware of how traffickers groom our most vulnerable so we can educate youth and prevent further generations of victims. You can find more resources from SOSA for families and educators here.
Katherine Chon and Kimberly Waller, Director of the Office on Trafficking in Persons and Associate Commissioner for the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, respectively, suggest two things everyone can do to help prevent human trafficking. We can model healthy relationships for our youth and help them understand what makes a healthy relationship.
What can I do?
Love and support the children and teens in your life.
Be intentional about telling kids and teens you care for them.
Attend or request a presentation from YWCA Center for Safety and Empowerment to learn more about teen dating violence and healthy relationships.
Have conversations with the young people in your life about what comprises healthy relationships among family members, friends, and dating partners.
Listen to the kids in your life so they’ll feel comfortable coming to you when hard situations to navigate arise.
Follow along as we share more healthy relationship tips throughout Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month! Find us on Facebook & Instagram.