Child Sex Trafficking: An Important Message for America’s Parents

A girl plays video games on her computer in this file photo. It's important to establish limits on time allowed on computers as well as cell phones. ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images

Released on the Fourth of July, “The Sound of Freedom” shattered all expectations at the box office. In just over two weeks, this story of human trafficking drew nearly 2 million viewers into theaters around the nation and earned more than $100 million.

On July 24, Debra Kraulidis of Moms for America, Donna Rice Hughes of Enough Is Enough, and one of her associates, Bill Woolf, came together for an online webinar aimed specifically at parents to discuss child sex trafficking in the United States. All three co-hosts praised “The Sound of Freedom” for “putting a face on the problem” of sex trafficking and for shining a spotlight on this lucrative degenerate vice. As Woolf pointed out, the criminal operators of sex and labor slavery annually rake in $1.5 billion worldwide, including $9.8 billion in the United States alone.

In “The Sound of Freedom,” the predators who snatch children with the intention of selling them to pedophiles ply their trade in Honduras and other countries south of the American border. Those who have seen the film may therefore be confused when told that sex trafficking exists in the United States, having never personally known anyone abducted into this underground market of predators and pedophiles.

American Made

Here is where Woolf opens our eyes. Having defined human trafficking as “compelling a person to engage in commercial sex or unfair labor,” this trafficking expert and his co-hosts then described how predators in America operate by an entirely different playbook. They rarely physically kidnap their victims, but instead ensnare them through the internet or entice them through face-to-face flattery and lies into their web of sex and blackmail.

Most of the webinar’s viewers were likely shocked when Woolf informed his audience that “90 percent of all minors who are being trafficked are living at home and attending school every day.” Moreover, despite the common perception that victims are the children of the poor, the reality is that these adolescents come from all socio-economic classes and from cities and communities across the country. “The bad guys are coming into your home at all hours,” Woolf said, “and it’s happening everywhere.”

‘Children Play, Predators Prey’

Hughes is president and CEO of Enough Is Enough, an organization founded nearly 30 years ago to make the internet safer for families and children. Her expertise and long experience were evident as she outlined the ways predators and pedophiles gain access to our young people.

Online gaming, for instance, provides an ideal platform for the devious tactics of those who prey on adolescents. They enter the game, often pretending to be teens themselves, gradually winning the confidence and even friendship of a young person, and then asking for pictures or in-person meetings. Once that teen has been snared, either by compromising photos or by the predator pretending to be a friend or lover, the sextortion begins: “Do as I say, or I’ll tell your parents and plaster your pictures all over social media.” Their demands range from cash payments to performing sexual acts with customers.

This same scenario, Hughes said, plays out on social media. Particularly vulnerable are the young people who are self-described misfits or loners. “No one understands me” is met by the bait of a predator’s hook, a pretense of support and friendship, and a shoulder to cry on. With the hook having been planted, this fisherman of adolescents reels them in with lies and feigned affection.

The same deception also occurs, though less frequently, in public areas, like movie theaters and shopping centers, where the predators, who are skilled in selecting their targets, make the same moves on their victims, offering them sympathy and understanding. As Kraulidis reminded viewers, even schools are not immune to this grooming, with some teachers seeking sex from their students.

“Your child is not immune,” said Hughes, citing research showing 40 percent of kids grades 4 through 8 have communicated with strangers online.

Countermeasures

Kraulidis, Hughes, and Woolf were unanimous in their opinion that parents and guardians are the first line of defense for their children. The government at all levels is ill-equipped to deal with internet predators.

To protect our children, the hosts of the webinar agreed, requires first and foremost monitoring their online activities. Here, pornography as well as predatory adults are a real danger, for porn not only whets the appetites of pedophiles for children, but exposure to it reduces the ability of children to resist actual sex. To a naïve teen, this sexualization of the mind and heart can make the abnormal seem normal.

Hughes further recommended that no child under the age of 13 should be granted access to social media. If you have allowed an older child to use a device connected to the internet, she recommended turning on the most restrictive filter available. Use monitoring technology to see what sites your child is visiting. Never give a child the password to your devices.

It’s also important to restrict the time children are allowed on computers and phones. We already know that hours every day spent with a phone in hand are mentally and physically unhealthy for kids—and for adults as well, for that matter. Add to that the possibility of someone grooming your child, and Hughes’s advice seems obvious.

Equally important is building trust with your children and discussing with them the dangers of the digital world. After confessing his own discomfort at having these talks with his children, Woolf added, “If we’re not willing to educate them, the internet is.” He emphasized staying close to our kids, knowing their friends, and maintaining a conversation about online dangers.

Finally, modeling love in the home is key to countering the porn available to children today. As Hughes noted, seeing the affection and respect shared between a mother and father puts the lie to pornography. For single moms, she recommended finding a role model for their children — a male relative or friend who treats those around him, especially females, with respect and dignity.

Following Up

“Being a cyber parent is a lot of work,” Hughes says.

To ease that burden, she and her colleagues at Enough Is Enough provide parents with lots of help at their website. In addition to data, studies, and broad suggestions for resisting porn, predators, and pedophiles, the site offers plenty of hands-on technical advice, including tools like courses on pornography, gaming, and cyberbullying, a youth pledge, and how to report a cybercrime. Parents can also find these materials at Internet Safety 101.

Kraulidis is the vice president of Moms for America. On that site, visitors find these words: “There is hope for America, and it is you.”

Substitute “our children” for America, and the message is just as true.