Your Role in Child Sex Trafficking Prevention
January is Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and when we’re talking prevention, we need to look at those proactive approaches we can all take to help keep kids safe.
While understanding trafficking and red flags is a crucial step to identifying victims, we've learned that if we wait until warning signs are evident, we've missed a crucial opportunity for prevention. The key to prevention of child sex trafficking lies in preemptive care and support, fostering relationships and community that protects its youth from ever encountering such traumas.
"One person that you can call no matter what the situation is – if you've run away, if you've done something that you shouldn't have done, have one person you can call, and they can come get you. If I would've had one person who I could've trusted and knew that they would've kept me safe in some of the situations that I went through – it would have not only saved my life but prevented a lot of things from happening to me."
-Keisha
Traffickers prey on vulnerability, exploiting unmet needs among youth. Examples include children who experience housing instability, those who have a lack of acceptance of their gender identity or sexual orientation or those who’ve experienced substance abuse at home, domestic violence or sexual abuse. There are many risk factors. To counter this, prevention means recognizing and addressing these vulnerabilities through the provision of safe, supportive environments. So how do we embody this proactive approach in our daily lives? Here are some examples of what effective prevention looks like:
- Discussing online safety
- Understanding running behavior as a trauma response
- Education around healthy boundaries and safe relationships
- Accepting all genders and sexual orientations
Contributing to the fight against CST doesn't require being a member of law enforcement or child-serving professions. It’s important for youth to be able to connect with a safe adult. Everyone has a role to play. This can be as simple as volunteering at local youth programs – like homeless youth or foster care programs, becoming a youth mentor, talking to kids in your life about online safety or collecting donations for service programs like food banks or street outreach programs.
Even if you're unable to volunteer or donate, embracing inclusivity in terms of gender identity and sexual orientation or connecting youth in your life to resources about online safety and healthy relationships is pivotal. Advocate for schools and community centers to offer NCMEC resources like Take It Down and NetSmartz, reinforcing the message that your community stands ready to support its youth through all challenges. Your involvement and presence in a child's life, no matter how small it may seem, contributes significantly to preventing trafficking. Showing up for our youth is trafficking prevention.
Similar to Keisha’s experience (above), let’s hear from two other survivors of child sex trafficking on how support and acceptance from one person can make a difference!
"I struggled with that for a very long time. Is something wrong with me? Everybody tells me that I'm, I'm a sin and I'm not okay. I think if someone had just made me feel like, you're okay, you're normal, nothing's wrong with you. I think that easily would have helped me."
-Jose
"I met this woman she came in and she said, 'Whether or not you're in care, I'm going to look for you. I'm going to check in with you. I want to know you're okay.' This had never happened to me before and I thought she was kidding, and I was like, 'Yeah, right. Oh whatever,' rolling my eyes. 'Whatever.'
What ended up happening was she was true to her word. She continued to try to reach out to me even when I was on the run. She continued to try to provide me with services. She actually ... While I was on the run, took me to get my birth certificate and get my ID and I will say that the opportunity to receive my ID was one of the most transformational and uplifting experiences of my life."
-T