Human Trafficking Awareness Month: Resources for Caregivers and Professionals

As we wrap up Human Trafficking Awareness Month, it’s a great time to provide resources for caregivers and professionals on youth and sex trafficking.

Understanding Myths vs Facts

The National Children’s Traumatic Stress Network has put together fact sheets on many topics related to sex trafficking to help explain realistic ways trafficking occurs.

In the fact sheet – Child Sex Trafficking: What You Might Not Know – NCTSN shares:

Trafficking is not the same as smuggling

A common myth is that people need to be moved around in order to be trafficked. People who are illegally moved from one country to another is called smuggling. Youth in trafficking situations may often live at home, go to school, or stay within the community.

In addition to money, sexual acts with a child can be exchanged for anything of value.

Money is often exchanged during sex trafficking but a person can be a trafficking survivor if anything of value is exchanged for any sexual act. Youth have engaged in sexual acts in exchange for food, clothing, shelter, safety, drugs or alcohol. This is often the case when a youth’s basic needs are not being met, and when they have no means to get access to their basic needs. Other times, it may be an adult in the youth’s life that is forcing or coercing the youth to engage in sexual acts, so they get the thing of value – such as getting rent paid, debts cleared, drugs or alcohol.

Many youth in trafficking situations are first recruited or introduced by a peer, who may also be a victim.

Youth who are runaways or who are experiencing homelessness are more vulnerable to trafficking and may be introduced to commercial sex by another peer in a similar situation as a way to simply get their basic needs met.

To view the entire fact sheet and read more about things you may not know, visit: https://www.nctsn.org/sites/default/files/resources/fact-sheet/child_sex_trafficking_what_you_might_not_know.pdf

Common Ways Traffickers Reach Youth

Sometimes youth are trafficked by family members, family friends, or intimate partners. Other times they are recruited into trafficking by peers or on social media. The Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Campaign has a guide for adults working with youth that contains information on red flags, vulnerabilities and ways to engage with youth. The Blue Campaign also provides ways in which traffickers recruit or make connections with youth. Below are a few common ways traffickers are able to reach youth:

Social Media, Online and Dating Apps

Targeting youth online has become increasingly common tactic among traffickers. They will look for vulnerable young people who are receptive to their advances.

Popular Meeting Places

Locations where youth may frequent such as malls, parks, concerts, community centers, public transit centers, house gatherings, etc.

Schools

To potentially identify and intersect vulnerable students, peer-to-peer recruitment may take place in schools. This is when traffickers coerce or force their victims into recruiting their peers with promises of more payment, better status, or less abuse.

Group Homes, Detention Centers, Shelters and Fost Care Homes

Traffickers know that individuals at these locations are experiencing hardship, and they can play to those challenges by offering financial or emotional support to gain trust.

To access the full guide from the Blue Campaign, visit: https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/blue_campaign_youth_guide_508_1.pdf

Familial Trafficking

Familial trafficking is unique from other forms of trafficking because it is facilitated directly by family members and/or caregivers. According to the State Department, familial trafficking has been found in 44-60 percent of cases within the United States, inclusive of both sex and labor trafficking.

For more information on familial trafficking, visit: https://www.state.gov/the-misconceptions-of-child-trafficking/

Preventions Steps

Talk to Youth About Healthy Relationships

Since many youths are trafficked by intimate partners, one way to help prevent trafficking is to discuss what healthy relationships look like. Take time to discuss the red flags of unhealthy relationships and what makes up an abusive relationship. Here are some great organizations that provide information for both caregivers and youth:

One Love Foundation: https://www.joinonelove.org/
Love is Respect: https://www.loveisrespect.org/

The Child Advocacy Center of Niagara has information for caregivers on this topic: Healthy vs Unhealthy Relationships – Child Advocacy Center of Niagara

Social Media and Online Safety

Another way youth are often exploited or lured into trafficking is through their use of social media and meeting people online. Adults and caregivers can help protect youth by discussing the risks of sharing explicit content online, explaining how sextortion works, and how predators target youth. Here are some great links to information that explains these topics for both caregivers and youth:

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC): https://www.missingkids.org/theissues/trafficking
Thorn: https://www.thorn.org/issue/
Polaris: https://polarisproject.org/

Child Advocacy Center of Niagara blog posts:

Support for youth who you may suspect is being trafficked

Our Rescue is an organization helping trafficking survivors. Below they recommend ways for adults and caregivers who suspect a youth might be in a trafficking situation.

Show concern for the child/teen’s well-being and safety.
Kindly ask questions about their working and living conditions.
Inform the child/teen about places to get help or resources.
Respect their choices – don’t pressure them to leave their trafficker.
Report any worrying incidents to local law enforcement.

https://ourrescue.org/education/education/11-sex-trafficking-red-flags-in-youth

National Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-888-373-7888