Human trafficking is escalating in the U.S.

One in three teens on the street will be lured toward prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home, according to National Incident Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Throwaway Children. Other information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says 100,000 to 293,000 children have become sexual commodities.

This is the single most shocking thing I’ve learned in the last year. These numbers are big. Too big, I think, for an industrialized nation like the United States. These children are also considered trafficking victims under the United States yearly issued Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report. Human trafficking is the 21st century term for slavery. The title may be fancy but it’s the same age-old issue.

I’ve been studying this problem of human trafficking for the past several months and I sometimes still get really caught up in the language. It is sensational, but don’t miss the point.

This is a growing problem but also an industry and like anything else it doesn’t grow without some kind of demand. It’s not some far removed issue, limited to Third World countries. It’s here.

I know a trafficking victim. It’s amazing to hear her story. When she was 12 she went to work at an escort service in Boise. Her circumstances are shocking but fit the statistics. She was a runaway, picked up by an escort service and slowly introduced into working there. She was underage and never paid although she serviced two men on weekdays and up to ten men on weekends.

The problem’s not far away, it’s just hidden.

Nineteenth century plantation slavery in the United States was driven by a demand for a labor force. The same is true for today’s growing human trafficking issue. A large part of the expanding industry is due to growing demands for sex workers. People are being targeted everywhere, even in our own backyard.

The FBI has ranked Atlanta as 13 in the world for child sex tourism. The organization Meet Justice (innocenceatlanta.org) works in Atlanta to educate people and eradicate the growing problem. Sex trafficking rings have been broken in places like California, New York and New Jersey – just to name a few.

The human trafficking industry is growing and it’s growing in part through the United States’ demand for sex workers.

Many experts in the field are making connections between the growing human trafficking industry and the growing pornography industry – an industry in which the U.S. plays a huge role.

According to toptenreviews.com, 89 percent of pornographic Websites belong to the United States. Pornography is an escalating addiction. It’s not that hard to put the pieces of the puzzle together: escalation leads to demand for more sex workers.

This is a global issue that is sitting in our backyard.

However, the good news is everyone can do something about it.

The problem can’t be eradicated until people are aware of the issues surrounding the problem and know what it looks like. Human trafficking is a sick industry that is growing and I think it’s the challenge of the 21st century to eradicate it.

The United States plays a role through our oversexed Internet. I believe it’s time some things need to change.

We need to address the often silent issue of pornography in our lives if we want people to stop exploiting women and children in the sex trafficking industry. Look at human trafficking in the U.S. at polarisproject.org, sharedhope.org and innocenceatlanta.org.

ABBIE KIRCHER
Opinion Writer

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