Spread Awareness

1. Human Trafficking is modern-day slavery and involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. (dhs.gov)

2. Human trafficking most often begins with relationship building, not kidnapping. Predators break down and control their victims through mental chains, making rescue and rehabilitation very difficult. (BeTheLightOutreach.com)

3. Human trafficking is the fastest-growing criminal industry in the world, generating more than $150 billion USD every year. (A21.org)

4. Traffickers are using the internet as a way to target unsuspecting and vulnerable youth for their own personal financial gain as targets are seen as none other than a dollar sign. (InternetSafety101.org)

5. Over 2 million children are exploited every year in the global commercial sex trade (EqualityNow.org)

6. There is a growing concern of child sexual exploitation in US schools. Minors are often recruited through social media, a friend, or a pimp posing as a boyfriend, and forced or tricked into sex trafficking. (A21.org)

7. Human trafficking is a multi-billion-dollar industry, second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable form of transnational crime. (EraseChildTrafficking.org)

8.The situations that sex trafficking victims face vary dramatically. Many victims become romantically involved with someone who then forces or manipulates them into prostitution. Others are lured in with false promises of a job, such as modeling or dancing. Some are forced to sell sex by their parents or other family members. They may be involved in a trafficking situation for a few days or weeks, or may remain in the same trafficking situation for years. (PolarisProject.org)

9.Every 26 seconds a child is sold into slavery (DestinyRescue.org)

10. Victims of sex trafficking can be US citizens, foreign nationals, women, men, children, and LQBTQ individuals. Vulnerable populations are frequently targeted by traffickers, including runaway and homeless youth, as well as victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, war, or social discrimination. (PolarisProject.org)

11. An estimated 30,000 victims of sex trafficking die each year from abuse, disease, torture, and neglect. Eighty percent of those sold into sexual slavery are under 24, and some are as young as six years old. (EraseChildTrafficking.org)

12. Any child exploited through commercial sex who is 17 years of age or younger is a child sex trafficking victim. Victims could be anyone – your son, daughter, neighbor, niece, or nephew. Traffickers recruit victims in schools, online through social media, at shopping malls, bus stations or even foster care or group homes. (MissingKids.org)

13. The average age a teen enters the sex trade in the U.S. is 12-14 years old (DoSomething.org)

14. It is important to remember that even if the child believes it was his or her choice, they are a victim, and an adult or perpetrator is exploiting their vulnerabilities. A child cannot consent to sex with an adult. As such, there is no such thing as child prostitution and that phrase should never be used when referring to child sex trafficking. (MissingKids.com)

15. California harbors 3 of the FBI’s 13 highest child sex trafficking areas in the nation: Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego (DoSomething.org)

16. Sex trafficking occurs in a range of venues including fake massage businesses, via online ads or escort services, in residential brothels, on the street or at truck stops, or at hotels and motels. (PolarisProject.org)

17. Victims of human trafficking can be any age, gender, race, or immigration status; they live in cities, suburbs, and rural areas within the U.S. (EraseChildTrafficking.org)

18. 1 in 6 of the 18,500 runaways reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in 2016 were likely sex trafficking victims. 86% of these likely sex trafficking victims were in the care of social services or foster care when they went missing. (MissingKids.org)

19. Trafficking women and children for sexual exploitation is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world (EqualityNow.org)

20. Sex traffickers use violence, threats, lies, debt bondage, and other forms of coercion to compel adults and children to engage in commercial sex acts against their will. (PolarisProject.org)

21. Roughly 110 gangs are involved in the commercial exploitation of people in San Diego (SanDiego.edu)

22. The average victim is trafficked for about three years before reaching the attention of law enforcement (SanDiego.edu)

23. Sex trafficking is a form of modern day slavery that exists throughout the United States and globally. (PolarisProject.org)

24. Many victims are runaway girls who were sexually abused as children (DoSomething.org)

25. Up to 300,000 Americans under the age of 18 are lured into the commercial sex trade every year. (ArkOfHopeForChildren.org)

26. Traffickers use a deliberate process to identify and recruit their victims. It happens in three main phases: scouting, manipulation, and trapping. (InternetSafety101.org)

27. 4.8 Million people are victims of forced sexual exploitation (Alliance87.org)

28. Female recruiters and pimps/sex trafficking facilitators are perceived to be a significant and growing feature of the underground sex economy (SanDiego.edu)

29. The economic reality is that human trafficking is driven by profits. If nobody paid for sex, sex trafficking would not exist. (ArkOfHopeForChildren.org)

30. Victims are often showered with love, romance, and promises of a better life. Others are lured in with false promises of a job, or given expensive gifts. The end game of the trafficker (or pimp) however, is to force or manipulate their target into prostitution. (InternetSafety101.org)

31. There are approximately 40.3 million victims of modern-day slavery (Alliance87.org)