Kat+B’s+2017+OpEd+Article

Child Sex Trafficking If there is anything that makes me sick to my stomach about how filthy it is, this is it. Child Sex Trafficking.

I remember going to Jaxson’s house and always wondering where his Dad, Chet, was. Being that he was a movie director, I assumed tha t he was traveling for work, but I never knew what kind of work he was doing or what kind of movie he was making. The Day I found out was the day my heart broke. Chet was working on his documentary called “The Abolitionists”. It’s about his team who went into other countries undercover and rescued children who were trapped in child sex trafficking.

The night the movie premiered, I remember just sitting in the theater and crying. That was the night when my eyes were opened to how widespread and awful this issue really is. Watching the movie and hearing the stories that Chet tells make my heart ache. Seeing these children in person is what breaks it th ough.

You think you know what these children go through. It’s easy to imagine the fear, the pain, and the horror that goes on in these children’s lives. But you don’t understand completely. You have no idea what their lives are like. These girls are starved and beaten. Although most girls are forced into the sex slavery cycle around the age of thirteen, many are forced into it at much younger ages, meaning that they grow up believing that sex is all they are good for. That is all they know. They honestly think that their job as a w oman is to please the men, the same men that buy and sell them as entertainment and as prope rty. And for the boys, many of them grow up in the same situations, being raped and beaten until they are old enough to be the ones raping and beating. Why do they continue this cycle? Because that is what they know, that is what men do.

Can you imagine having these thoughts? Being beaten, threatened, and raped so many times that you feel it has become the purpose of your life? You know that if you refuse, you will be tortured or killed. Imagine living in this kind of hell. This needs to stop. This is a problem worldwide. Inside and outside of the United States, children are being smuggled, sold, and bought. Kids are kidnapped and brought into the system. Kids are lured, tricked into believing that if they go with these men, they will be taken to the United States where they can go to school or work. Others are sold by their own family and friends for money or work. It happens everywhere. Although Chet tends to deal with children outside of the United States, there are thousands of cases within the United States. In fact, there are cases going on in Ventura right now. This is a big deal and people don’t realize how large it really is. There are roughly 35 million people involved in human trafficking right now. Two million of which are children only being used for sex trafficking. This needs to stop.

Honestly, all of us can’t go out and save these kids like Chet does. But, we can still help. The most important thing to do right now is raise awareness, educate people about the cause. Most people don’t know that human trafficking is the fastest growing international crime, surpassing the illegal sales of drugs and arms. Most people don’t know that in the United States, there are multiple laws that prevent the police from getting involved with human trafficking, especially when it becomes international. However, if people became more aware of the issue and could learn to not only recognize but learn to be more adamant and act when they see trafficking, then the police would have more reasons to act on it and be able to help more.

Another extremely important way to help the cause is to stay away from pornography and to be unsupportive of it. Pornography is not just sick, but it is evil. People often don’t realize what they are contributing to when they watch or are involved in pornography. Similarly to how child sex trafficking is increasing drastically, so is pornography. Pornography is becoming even more violent and dehumanizing. For many traffickers, pornography is how they learned about sex and therefore is how they learn to treat women while having sex. Most traffickers become involved with sex trafficking because pornography is no longer satisfying, they want more. Also, many of the women in pornographic videos are being abused and trafficked. So don’t tell me that pornography is okay because it’s not. If you watch pornography, then you are supporting that and you are contributing to one of the greatest evils in the world.

While most of us, if not all, don’t physically see human trafficking happen around us, it is still happening and it needs to be stopped. I have seen footage of many rescues and I have seen the faces of survivors. There’s no words to describe how disgusting trafficking is, but there’s also no words to describe the joy that is felt when a child is rescued. It breaks my heart that they had to experience all that they did, but it fills my heart when they are rescued, knowing that their abusers are often behind bars and that these kids are now free. It is hard to imagine the pain that they felt, but imagine this…



Imagine having a six year old boy sit on your lap and say to you, “I prayed you would find me. And you did. I knew you would.”

Imagine holding a four year old girl as she wraps her shaking arms around your neck as tight as she can, holding on for dear life and begging you to take her home.

Imagine walking besides a seventeen year old girl as she tells you, “I was raped more than I can count, but today that stops. Thank you for helping me.”

Imagine changing a child’s life. It’s time to stop child sex trafficking and expose it for the true evil that everyone knows it is. It’s time to educate people and make them aware of the topic so that it can be stopped. It’s time to change a life by rescuing these kids. It’s time to bring these kids home.

Click Below to see what the movie is all about. http://theabolitionistsmovie.com/ Click Below to go to their website and find out how you can help the cause. http://ourrescue.org/