Newest predators stalking children: human traffickers

Preda­tors are always a con­cern. We worry about the “creeper” hang­ing around the neigh­bor­hood park and our kids being stalked over the Inter­net. Now there is an even more fright­en­ing preda­tor stalk­ing our chil­dren: the human trafficker.

Human traf­fick­ing is the new form of slav­ery and is the fastest grow­ing crim­i­nal enter­prise in the world. Vic­tims of human traf­fick­ing are forced into agri­cul­tural work, house­keep­ing or com­mer­cial sex. Some vic­tims who are forced into com­mer­cial sex are as young as 11.

Human traf­fick­ers will prey on youth who are expe­ri­enc­ing prob­lems at home. The recruiter will make the vic­tim believe they care about them more than their par­ents. The recruiter will shower the vic­tim with gifts and false promises of love and sup­port. Once they have gained the victim’s trust, they may abduct the vic­tim and con­trol the vic­tim with threats, phys­i­cal assault, drugs and sex­ual abuse.

It is esti­mated that 1.6 mil­lion youth run away every year and run­away youths are at most risk to be recruited into human traf­fick­ing. About 46 per­cent of youth who run away, report they left because of per­ceived fam­ily prob­lems. Kids can run away at any age but the major­ity are 16-year-old females and can be eas­ily influ­enced by human traf­fick­ing recruiters. Run­away youth are some­times recruited into human traf­fick­ing within just a few hours after leav­ing home.

As much as we would like to, we can­not lock our chil­dren in their rooms in an attempt to keep them safe. A child will make the choice to leave and the locks on the doors and win­dows are designed to keep peo­ple out and not in. If your child does leave home, call your local law enforce­ment agency imme­di­ately. Despite what most tele­vi­sion shows and movies make you believe, there is not a 24-hour wait­ing period to report a miss­ing child.

All fam­i­lies expe­ri­ence issues and prob­lems. Par­ents need to keep an open com­mu­ni­ca­tion with their chil­dren to dis­cuss issues their chil­dren per­ceive to be a prob­lem and work on resolv­ing those issues. Par­ents should also talk to their chil­dren about the dan­gers of leav­ing home and should be very open about the dan­gers of human traf­fick­ing. Tell your chil­dren how hurt and scared you would be if they would run away and remind them there is no prob­lem that can­not be worked out. Let them know that if they ever feel like run­ning away, you will lis­ten and offer alter­na­tive sug­ges­tions to help keep our kids safe.

Keep­ing Our Kids Safe is brought to by the Delaware Police Depart­ment and School Resource Offi­cer Rod Glazer.

Posted by Rod Glazer on Jul 6 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.