Human Trafficking is extremely egregious in all of it’s forms, but one of the worst is that of young girls and boys being commercially exploited in the sex industry.

The average age when young girls that are recruited, coerced and forced into sex trafficking by a pimp/trafficker is 13 years old.

At an age when she should be playing with friends she must endure of a living nightmare in the adult sex industry that does not end until someone rescues and restores her.

Help us get these billboards up all over town. A leading outdoor advertiser in Oklahoma has partnered with OATH to make rental space available and keep production cost of the vinyl signage as low as possible.

You can help – for every $1,000 we can put up a billboard. You can donate to sponsor 1/4, 1/2 or a full one to help. You employer or business can sponsor 1 or more with their logo showing their support!

    

  

 

 

SPECIAL THANKS to the following sponsors who have provided a billboard: Fletcher Ownbey, Debbie McEwen, Humble Pie Pizza, Pam Peterson & Paige Correa, Gregory Mahaffey.

The numbers coming in by experts around the nation are staggering… 1.5 to 2.4 million kids go missing each year in the U.S. – about one every 30 seconds. Most of these are runaways. (National Center of Missing and Exploited Children, 2010)

An estimated 240,000 to 352,000 adolescent girls that runaway are considered “high risk youth” each year; 200,000 to 300,000 boys and girls are listed as “endangered runaways”; Studies show that within 48 hours of leaving home over half of these kids are approached by a recruiter, pimp, trafficker or predator offering them a place to stay in exchange for sexual favors. 72% of runaway girls and 44% of runaway boys admit to engaging in “survival sex”. Experts estimate that over 100,000 of these kids are groomed, coerced and forced into the adult sex industry each year. The last major study conducted in 2001 revealed that as many as 1,000,000 children are involved in the commercial sex industry at any one time here in North America. (NCMEC, 2011; Youth and Family Services, 2009; Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2007; Juvenile Justice, 2012; Estes & Weiner, Univ of Penn 2001)

Most people think that human trafficking here in the U.S. is mainly about the abduction or kidnapping of children. This misconception happens because the majority of news reports and Hollywood movies only focus on these abduction stories due to the shock and fear factor that these cases have.

The other big misconception that most of us have is that this only happens in other countries or to the “illegal aliens” that come here from those impoverished nations.

Even professionals that work as law enforcement, prosecutors and judges have misconceptions that this is all about smuggling people in and out of our nation. Human trafficking and smuggling are two different things.

Less than 1%

of these cases involve “Stranger Danger” abductions. Kidnapping is actually very rare according to the FBI. Of the 2 million missing kids last year, only about 150 to 200 were stranger abductions.

Over 98%

The majority of sexual abuse of women and children happens by someone they know and the family trust. “Relationship Danger” is what we need to be teaching to our kids.

Average age 12-14

The average age when a girl is recruited by a pimp/trafficker and forced into sex trafficking here in America is 13.

#1 Problem

FBI says that the #1 way that sexual predators find their young victims now is Online through Social Networking sites. The Internet is the “new playground” where our kids meet new friends! A recent study found that 1/3 of all kids online have talked with people they don’t really know about meeting in person… making them extremely vulnerable to being exploited.

“Boyfriends”

The majority of people that become victims of human trafficking are recruited by someone they meet that takes time to gain their trust through romance and entices the victim to come away with them… only to abuse and exploit them for profit once they are out of their familiar surroundings.

New Girlfriends

The next way a pimp/trafficker finds and recruits young girls is through a teen girl that they have already abused and brainwashed. This is very effective because girls trust their girl friends and go with them without suspecting something terrible is about to happen.

Family Member Abuser

The most shocking of all is when a mom or dad trades their own child for drugs. This is known as ‘Intimate Partner Trafficking’, where the pimp/trafficker is not a gang banger, pedophile or stranger – but a trusted member of the family.

The Help they Need…

Finding and identifying these victims that are being exploited is first, then having safe housing, recovery programs and services in place for their restoration is necessarily.  Check out how you can Help Us open the first adolescent girls safe home in Oklahoma.