Dear John,

We are on to you.

If you pay for sex, you might get a child, and be guilty for your role in child sex trafficking– the abduction, rape, and slavery of children.

So hear us when we say: If you shop for our children we will see that you get the justice you deserve.

Sincerely,

Us

Go here to sign the letter.

Curled up on the cold tile floor of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s bathroom floor, I tried to regulate my breathing by placing my hand over my heart and humming the nursery rhythm “You are My Sunshine,” while tears poured out uncontrollably from the depths of my soul. One of my dearest friends in DC, reached underneath the stall as she tried to coax me to unlock the latch, but between the wails I laid frozen as I couldn’t find the strength to lift my head, let alone get myself off the floor. Calmly, she talked to me under the stall, patiently waiting for my panic attack to subside. I was finally able to peel myself off the floor and over to open the stark stall door and into the warm loving arms of an amazing friend on the other side.

It has been 17 years since the last time I found myself sitting on the white sheets in the cold white room, with vaulted ceilings and bright lights. Those are the same 17 years I have spent trying to forget the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings I experienced in that chilling room. It may be 17 years, but in that instant it felt like I was eleven years old and it was happening all over again.

I was excited to tour the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) Headquarters and learn more about what they do to help victims of domestic minor sex trafficking. Once we arrived to the Child Sexual Exploitation’s Child Victim Identification Program, which “serves as the central repository in the U.S. for information relating to child victims depicted in sexually exploitive images and videos,” our tour guide explained how the unit has reviewed more than 132 million images and videos since it began in 2002. [1] Their focus is to assist federal and state law enforcement agencies and prosecutors with child pornography investigations, plus to help law enforcement identify child victims so law enforcement can locate and rescue them from exploitive situations.

I listened intently but nodded uncomfortably as she spoke, but then she said something that had never crossed my mind before. Something that was so unimaginable to me that the world would instantly start moving in slow motion the moment she spoke.

“We are constantly cataloging series. We still get photos from the 80’s and 90’s on a regular basis.” I instantly gripped the wall behind me as I felt the ground beneath me start to fall away.

“The 80’s and 90’s…,” I thought.

I had never let myself imagine that the images of my 11-13 year old self, being sexually abused by multiple men, were still floating in cyber space. Let alone; still be traded as part of the “game.”

The notion that sexual exploitation is solely the result/responsibility of those partaking in the picture or physical abuse is beyond me. Maybe, because members of “normal” society can hardly wrap their minds around the act itself, the public cannot see how the abuse is fueled by those who “only” view child pornography.

Rare is it that someone will walk into a XXX store and purchase C.P. (child pornography) although it does happen. More often than not, it is online in a masked chatroom or on the darknet. The majority of those engaged in these “clubs, rooms, societies, etc.” participate in what is known as “Pic4Pic.” In essence, it means “I will trade you a picture of child pornography I own for a picture you own.” This allows the “members” to screen for law enforcement and see if the new buyer has “quality” images.

Unfortunately, this fuels the cycle of violence because any imagery that is easily obtainable for a new C.P. viewer is going to be old, out of date, and most likely already owned by other members. In my case, I became the way for one individual to have new photos that he could trade. Over time, it only progressed and he went from trading my pictures to trading me.

This is why it is so crucial for individuals, organizations, and legislatures to stand behind bills such as Texas’ House Bill 2291, which increases the classifications and penalties for subsequent felonies regarding individuals who own child pornography. After the initial abuse, the continued emotional, mental, and even physical damage that viewers of child pornography force upon their victims, by “only” looking, is insurmountable. Unlike the abusers themselves, the viewers victimize child after child, then adult after adult, over and over again, as they continue to use and share the images worldwide.

Some people argue that viewing pornography, whether child or adult, is a victimless crime because the abuse itself has passed. However, lying on the hard cold floor of the NCMEC bathroom, feeling the life drift out of me as I began to lose consciousness from my lack of oxygen, I didn’t feel victimless. I felt like the little girl sitting on the white sheets in the cold white room, with a vaulted ceiling, bright lights, and colder harder hands unbuttoning the back of my dress, but this time, millions of men were watching.

—

Kim is a survivor of child sex trafficking and is an advocate through public policy and legislation for victims’ rights. She works with domestic sex trafficking victims who are actively engaged in the lifestyle and law enforcement agencies who want a better understanding of how to work with victims’ who are still bonded with their traffickers. Her organization, Restoration Initiative, is currently working towards an emergency shelter for victims in West Texas. She earned her Pre-Law Bachelor’s degree from Lubbock Christian University in Texas. She currently lives in Washington, D.C. pursuing a duel Master’s degree of Public Policy & Public Administration. She will eventually run for Congress, and win.

[1] http://www.missingkids.com/CVIP

To:

Arizona Office of the Attorney General
County Attorney’s Office of Apache County
County Attorney’s Office of Cochise County
County Attorney’s Office of Coconino County
County Attorney’s Office of Gila County
County Attorney’s Office of Graham County
County Attorney’s Office of Greenlee County
County Attorney’s Office of La Paz County
County Attorney’s Office of Maricopa County
County Attorney’s Office of Mohave County
County Attorney’s Office of Navajo County
County Attorney’s Office of Pima County
County Attorney’s Office of Pinal County
County Attorney’s Office of Santa Cruz County
County Attorney’s Office of Yavapai County
County Attorney’s Office of Yuma County

Dear County Attorney,

Men are buying sex with children during the Super Bowl. Unless we do something about this now, buyers will use the Super Bowl in Arizona as an opportunity to exploit even more children.

And this impacts us all.

If a buyer engages in commercial sex with any minor under 18 years old in Arizona during the Super Bowl and receives little to no consequences for his crime, he won’t be deterred from committing the same crime again in his home state. This puts all of our nation’s children at risk.

Arizona is perfectly positioned to be a strong opponent to those who seek to exploit our children while they are in Arizona for the Super Bowl. Arizona law enforcement agencies are trained to aggressively investigate the demand for sex with children and you are committed to bringing justice to all minor victims of trafficking by prosecuting and sentencing buyers who exploit them.

We are asking you to ensure that buyer prosecutions are made a priority. We, along with Shared Hope International, stand behind Arizona’s 15 County Attorney’s Offices and the Arizona Attorney General’s Office in prosecuting buyers arrested in Arizona for buying sex with a child to the fullest extent of the law. Effective prosecutions of buyers include significant fines and felony penalties, asset forfeiture, and payment of restitution to victims. Buyers will be deterred if the risk of arrest and full prosecution is real.

Let buyers know Arizona’s Not Buying It and bring a unified front to enforce zero tolerance for child sex trafficking, including attacking it at the root: the buyers. Let’s tell buyers, if they exploit a child in Arizona, they better plan to stay awhile – in jail!

Thank you for protecting Arizona’s children from buyers at the Super Bowl.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

Sign the petition:

Visit demandingjustice.org/take-action for other ways to contribute to this cause!

The booming demand for trafficked women and children in recent years is due in part to the proliferation of pornography.  It is time that we stop thinking pornography is victimless and free from consequence. We must recognize that all forms of sexual exploitation are seamlessly intertwined.

Porn Changes the Brain: First, we must understand the effect that porn has on the user. Porn is like a drug. It acts the same as a drug in your system. It tricks your brain into releasing the same pleasure chemicals drugs release, like cocaine, and then it alters the reward pathways in the brain.[1] This is why users can spend countless hours watching porn without regard to their other responsibilities and commitments. Research shows that users of porn also begin to alter their beliefs and understanding about sexuality and intimacy. Exposure to pornographic media is connected to[2]:

• Believing that women are always ready for sex and are enthusiastic to do whatever men want, irrespective of how painful, humiliating or harmful the act is
• Believing women suffer less and generally enjoy rape
• Believing a rape victim experienced pleasure and “got what she wanted”
• More acceptance of violence against women
• More self-reported likelihood of forcing a woman sexually
• Engaging in more sexual harassment behaviors
• Using physical or verbal coercion to have sex
• Increasing their estimates of how often people pay for sex

Porn as a Driver for Demand: Over time, users become bored and desensitized and will often crave harder and more deviant materials in order to satisfy their urges. Evidence of this is in the progression of mainstream pornography over the years from topless women to extreme sexual violence and misogynistic degradation. It is also illustrated, sadly, in the booming supply of child pornography, which is increasing in demand.  Users of pornography will often deviate to using more fetishized materials—like child-themed, incest-themed, or sexual torture-themed (BDSM) porn. These fetishes are the most common topics in today’s mainstream porn. The top-searched theme for porn in 2013 was “teen.”

Pornographers and pimps are keenly aware of the deviant demands of their customers and go to extreme measures to make sure they can supply the requested material. Pimps have moved from the street corner to the safety and anonymity of the Internet. More reports indicate that johns and pimps are recording sex acts with prostituted and trafficked women, and then uploading to the Internet for more money, bragging rights, or to use as advertising. Porn performers in “professional” films report that force, fraud and coercion are sometimes used to get them to fulfill uncomfortable or unsafe requests. Sex trafficking is a sad reality in the production of pornography.[3]

Some porn users will seek to act out what they are viewing in pornography. In The Projection Project: Journal of Human Rights and Civil Society, a study conducted interviewed 854 prostituted women from 9 countries and found that 47% were upset by customers trying to make them perform what the customer had seen in porn.[4] Given the humiliating and violent nature of mainstream porn, many porn users’ wives and girlfriends refuse to consent to “porn star” sex. The users will then sometimes seek to act out their fantasy elsewhere. This drives demand for trafficking as men pay prostituted or trafficked women and children to perform the specific acts seen in porn. Remember how “teen” was the top porn search in 2013? It’s no coincidence that girls now enter prostitution at the average age of 13. There’s a market for these young girls, which pimps are happy to supply, and porn is the reason.

Recognize the Links: There is a continuum of sexual exploitation and porn is a major factor, fueling all of it. Pornography, sexually oriented businesses, strip clubs, prostitution and sex trafficking, sexual violence, and child sexual abuse all are connected. We must recognize that unless something is done to curb porn and its use, we will never solve the problems of sexual exploitation, specifically sex trafficking. Learn more about the links between pornography and sex trafficking at http://stoptraffickingdemand.com/.

[1] Learn more about the effects pornography has on the brain at these websites: http://pornharmsresearch.com/ http://www.fightthenewdrug.org/get-the-facts#porn-is-like-a-drug http://yourbrainonporn.com

[2] All points are backed up by research listed here: http://pornharmsresearch.com/2013/12/talking-points-porn-sexual-violence-research/

[3] http://stoptraffickingdemand.com/trafficking-within-the-industry/

[4] http://stoptraffickingdemand.com/johns-acting-out/