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Home>Latest News

July 18, 2012 by SHI Staff

Becoming a Modern Day Hero

Are you a modern day hero?

With over 100,000 children enslaved in the sex trafficking industry in the U.S. every year, the question arises: how do we end demand for child sex trafficking?

The answer? Men need to be heroes. This will end demand.

Definition of a hero: a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities, an illustrious warrior, one who shows great courage.

If all men were true heroes (at their jobs, in their communities, in their families) — they would stop disrespecting and objectifying women. If all guys did not objectify women, they would naturally stop watching porn. And the pornography industry fuels the child prostitution industry. Here is the process: many men who watch porn continue to seek bigger thrills, and naturally begin going to strip clubs, which many times ends up with these men soliciting sex from a prostituted women or child. Simply put, every time a guy looks at porn, he is essentially dropping money into the pockets of pimps. This ongoing cycle of buyers wanting a product (sex with a minor) fuels demand.

But what can you do? This seems like an almost impossible challenge to solve. The media, friends, family members may not understand or be supportive.

But one man can take the pledge. One man can tell a couple of his friends about his commitment to help end demand. One man can hold himself and his friends accountable for their actions toward women and children. One man can help add gasoline to the flame of a wildfire movement. And together, we can flip our society, our country, and our world upside-down and end demand for domestic minor sex trafficking.

The answer to this problem is simple, but initiating, starting, and building the movement proves more difficult.

Women and children need heroes ­­– they need Defenders.

July 1, 2012 by SHI Staff

Media and News Coverage, May and June 2012

May 7: Washington Post – Mayors Urge Online Escort Service To Check Ages Of Women In Advertisements

June 25: ABC15 – Phoenix Protest Targets Child Slavery, Sex Trafficking Ads

June 22, 2012 by Guest

SEX+MONEY

“Have you ever heard of the issue of human sex trafficking?” 

The trailer for the documentary “Sex + Money” opens by asking this question. Most people don’t know or don’t understand the scope of the problem. Most people who have heard of sex trafficking couldn’t possibly imagine it happening here … not in America, no way.

It is here. It is in every city across the U.S. If you can’t find it in one location, you just aren’t looking hard enough.

In 2011, five young journalists set off on a mission across the United States. They were on a mission to spread awareness about domestic minor sex trafficking by hosting screenings of the “Sex + Money” documentary.

Shared Hope partnered with the Sex + Money team to raise state grades through the Protected Innocence ChallengeReport Cards. Together we have started a wildfire of states introducing and enacting laws and legislation that will help rescue, restore, protect, and defend girls — while strengthening laws that serve justice to traffickers.

Will you join us? Will you watch the video and be inspired to action? Or will you brush it off? You can make a difference. Together, we can change the world.

www.sexandmoneyfilm.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsY93C8cm54

June 18, 2012 by SHI Staff

Can Johns Be Turned Into Defenders?

Fifteen to twenty percent.

That’s the number of American men who will buy sex at some time during their lives. That number may seem exaggerated, but not when you look at the fact that 100,000 children will be trafficked in the U.S. this year.
That means that there are a lot of men out there who buy children for sex.
But this doesn’t have to continue. We can stop this.
But how?
How do we stop these men from buying sex? And how do we ensure that they won’t fall back into their old ways?
Several means of deterring buyers, “johns”, have been tried:

  1. Attending an educational “john school”
  2. Community service
  3. Greater penalties
  4. Putting their names in the newspaper, on a billboard, or on the internet
  5.  More jail time
  6. Adding them to the sex offender registry

 

What’s the most effective method? What will stop these men from continuing to destroy the lives of these young girls?

According to a 2011 study on Boston buyers of sex, adding buyer’s names to the official sex offender registry is the greatest deterrent for johns. It beats out jail time, greater penalties, and community service. Unfortunately, it is also more effective than putting these men through “john school.”
Right now, it seems like cold, hard sentencing, and registering these men on the sex offenders list is the best way to deter buyers of sex.

But who’s to say that couldn’t change?
Could these men be reeducated? One john who went through a reeducation program in Tennessee said: “I’m so embarrassed … These girls are somebody’s daughters. I have a daughter.” He changed. Could other men be effectively taught that these girls they’re buying are someone’s daughter or sister?
We hope so.
What about you? What can you do today to turn johns into Defenders?
Give time, give money, and educate yourselves and others about America’s serious problem of sex trafficking. Spread the word.

June 12, 2012 by Guest

Fighting Fire with Fire: Using Technology to Thwart Human Trafficking

Guest Post By: Cleo Tung
Master of Philosophy, Criminological Research University of Cambridge

Cleo Tung holds a Master of Philosophy in Criminological Research from the University of Cambridge. As a 2010 Gates Scholar, Ms. Tung focused her dissertation on exploring different NGO perspectives on human trafficking in the US. She is the former Vice President of the United Nations Children’s Fund at the University of California, Irvine, where she completed her BA in Criminology, Law & Society.

Although human trafficking predates information and communication technologies (ICT’s) such as the Internet, mobile phones, and social networking sites, there is little doubt that trafficking activity now takes place in the digital domain. Indeed, traffickers increasingly rely on ICT’s to recruit, advertise, and sell their victims. As the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking notes, ICT’s are ideal conduits for trafficking because they “…provide a degree of anonymity and/or disguise which allows them [traffickers] to commit their crimes with reduced risk.”

Indisputably, ICT’s exacerbate the trafficking problem. The upside, however, is that the same technologies can ameliorate anti-trafficking efforts, as recently noted by Mark Latonero’s study at the University of Southern California, Human Trafficking Online. For example, ICT’s have proven critical to public awareness campaigns including the DNA Foundation’s “Real Men Don’t Buy Girls” campaign, which has helped educate the public on child slavery via social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. In fact, organizations are increasingly cognizant of ICT’s as an effective tool for expanding public understanding of human trafficking. Shared Hope International’s YouTube channel, the Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking’s webinars, and this very blog are but a few examples of such recognition.

Smartphone applications like the International Justice Mission’s IJM Mobile also signify the emergence of ICT’s as a useful anti-trafficking tool. Through IJM Mobile’s “Make Some Noise” feature, users can easily help raise public awareness and galvanize support for anti-trafficking policies by posting the latest trafficking-related news in their social networks.

Technological innovation in the anti-trafficking field is further exemplified by Survivors Connect, a California-based organization dedicated to leveraging ICT’s against human trafficking. Like IJM, Survivors Connect employs mobile technology with its SMS: Freedom helpline service, through which users can reduce their risk of victimization by connecting to professionals and resources (e.g. information about trafficking scams, safe migration, child protection, and emergency support) via text messaging.

Beyond mobile technology, Survivors Connect offers a range of data mapping programs, notably Freedom Datamap, which crowd sources information about where anti-trafficking organizations work and provide services globally. Freedom Datamap enables professionals, lawyers, service providers, government agencies, and international organizations to share critical trafficking information in a single space. Users submit their information through various media (e.g. email, Twitter, web reports), which is then aggregated into direct reports and plotted on an interactive map. With this program, users can easily access and share data, thereby empowering them to enhance collaboration efforts, learn best practices, and identify gaps in knowledge.

As we have seen here, technology can play a critical role in combatting the trafficking problem. Whether it’s raising awareness of the issue through Facebook or sharing the latest research through a webinar, anti-trafficking work has great potential to improve as technology continues to advance. For many, this could mean a life free from the violence, exploitation, and abuse endured under the conditions of modern-day slavery.

Special thanks to Founder and Executive Director of Survivors Connect, Aashika Damodar, who agreed to discuss her organization’s anti-trafficking work.

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