300,000 kids in the US are at risk each year to commercial sexual exploitation. Here in Oklahoma many parents are unaware the #1 way that predators find kids is online, through Social Networking… and kids are vulnerable to trusting online friends, many of which they have never met in person. Social Networking is the new playground where kids are vulnerable to the grooming tactics predators use.
Modern Day Slavery is different from 19th century slavery where people were controlled with violence and chains. Today’s modern slaves are recruited with promises or romance and controlled through psychological coercion. Chains now are only the symbolism of slavery… but the “links” that traffickers use to control their victims are the same as they have always been:
- Find vulnerable people (in this case children)
- Recruit them through a “grooming” process of romance, promises and daily attention – making the child feel special.
- Talk them out of the home to meet in person…
- Control them with threats, violence or coercion to sexually exploit them.
- Treat them as a personal property; a commodity sold over and over in forced prostitution, stripping or pornography.
Help us “Break the Links” that traffickers are using to groom and control kids here in Oklahoma through awareness, education and prevention. Every $ donated will work to “Protect Oklahoma Kids”, educators and parents about the tactics of traffickers, recruiters, and online predators.
Protect Oklahoma Children is the Internet Safety Program tool used by OATH Coalition to train educators and public school children about human sex trafficking. Join us in breaking the links that traffickers have been using to recruit Oklahoma kids. In accordance with federal law, the terms “Kids”, “Child” and “Children” used in this arical refer to minors that are under the age of 18.
