The Problem
Predators have plans and strategies to exploit your children, grandchildren, students and student athletes. Predators work hard and smart pretending to be younger gamers, other students, or potential friends on social media. Predators look for vulnerabilities and opportunities to initiate online chat and then move public conversations to private messaging/DM.
Predators start with online chats, then they may ask for a current photo, trying to build trust so you will send them nude images. Predators then use any information and explicit images to exploit, shame, bully and isolate children and teenagers away from their family and friends.
Predators keep building trust and open communications with their victim, and continuing to isolate the victim from family and friends. This is part of the "grooming process". The Predator may pretend to be their boyfriend and ask for a favor of sending nude photos or working a night in a strip club to help them make money so they can start a new life together. And, after sexually exploiting their victim, the Predator may become very violent, and the teen can become trapped in an unbelievably terrible life.
The FBI reports that 100,000 children and teens are sexually trafficked in the USA every year.
Predators are expert at mental conditioning and manipulation. A Predator may take 3 to 9 months to "move" your child from the recruitment and grooming stage to being sexually exploited and trafficking stage. Predators invest up to 9 months to sexually exploit a child or teenager, because a Trafficker/Pimp can generate over $100,000 a year by sexually exploiting and trafficking one child.
CSAM: Commercial Sexual Abuse Material
Taking or having naked images of minors is a felony. Online platforms in the USA are required to "capture" CSAM, remove it from their platform, and send it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, NCMEC.
- In 2023, 90 million CSAM files were captured in the USA and sent to NCMEC. That means that 7.5 million images a month, or 245,000 illegal images of naked minors are captured online every day in the USA.
*Child Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking are bigger, and closer than we think*
The Solution
We can help! California Alliance-Against Trafficking is training parents, grandparents, teachers and coaches to be aware of indicators for Child Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking and we provide strategies to help you protect the children you love. Predators have a plan for your teenager, and we help parents and grandparents make better plans to protect the children and young adults they love.
California Alliance-Against Trafficking is training an army of "Look-Out Scouts" who recognize the indicators of Child Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking and will call law enforcement.
One person has power. One person can help stop the grooming process or rescue a Child Sex Trafficking Victim! Be aware of the indicators of Child Sex Trafficking! Make the call! Save a child!