BEACON
OF
HOPE
Child Sex Trafficking
Advocacy
CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING IN GEORGIA
- Georgia ranks #5 in the Nation
- Human Trafficking is a $290M business
- 65% of men who buy sex with minors do so in Metro Atlanta
- The average age of victims is 14yrs
- 91% of sex trafficking victims were enrolled in school
- 50% of victims are recruited by friends and family
ANONYMOUS VICTIM OF SEXUAL ABUSE
“I would sit and cry silently for hours every day for about three months. I was so hurt by what he’d done. I was only 15 when I met him, and he was 28. I thought I loved him so much, I would do anything for him at the time. I didn’t realize that he was manipulating me and controlling me. It all started when he wanted me to introduce him to my family—who I knew would never accept him. He started out just being pushy, but when I refused to take the relationship public, he kept getting more aggressive.
Eventually he started threatening me.
Early on he filmed some of our more private moments together on his phone. I could have never imagined then that the man I loved so much would later use them to blackmail me—that he would send these videos out to people. What I didn’t know then was that this was a form of sexual exploitation called sextortion.
We broke up and he emailed videos of us to my best friend. A year later, he sent videos using Facebook messenger to a guy that I had just started dating. I lived in fear of him for years after that. I had no idea what to do.”
Myth #1
Traffickers target victims they don’t know
REALTY
Myth #2
Sex Trafficking is usually a violent crime
REALTY
Myth #3
Only girls are in danger of being sex trafficked