You may have heard about child trafficking, also known as modern-day slavery from the news, social media, or friends and family. But are you aware of how many people nationally and internationally are being trafficked? There are more than 20 million people in modern-day slavery worldwide. According to dosomething.org, about 71% of victims are young girls and women, while 29% are young boys and men. Estimates have determined that 0.4% survivors are identified but a vast majority of cases go undetected due to the victims being scared or uncomfortable about the situation. So, as usual, statistics are not always spot on. Estimates also showed that about 50,000 people trafficked into the U.S. are usually from Mexico or the Philippines. In 2018 over half of the survivors involved in human trafficking were children.
“Pizzagate” is a conspiracy that went viral during the 2016 presidential election. In March 2016, Bill Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta, had his personal email account hacked; which was later published in November 2016. “Proponents of the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory falsely claimed the emails contained coded messages, connecting several high-ranking Democratic Party officials and U.S. restaurants with an alleged human trafficking and child sex ring. One of the establishments allegedly involved was the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington, D.C.”
Where does it begin? In many cases human trafficking has happened right in plain sight. Social media is a big part of human trafficking, especially if personal information is easily accessed. Human traffickers disguise themselves to make them look one way but are the complete opposite. It’s scary but unfortunately happens, when people accept a friend request from someone they don’t know. He looks like a nice family guy with a wife and children. You post a picture of your 8 year-old daughter in front of her school on her first day with a brief description which includes her name and grade. Meanwhile, this man you don’t know is sending all your daughter’s information around and trying to find a buyer. You don’t think anything of it until you go to pick her up at 3 p.m and you find that a man came and pulled your daughter out of school early. Before you even realize, she’s already gone.