Safety Tips: Human Trafficking and Our Teens

A Note from Lifeway Girls: Last month we talked about how Human Trafficking is Affecting Your Average Teenager, and we have invited Chrissy Duke from Beauty for Ashes Africa to come back today and share some practical safety tips on how you can protect your teens against human trafficking. There is no better time to be educated on such a serious topic.

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An incredible organization called Bark works through technology to find and bring online human traffickers to justice.  In a recent documentary, they created false social media identities, one 11 years old and one 15 (click here to see the mini-film).  Within the first minute of making the 11 year old girl live on social media, there were messages from adult men and pornographic images.  Within 1 minute. And the 15 year old was invited to meet up with an adult male within a few days.

Human trafficking is happening in every country, especially in the U.S. where technology advances at a rapid rate, and our children have access to it before the dangers are truly known. Traffickers do not even have to pursue our teens in their schools or malls (even though this is definitely happening too!)  They can pursue them right in their homes, from their phone and computer screens. Predators are targeting 11-14 year olds, and boys are not excluded.  It may not affect every single girl, but human trafficking is affecting our average teenage girl.

So, what do we do?  Lock our doors? Don’t let your kids go to the mall?  Sadly, even if they aren’t being stalked at the mall, they may be exposed and stalked online.  Locking our doors is no longer enough, because the predators are coming right into our homes through our devices.  I don’t say this to scare us or to build fear into our lives with more worry and anxiety. I hope to share this because we live in an age where we cannot be naive about this topic.  It is real. And there are things we can do to prevent it.

Stopping the horrors of human trafficking will take everyone’s help—not just government agencies, not just non-profits, not just religious institutions…it will require everyone.  So, today, by reading this, by becoming more informed and educated, by acquiring prevention tools, you are joining the fight! Simply being aware makes you part of the solution. But, I also hope to give you a few tools today that will equip you to not live in fear of it, but live in the hope of salvation, the truth of freedom, and the authority of prevention.  We don’t have to just let life happen to us—we can make a stand.

Let’s waste no more time and get to it – here are some tips for parents, leaders, and mentors of tweens and teens.

1. Talk to Your Kids and Youth!!
   • Don’t wait, start talking about internet safety from the first time they are allowed to use your phone or computer!   (Predators have been increasingly seen in the online gaming industry, it’s not all social media!) 
   • Talk to them about “stranger danger” scenarios—do this with young kids, but even with teens! Come up with realistic scenarios at the mall, or in a friends home where they feel uncomfortable, ask them what they would do and discuss it.
   • Tell them about human trafficking. We talk about slavery and the civil war starting in elementary school and human trafficking is modern day slavery. Below I will provide some AWESOME kids videos and games that can help you do this at age appropriate levels!
   • If you pick only one thing to implement from this list. Pick this one. Educating kids gives them the awareness to identify dangers and avoid them.  
     
     
2. Set up safety words with a trusted friend/relative. Develop one word that means they do not feel safe and one word that means they feel fully safe.
   
   
3. Have your children memorize at least one phone number and their home address, in case they do not have access to their cell phone with their contacts.
   
   
4. Check their social media, what are they saying, who are they talking to on their social media sites—double check privacy settings and remove any geographical check-in points such as Four Square, or automatic GPS tags on photographs or photograph-based websites.
   • Talk to them about posting on social networking sites and how to be cautious not to provide unnecessary information regarding your daily activities or close friends and family and locations.
     
     
5. Search their full names on google to make sure someone couldn’t search their name and find out where they live.
   • Do a search on Google, Bing, and Yahoo for their full name and city or state to screen all publicly available information that someone can find out about them on the internet.  Also, be cautious about having photos of children displayed online.
     
     
6. Encourage parents to define which sites their child can visit.
   • Tell your students about the sites that are known for predators.  (Instagram, Snap Chat, Backpage, Bedpage, Craigslist)
     
     
7. Set the example and encourage your teens in setting time limits on computers and digital devices.
   
   
8. Create a family charging station where all devices are charged overnight.

Technology isn’t all bad!  You can use technology to help fight!!  Here are some great apps and sites youth can use with the parents, mentors, and friends to be more safe:

1. Circle of 6—this app lets you add up to 6 people from your contacts to join your Circle, then with the touch of a button you can send the certain commands like “Come and get me.” or “Call and pretend you need me.” The friends can then immediately respond to the situation. This also allows teens to choose their trusted circle because the text doesn’t have to go to parents if they are too scared – it can go to another trusted adult or friend too!
   
   
2. BSafe—Bsafe offers 6 features to help you stay safe. The “Alarm” feature sets off a siren, and starts recording video and voice as well as sending your GPS location to your chosen friends.  “The Follow Me” feature lets friends follow your movements on the mobile map and notifies them when you arrive home safely. The “Fake Call” feature will make your phone call you. The “Recording” feature automatically starts recording video and audio then the recording is sent to your primary person’s phone.  The “I Am Here” feature shares your location with your friends. The “Timer” feature notifies your friends if you have not checked in within a certain time.
   
   
3. www.bark.us offers 24/7 MONITORING on as many devices as you choose—it scans a child’s accounts 24/7 and delivers alerts via text and email when it detects possible issues, such as violence, bullying, sexual content, self-harm/suicide, mental health, and drugs or alcohol. 
   
   
4. www.Nsteens.org has short videos and games to help tweens and teens be safer online.
   
   
5. https://www.netsmartzkids.org/ has season episodes with kids learning to be safer online (this is great for young kids too)

There are also so many ways to involve our teens in the fight against them, a few can include:

• We can encourage our teens to become an advocate for victims of human trafficking through organizations and forums.  For example, CNN does an event every year in March where kids can do an anti-trafficking awareness event at school and get on CNN—this event is all student led!  
• There are also opportunities to get involved with advocacy through IJM and using their voices to ask congress to pass anti-trafficking laws.
• If you want to teach your teens more about Human Trafficking, A21 is a great online curriculum that is common-core aligned. It can be used in classrooms, in churches, or in homes to help build an understanding of human trafficking in the U.S. and how to join the fight against it.  
• You can invite a speaker from Beauty For Ashes Africa to come to your ministry and speak on things from the heart of Jesus like Justice, Freedom, and breaking the chains of slavery. 

Today, you have joined the fight!  Take the next step and give your girls a chance to join the fight too.

I have gathered these tips from many sources including the Human Trafficking Hotline, Polaris Project, A21, and others.

Chrissy Duke is a passionate follower of Jesus Christ who loves to share what God is speaking to her with other young girls and women! She is also a wife and a mother of two beautiful girls. Chrissy love a good cup of coffee in the morning, getting outside in nature, and being with family. Her calling is to help the marginalized be recognized, heard, and helped. Chrissy does this primarily through an organization called Beauty For Ashes Africa. They work to combat human trafficking in North Africa, where they have a transition home for at-risk girls! Connect with Chrissy: Website // Instagram