THORN reports, “One unforeseen consequence of the rise of the internet has been an explosion in the illicit trade of child sexual abuse images and videos. Over 25 million images are reviewed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children annually. (That’s over 480,769 images per week.)”

Although modern slavery today is most concentrated on the continents of Asia and Africa, the United States is one of the main consumers of child pornography, which overlaps and is interwoven with child sex trafficking. THORN also cites the findings of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection that online sexual images and videos of children ranged from 0-18 years of age; 78.3% depicted children under the age of 12, and 63.4% of that group were under age 8. Of that material, 80.4% of victims were girls and 19.5% were boys.

Our laptops and cellphones, while wonderful tools for so many positive endeavors, have fed into this nightmare scenario where predators can literally come into anyone’s living room.

At risk child populations historically remain at risk, while the pool of potentially vulnerable victims has expanded exponentially. This is reflected in the pool of children New Day has served, who have come from every socioeconomic and ethnic background.  

Child sex trafficking flies under the radar and can be difficult to spot. Children are taken to hotels and motels surreptitiously, often for short periods of time and then whisked to another venue before the illicit activity is detected. Rural locales are not exempt; in fact, some of the most sickening accounts were made possible by venues on large or remote acreage where victims would not be seen or heard, outside of urban areas where we most often imagine exploitation to be taking place. Law enforcement is increasingly understaffed and underfunded, at the very time we need more dedicated units to help find our vulnerable kids and break up trafficking networks.  The oversaturation of sexuality in our culture via movies, social media and entertainment has blurred the lines for adults and children alike. Glamorized pimping, prostitution and stripping are normalized behaviors that just a short time ago would have been viewed as obscene and unthinkable. These realities can become mind-numbing and overwhelming, and cause us to want to retreat, live in denial, or throw up our hands in despair.