Sex Trafficking: A Not So Common Topic

By: Carolina Gonzales, Reporter

What is sex trafficking and why is it important?


The number on the screen, 888-373-7888, contacts the National Human Trafficking Resource Center which victims can call 3 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Sex trafficking can be avoided by educating minors on the matter.

What is sex trafficking and why is it so important?

For most people, sex trafficking isn’t very common to be talked about on a day-to-day basis, nor is it made important, taught nor acknowledged among minors.

According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, “sex trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act, in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion.”

Unfortunately, minors are part of this equation with almost 300,000. If you were to compare this with the number of minors enrolled in the district, you would still be able to fit another school district full of students in order to complete the annual number of minors in the United States that get pulled into sex trafficking.

How big is the industry?

Internationally, it is a $32 billion dollar industry that doesn’t care if you’re a minor or not. According to UNICEF, “1.2 million children are being trafficked across the globe, with a child being prepared to be sold every two minutes.”

How do people get trafficked in the first place? Who are these people?

According to, “victims of human trafficking are frequently lured by false promises of a lucrative job, stability, education, or a loving relationship. Victims can be men or women, adults or children, foreign nationals or U.S citizens. While they share a trait of vulnerability, victims have diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, varied levels of education, and may be documented or undocumented.”

Why is being educated on this matter so important?

Within a large number of minors and youth, not many of them know it’s a growing problem around the globe. According to Anuradha Koirala, the founder of Maiti Nepal, a charity for sex trafficking, said “Education is what makes people aware about all the social evils present in the world today, human trafficking being one of them. Education not only makes people aware about the problem, but it also lets people know the ways that we can take to prevent it from happening.”

It can happen to anyone, and that is why it needs to be talked about.

If you’d like to take a look or find any interest in statistics as well as facts on the matter, visit the links below.