The average age of a sex slave in America is 13 years old.
Yep, you read that correctly. “Slavery,” “America,” and “13 years old” all in one sentence.
When we think about a sex slave, most of us probably have this very sensationalized Hollywood perception of what that phrase actually means.
We think of Liam Neeson moving heaven and earth to rescue his daughter in Taken, or Mariska Hargitay helping a victim on Law and Order SVU. Perhaps you visualize dirty, ragged girls, chained to beds, or even foreign children in a faraway land.
But sex trafficking is happening HERE. At home. In our towns, and our neighborhoods.
It is estimated that there are as many as 30 million sex slaves in the world today who are victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Eighty percent of which are women and half are children.
The Global Slavery Index estimates that there 57,700 sex slaves living IN AMERICA.
Those who have survived often share their story in hopes of preventing others from becoming vulnerable, but more importantly, to shed light on the hidden modern-day slavery that is happening right under our noses.
10 Sex Slaves Tell Their Story of Breaking Free from Human Trafficking.
1. These Middle Schoolers who were Sex Trafficked on Backpage.com
A 2017 documentary titled, “I Am Jane Doe,” chronicles the battle of several American mothers fighting on behalf of their middle-school-aged daughters, who are victims of sex trafficking on Backpage.com.
Backpage.com is the second largest classified-ad listing service on the Internet in the United States (behind Craigslist). For years, the adult classifieds section of the website has been used to buy and sell victims of human trafficking.
“We need someone to give us a fighting chance,” one human trafficking victim says through a stream of tears.
The film follows several survivors through legal battles against Backpage and the political movement that ensued over their rescue.
