TUCSON, Ariz. — Sex trafficking numbers are on the rise during the pandemic and one local survivor says she’s making it her life’s work to keep it from happening to kids.
“One in 7 girls and 1 in 22 boys will experience rape before their 18th birthday, and those are the reported cases,” shocking words from trafficking survivor Lisa Hansen.
Hansen is the education director at “Sold No More.”
The mission of the organization is to stop the exploitation and trafficking of children.
“We’ve got kids trafficking each other on school campuses. We’ve got self-exploitation of girls and boys being willing to perform sex acts for money advertising themselves,” Hansen said.
Hansen says the number of cases during the pandemic are skyrocketing.
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“A 200 percent increase of child exploitation reports. I’m seeing a fall out like I’ve never seen before. The number one trafficker is a boyfriend and the number 2 trafficker is a family member,” Hansen said.
When local schools shut down Hansen took her “Power Over Predators” program to the web. She also says that teachers are especially worried about students who are suffering from abuse at home. Now thousands of students can take a course online to find out how to identify predators and abuse and secretly ask for help.
“Any teacher any educator can give a kid the link they can watch the course as a school assignment. But every time there is a get help button. They can click on that and anonymously get help for suicidal thoughts, child abuse sex trafficking for bullying anything out kids are dealing with,” Hansen said.
Hansen also says it’s important for parents to get schooled on social media and apps. Adding that a little Googling can go a long way.
“Parents get so startled they're like my daughter just downloaded an art app, an art app and it turned out to be an app full of child pornography. You would think an art app is safe so I’m trying to help parents shift. Those kid-friendly apps are the predator's tool that they use,” Hansen said.
Online barriers like the Bark app can give parental controls and alerts to parents for safety.
If you or someone you know is in need of help the National Human Trafficking hotline at 888-373-7888.
“We’re teaching kids to advocate for themselves and for others,” Hansen said.
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