Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking of Youth Response Training (Pt 2)
Disclaimer:
Everything below is a mix of what I observed and heard during the event. The goal isn’t to pinpoint "who exactly said what," but to share (usually) an outsider's view and overall perspective on these industries. I’m not here to act as a definitive firsthand source—readers should do their own research. I hope this inspires you to attend events, explore new industries, and hear what leaders are presenting. These notes combine my observations with thoughts on how things could run smoother and how ideas connect (IMO). I’m not an expert, you know? Just hanging out in the room with them. Enjoy!Venue (5/5), Food (5/5), Speaker Content (5/5), Networking (2/5), Likeliness to Return (5/5)
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Venue (5/5), Food (5/5), Speaker Content (5/5), Networking (2/5), Likeliness to Return (5/5) 〰️
Alright! We are back for round 2. I actually really appreciated the quality of this class yesterday. I wasn’t sure how it’d be - but the fact they were even talking about how doctors and police can be in on it… it’s no wonder people are freaking out a bit and being labeled as conspiracy theorists. It’s hard to know who to trust. This is such an important topic that most people ignore or don’t want to face. I’m grateful for the time to learn and hopefully be a positive influence for change with what I create over my career. It’s so important to me.
Why Attend: I just want to help and learn more. Especially if/when MOASS happens - and as someone trying to build media, culture, etc, I want to help build the opposite of grooming and brainwashing influencing things.
Photo Collage and Commentary:
Notes from the Events:
Indicators:
If a young person is running away, out and about without safe adult eyes on them
multiple cell phones or social media profiles
excess amounts of cash
having expensive or consistent goods/services with no known means to pay for them
hotel room keys/keycards
unexplained injuries, often left untreated
signs of branding (tattoos, jewelry)
dramatic personality changes, including evasive behavior around a romantic partner or a new group of friends
lack of knowledge of a given community or location
having multiple kinds of condoms, lube, wet wipes, or sex toys
If you take a phone from a young person and they flip out in a way you can’t understand. The way that traffickers contact them, and if they don’t respond immediately, they get punished. Or its holding images.
Law enforcement can prove a case with a phone. They’re often critical.
Dating apps, Facebook, Christian Mingle, it doesn’t matter the site. Bad things can happen.
More than any other indicator is having the expensive things. Night to night placement and spending their days in the child welfare office, ordering Uber Eats for themself and the other kids. Whose credit card do you have? How are you spending this money? It’s so expensive.
They have a brand new pair of Jordans and a North Face.
always have nails and lashes done, or expensive things.
They run away for a few weeks and come back looking really put together. Goods and services with no known legitimacy means.
Virtually, a lot of people have online gaming and in-game purchases. Getting virtual things in exchange for sexting photos.
Injuries and illnesses left untreated, lack of care to mental, physical, dental, and vision… “Have you ever been hurt or sick and wanted to see the doctor but couldn’t?”
Lots of families don’t have health insurance because of costs. That might be the reason. But it might be because someone is controlling them and not allowing them to the doctor.
This is so sad. :(
Traffickers used to even brand their name in tattoos to children, like property and cattle. But then that turned into evidence at trial. Now it’s more coded language. Now it’s more like crowns or dollar signs or Playboy bunnies.
Who is tattooing a kid?
You can buy a tattoo gun for $20 on Amazon
Traffickers move their people, their product, from location to location along the West Coast. So then they can say, “only in town for 3 days, get it while we’re here”.
So many young people are going back and forth.
When young kids don’t know where famous locations are.
A survivor told her once that she was trafficked and moved around this country and other countries. One time, she got away, got a phone, and called 911. This is who I am, I think I’m in Nebraska. But she wasn’t in Nebraska. She didn’t even know what state she was in. She wasn’t told where she was going.
Gosh, this is so sad.
If a young person has mouthwash, wet wipes, condoms, sex toys… that’s a working kit. Don’t stigmatize and don’t back them into a corner. So many young people aren’t receiving sex education
The easier it is to get from one location to the other, the more young people get from those locations. Buses, trains, airports.
Symbols change all the time. If someone says this is the symbol that is used, none of that
I wrote about teddy bears too, how people post about the age they had their teddy bear, since “I had it since I was 3yo,” and that means a 3-year-old
And she said that’s a really good point. A lot of individuals participate in the dark web, or chat rooms and groups of other buyers and traffickers. They communicate and use coded language.
This is nice to hear cause literally my family thinks I’m insane for this and got furious with me when I talked about this. They think I made it up. But look at https://www.reddit.com/r/Teddybears/ uugh.
Buyers would meet up at a bar and talk about women and horrible things in public. But they also had an online forum talking about women as well. Whenever we have suspicions and figure out what’s going on, we give it to law enforcement, who have the resources.
Lots of people want to hunt down traffickers, break into the basement, and save the kids. That terrifies her cause lots of people don’t have the knowledge.
A mommy blogger was talking about how she was in IKEA with her mom and two littles. Two traffickers were following her and would have grabbed her kids.
Traffickers are not interested in kidnapping kids with involved family members. That’s why they go for the foster kids, the kids without safe eyes on them.
Recruiting behaviors:
If we have one young person in our lives, we run the risk of others
Counselors at a local middle school have 3 young people they’re very worried about. It became apparent that one was a recruiter and recruiting others into the system.
We see that young people sell the dream. You don’t want to go back to your parents, come hang out with me, we can party and have a good time.
“I’m being taken care of, we can go out partying, shopping, you don’t have to pay for anything, it’s all taken care of.”
Bring a friend next time, or I’ll take your sister. Or I’ll show your grandma all these pics of you.
Traffickers can be of any gender.
We need to consider behavior changes. If they become secretive or really connected to someone. Ask about pregnancies, unexplained injuries, hyper-sequalized behavior, running away, traunt (never heard this word - it means a school skipper)
I asked what happened to those people who wanted to buy the 15-year-old?
They don’t have the law enforcement or court capacity to prosecute everyone. On average, 20,000 ads for sex in Seattle per day. For kids and adults. We can not arrest our way out of this problem.
BRO RE-FUND THE POLICE
There is a 10-week-long class for men who have been convicted of sexual abuse of a minor. Trying to help them change their behavior.
If you tell buyers they may be buying someone who is trafficked, they don’t care. But if you tell them this may hurt your wife or children, they don’t care. If you tell them, hey - if you get caught, you’ll have to register as a sex offender and lose your job - THEN they care.
This isn’t working for you either.
Learn to have better relationships NOT buying sex
Those men are never going to listen to you, you’re just a mouthy feminist- but they may listen to you.
Women have some traction, but we need more men talking to other men about this. The vast majority of men will never purchase sex. Most men will never. It’s something like 20% of men who purchase sex at some point in their lifetime. But 5% are frequent buyers. The issue is that most men, in study after study, are okay with other men buying sex.
What we need is the GOOD GUYS to be standing up and saying, " Hey, not cool, bud - to the other guys. We can not arrest our way out of this. This has to be a culture change where it’s not acceptable to buy kids.
Trauma: overwhelming stress that exceeds our ability to cope or integrate emotions. It’s the harmful interruption of safety, dignity, agency, or basic fundamental needs of all people. It can be individual, collective, systemic, intergenerational, and historical.
Now we’re going to watch a video and then talk about trauma and what resonates with you.
She wanted to be an archeologist, not shaking her body.
She sells herself in Manhattan. Just dress like regular people and just walk around. She started working at 14yo.
was lots of violence and fighting at her house. She left at 13yo.
A van pulled up, and it was a guy she’d seen before saying, “You need a daddy, you understand? I can really help you, be like your father, and prove you can love. We’re family.”
You said we’re family? good. I’m getting in the car.
You can learn the value of money in 24 hours.
He’d say, “When your mother and I had you, i knew you were my daughter.” He’d buy me Blue's Clues stuff. You know? He’d sleep in the bed with me and hold me like I was his kid. He took care of me.
So sad. Preying on human vulnerabilities.
People will socker the block 4 or 5 times so they get noticed.
Sometimes 15-20 girls on one block. Cars used to be packed up, 20 cars lined up trying to get into this intersection. So much traffick.
Make sure you’re waving, smiling, all that good stuff. We’ll talk about the fun stuff later. Try to get this one.
Yeah, this is so upsetting to me. My heart is heavy from this. These poor girls and these poor trapped people.
Every time I make money, he takes money from me. Most of the money doesn’t go to us. Sometimes he doesn’t feed us.
I mean, he’s whooping and hitting me. If I don’t make the money, he doesn’t eat. Then I’d justify why he’d beat me. They’d slap me for wasting her time. Slap me harder. Then make her smile.
They’d get the kids hooked on drugs.
Ugh. I need to not watch this so much. It’s so upsetting. I hid the video from my screen. Cause it’s so hard to watch.
At one point, 7 or 15 guys had sex with me. I’m throwing up. They’re still behind me, trying to have sex with me while I’m throwing up. Then they left me behind in an abandoned car.
Then you come home to your father whipping your ass.
Then her mother will reprimand her. How did your mother find out what you’re doing in the street? Its dispicable. You always have a way to push it towards everyone else. Seeing what YOU did. You made adult decisions. You never stood back and said, “Okay, I did that”.
This poor girl. These poor kids. I hate this. I hate thissssss. :(
These kids have no home, and they don’t want to go home. They’re homeless.
Someone said: Kids should not have to deal with this crap.
another person: it was just sad, kept feeling like she was looking for love and support. continued to be rejected by her mom. Instead of love and protection, she just shared her disgust and disappointment. not very uplifting to her.
It’s really hard. Nowhere is safe.
People whose plan is to make money and get by in life by harming other people. They’re going to make money, exploit, and harm young people.
And some people have never received the education we don’t do that
I went on a huge rant about culture - and how media influences so much. And how there’s so much loneliness and unhappiness and sexless marriages and tv shows about cheating and how its all messed up and ripple effects. Its part of why I’m really hoping to change culture.
All that we do adds up, boycotts work, and not watching things work. Put your money where your mouth is.
Someone wrote: “The perps used developmental needs and fears into her submission by attacking her autonomy and independence. He tries to impress upon her that she is not tethered in this world and that he can offer this and more. He even gave others power over her to further deintegrate and attack her independence and autonomy.
A horrible question: do you have a safe place to spend the night?
“safe” is not easy to define.
If you dive into where they’re staying, you realize it’s not a safe place.
Do you have a safe place to be free from physical harm and have all basic needs met?
A place that is free from mental and emotional health? Not stressful?
access to basic needs?
a safe way away from violence.
If you have to pick between physical or mental safety, I’d pick physical - because then they are alive to hate you for it. They can get treatment later. When you work in this industry for a while, you end up knowing dead kids.
Most women and children on Aurora Avenue are trafficked. They wouldn’t be there if people weren’t buying them. The anger is directed the wrong way.
The next video is a girl who loved her life and then suddenly had to move one summer. I had never experienced racism till moving. Then she was raped by more than one person.
raped by football teams
could only do prostitution work while high. completely detach and disassociate
Not enough empowered sex workers to meet demand, so unwilling people get swept into it.
A lot of young people have access to porn and such easily. It promotes an unhealthy image of what a healthy relationship looks like.
- Sometimes, in relationships, if one person’s needs aren’t being met, they may seek out sex workers in a way to have a disconnected connection with another person without it being emotionally attached.
Some panel speakers at a sex trafficking event, a purchaser talked about how he’d target certain people because they didn’t look like his grandchildren, or pick people who felt detached.
It wasn’t necessarily “unhappy in the marriage,” or just there was one piece missing, and they didn’t want to get caught. someone they wouldn’t have an emotional attachment to.
Likely not anyone as a sex worker enjoys their work. But those who seek it out don’t think about it. You’re putting yourself out there, so let’s get our needs met.
Some purchasers on the panels questioned the ages, but didn’t ask. Even though the person looks young, I’ll assume they’re 18 or older. Plausible deniability.
Buyers are open. They purchase sex because they’re more afraid of rejection than of jail time. He wanted a relationship, but didn’t have the skills and knowledge of how to approach people.
The emotional disconnect is dissociative, and the substances are used to manage conflicts related to their survival and how they survived. Then they are trapped psychologically and physically. This is a type of psychological balancing that would typically be addressed by the ego.
Most buyers are married or partnered. Their partner doesn’t want to do this sex act, so I’m going to purchase access to someone to do this thing. The more dangerous and violent activities.
If you are purchasing consent, they can’t say no.
more violence because people get desensitized through pornography. And their partner isn’t willing to do this, so it’s part of a huge, larger conversation about pornography.
You pull one thread, and it all starts to unravel.
She’s gotten coffee with pimps over the years. They’re phenomenal manipulators. Biggest pimps ever: hugh hefner, jeffrey epstein, ghislaine maxwell…
There are no reformed pimps. they might not be pimping people anymore, but they’re still pimping. Look at what they’re pimping. used to be humans, now he’s pimping jesus.
A former mayor gave a former child trafficker a bunch of money to take care of the madness in capital hill. HOLY CRAP THIS IS SO CORRUTTTTTTTTTT
She was the lesbian mayor who offered me a job in front of the whole crowd and then ghosted me in real life.
Have free nutritious food available. Victims want food. Oftentimes it is withheld from them.
Ugh. This class is so frustrating. And its not that this class/training is frustrating, its more that this world is so sad and frustrating.
Empathy is different than sympathy.
perceptive taking, the ability to take the perspective of another person, staying out of judgment, and feeling WITH people. Recognizing emotions in others.
I’m stuck, it’s dark, I’m overwhelmed. Then we look and say I know what it’s like down here. You’re not alone.
Sympathy is saying, that’s bad, huh? let’s find a distraction. “at least, blah blah blah”
trying to have a silver lining
We try to make things better… but I’d rather you say “idk what to say right now, but I’m glad you told me” - rarely can a response make something better. But connection can.
How can we be empathetic? How can we be decent people?
Respond to youth as the experts in their experience,
maintain a compassionate and non-judgmental attitude at all times,
Be consistent, follow through, and do not make promises that can’t be kept
Build trust; this is a slow process
Practice cultural humility, be sensitive to the unique cultural needs and experiences of each person. Be aware of your own biases, beliefs, and worldviews.
Practice self-determination and empowerment; provide information and resources, and encourage youth to make informed decisions whenever possible.
Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Everything isn’t going to be okay - so don’t promise it will.
Under promise and over deliver. build trust.
Be cautious when sharing private information with other people.
Okay. I feel like I’m done taking notes unless something really pulls at me. I’m exhausted from this. 30 minutes left.
Every child should have 3-5 safe adults in their life at a minimum.
When the teacher started law school, she said 1/3 of you will be depressed, broken up, or an alcoholic.
I wrote that I’m 10 years sober, and alcohol is really pushed on us and normalized to make us weak and vulnerable.
Safety plans are only as effective as the person’s belief that they’re worthy of safety.
I’ve called the police before to talk about a safety plan that was agreed upon with my partner, and then when they broke the safety plan, it was kinda a relief to report. - only cause I had that data documented.
They have lots more events. These are great and I had no clue this industry was so under-funded and under-supported. I’m grateful for this time.
Holy crap in one of the reports it shows peopel convicted for 2023 for CSEC and it only has 31 peopleelelleleelleelelele. WTF - with 200 people replying in 2 hours. Over 20,000 ads per day. AND ONLY 31 PEOPLE ARRESTED?!?!??!? ahhhhhh.
Until next time, I wish you the motivation and success to search for opportunities around your area. Search and explore: Who is out there giving talks? There are new things happening all of the time.
Find relatable or interesting topics you like and check them out! Maybe even something hosted at a cool venue, if there’s no other reason to go. Let’s see what you can learn and discover not too far from home. 😊
