Transcript – LCWAG Human Trafficking Webinar Part 2
Date: Thu, 06 Aug 2026 14:49:51 GMT, Duration: [01:05:54.33]
[00:00:07.67] – Speaker 1
Good evening. I am Jermaine Brinkley, Chairwoman for the Human Trafficking Component of the Loudoun Commission for Women and Girls. We are glad to have you join us tonight for our roundtable series. The Loudoun Commission for Women and Girls is a nonprofit that is affiliated with the Community Foundation of Loudoun, and northern Fauquier Counties. Loudoun Commission for Women and Girls— excuse me— focuses on educating, collaborating, and empowering Loudoun women and girls on issues that impact their personal safety and professional growth. During part 1 of this series, we had various entities of law enforcement to explain how trafficking exists everywhere and how reporting is so important. in eradicating human trafficking. We had representatives from the Leesburg Police, Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, the Loudoun County U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the Department of Justice. The video of The Law and Our Reality of Human Trafficking is now available at lcwag.org. This evening’s topic, Prevention of Human Trafficking, We All Have a Role will focus on techniques of traffickers, indicators of trafficking, the role social media plays in trafficking, and prevention measures. We hope that at the end of tonight’s roundtable, that as a community, we will know how to recognize a potential trafficking situation and what we can do as a community to eradicate human trafficking. We are operating in webinar mode tonight. Please utilize your chat icon if you are experiencing a problem with the webinar. You may chat me directly. The Q&A box will be open for you to submit your questions. Feel free to chat with the panelists, host, and others during the webinar. The webinar will be recorded. We encourage you to post on Instagram and Snapchat. Recently, Fairfax, along— Fairfax Police, along with other police districts, executed Operation COVID Crackdown. This sting netted the arrest of 30 men with 68 felony charges. So there is certainly a need for us to be informed as a community. Our moderator for tonight is Carla Anderson. Carla is a lifelong resident of Loudoun and has been involved in the community with various local organizations. She is currently a member of Say It Loudoun, the Soapbox for Critical Thinkers and Problem Solvers under the Loudoun Diversity Council. Carla is employed with Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Washington in the Trafficking Victims Assistance Program. Carla will take it from here.
[00:02:56.74] – Speaker 2
Good evening. I want to first introduce Megan Clark. Megan is a case manager at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Megan joined the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2012 as an analyst on the child trafficking team, where she provided specialized technical assistance, analysis, and recovery services on child sex trafficking cases. Now a case manager, she continues to work closely with law enforcement, families, and social services on missing child cases, specifically those that involve child sex trafficking. Megan has 10 years of experience volunteering with organizations that provide direct services to survivors of child sex trafficking and that organize events to educate the public and raise awareness about human trafficking. Here you go, Megan.
[00:03:57.84] – Speaker 3
Hey, can everybody see my screen?
[00:04:00.30] – Speaker 1
Yes.
[00:04:00.81] – Speaker 3
Okay, great. Okay, so let’s see. Sorry, it’s not clicking to the next slide. Oh, there we go. Okay, so the National Center was founded in 1984. It’s founded by John and Reve Walsh, who lost their son Adam Walsh. We’re a nonprofit organization. We’re congressionally funded to operate 15 programs related to both missing and exploited children. We support families, law enforcement, and other professionals to locate missing children and help identify exploited children. Our mission is to find missing children, reduce sexual exploitation, as well as prevent future victimization. I wanted to dispel a few myths before we got started. First of all, Trafficking does not just happen abroad. It happens here in the U.S. It also doesn’t just happen to foreign nationals here in the U.S. It happens to U.S. citizens. All of the cases that we handle here at the National Center are U.S. citizens that are being trafficked within the United States. It is also not like the movie Taken. If I could talk to Liam Neeson and ask him to say one thing, I wish he would, you know, just let everybody know that this is not what happens in reality, that it’s strictly Hollywood. And then it doesn’t— it’s not just children being held in cages. You know, I’ve heard that, that being said before, you know, oh, they’re not being held in a cage, so that’s not trafficking, right? So those are a few myths I just wanted to get out of the way before we got started. Now the federal law defines child trafficking as any child under the age of 18 who is exploited through a commercial sex act. And so that can include exchanging sex for anything of value. So it’s not just money. They can be exchanging sex for food, clothing, drugs, a place to stay. And it doesn’t require movement. The law does not require that force, fraud, or coercion is proven in a child trafficking case. For adults, you do have to prove one of those 3 things, but for child trafficking, that is not the case. NCMEC also operates under the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act. So this is specific to foster care youth, but in 2014, Congress passed a law that required states to develop protocols to quickly locate a missing child and then screen them for reasons why they ran, to include screening them for possible sex trafficking. It also required them to immediately report these missing children to law enforcement, which believe it or not was not always happening, as well as to NCMEC. So we know that this is not just an international problem, that this happens here in the U.S., that it’s not limited to major cities. We’ve seen cases in rural towns, big cities, you know, every state in the nation we have had cases of of child sex trafficking. We know that it’s a national network. We know that they move victims, you know, back and forth. Big highway corridors are places where you will see a lot of trafficking. The 95 corridor, for example, we see, you know, victims taken from D.C. to Baltimore to New York and back again. And this is the case throughout other places in the U.S. as well. And victims are traded and sold to different traffickers. One thing we try to do at NCMEC when we’re talking to the community, to parents, you know, law enforcement, is to change the language and how we’re talking about these kids. A lot of people say, you know, child prostitute or they’re involved in prostitution. But by saying prostitute, we’re placing the blame on the child victim rather than recognizing the perpetrator exists. It’s a very insulting term. There’s a lot of stigma associated with it. It’s also insinuating that the child themselves is making a bad choice, right? And it infers that punishment is needed. So instead, we like to use child sex trafficking victim. This recognizes that by law, you know, the child cannot make the decision to be involved in commercial sex. You know, they cannot developmentally or socially make that decision either. It’s defining what’s happening to the child rather than labeling them. And it identifies them as somebody who needs services, somebody who needs support. And it identifies that a perpetrator exists and calls for a criminal justice response. So I’ll share a little bit of the data we have here at NCMEC. So we have a bunch of different case types here at the National Center, but the majority of our case types that we see here are endangered runaways. And we like to specify that we call them endangered runaways. Some people say they’re just a runaway, but we like to tell people that when this kid is, you know, runs away or is, you know, missing, they’re endangered. Doesn’t matter, you know, they’re 16, 17 years old. So the majority of the cases that we see are in fact endangered runaway cases. In 2019, and keep in mind this is NCMEC-specific data, in 2019 we responded to more than 10,000 cases of child sex trafficking. Boys made up about 6% of the cases that we saw. I think that number is a little bit low. I think in reality there are, you know, more boy victims. Some of the reasons I think we haven’t been able to fully identify all of them is because there’s a lot of stigma in society with, you know, boys coming forward and saying that I’ve been sexually exploited. Additionally, it’s not necessarily a question that we automatically think of when a boy returns, you know, from being missing. With girls, a lot of times we automatically say, okay, are you okay? Were you sexually exploited while you were gone? But with boys, we don’t automatically ask that question. So, you know, this, this percentage is going up because I think we’re doing a better job overall of, you know, asking that question of boys. But I think in reality that percentage is probably a little bit higher. And then 15 is the average age of the child— of a child sex trafficking victim identified at NCMEC. I think that number, again, is a little on the high side. A lot of the federal agencies say, you know, average entry is between 12 and 14 years old. But I think that some of the indicators sometimes are so slight that people don’t always necessarily pick up on them at first. And so, so 15 is the average age that we see at NCMEC. And then the legal guardians of our child sex trafficking cases that we have here, 75% of them are missing from social services. care, and 25, about 25% from families or other guardians. So talk a little bit about the risk factors and indicators. So some of the risk factors that we’ve identified here is, you know, a child who is homeless, they’re, you know, very vulnerable. They are looking for somebody to help, you know, fill their needs. They may not have a stable home, you know, environment. They may need food. that kind of thing. A child who has a history of sexual abuse or assault. A child who is missing or an endangered runaway. A child who has severe substance abuse issues or who has a family who has trafficked them in the past or a family member who may be engaged in prostitution. Children with mental health issues. A child in the child welfare system. You know, we see that a lot. These kids are running because they don’t necessarily necessarily have, you know, somebody, you know, a stable home life, or, you know, they don’t— the traffickers, and I’m sure Erin will get into this later, but the traffickers have a really great way of being able to pick up on these kids’ vulnerabilities and to, you know, exploit, you know, what they’re missing. So if, you know, they’re running away because they don’t, you know, like their caregiver, or they don’t, you know, have a place to stay, they’ll say, well, I’ll provide whatever you don’t have. I’ll give that to you. Right. An unaccompanied child as well is very vulnerable. We see that a lot, you know, with a lot of the kids coming over the border. These traffickers prey on them because they’re already in a vulnerable position. And they say, look, you know, if you don’t do what I, I want you to do, then I’ll just turn you over to law enforcement and, you know, they’ll deport you. So that’s a really easy way for those traffickers to hold control over these kids. So, you know, just being a child in general makes them vulnerable to trafficking. Some of the indicators to look for, and I will preface this with not one indicator on its own is indicative of trafficking. So we’re looking at, you know, a couple of these, 2, 3, 4 of these together to identify somebody as a possible trafficking victim. So history of running away. Coming home with large amounts of cash or hotel keys. I know when I was 13, 14, 15 years old, I didn’t have a credit card to reserve a hotel room or something like that. So they’re coming home with hotel keys and large amounts of cash and they don’t have a job, start asking some more questions there. Tattoos or branding related to money or ownership. I will show you a slide in a second about you know, kind of what that looks like. Gang involvement, especially with our girls. We see that a lot in Northern Virginia is gang involvement. And with the gangs, we don’t always see them as, you know, running away for, you know, overnight. We sometimes see them where there’s only, you know, skipping school here and there or, you know, doing some stuff after school. Signs of current physical abuse. We do know that trafficking is a very violent situation that these kids are in. So if you’re seeing them coming back, they have lots of bruising or lacerations, anything on them, start asking some more questions about that. Travel to other states. And importantly, the presence of a controlling older boyfriend. So either the presence of or communication with somebody who is really controlling over what they say, what they do. Is this something where they’re looking at them before they ask you questions or before they answer your questions? If you see that behavior, definitely start asking more questions. questions about what’s going on. So this is an example of some of the branding that we’ve seen, you know, on traffickers’ profiles or, you know, in some of our cases. Again, just because a child has a tattoo, that does not mean that they are a trafficking victim. Just because they have loyalty on their arm, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a trafficking victim. But the tattoos, in addition to maybe coming home with a lot of cash, that’s something you’re going to want to take a look at. This one in the bottom right corner where it says, Daddy’s property, Rodney. That’s something, you know, on its own that might, you know, raise a lot of red flags or should raise a lot of red flags. And then in addition to, you know, identifying these cases and working on these cases as missing cases, we also work on cases that are not just, you know, a missing child who’s believed to be trafficked. We also take cases where the trafficking is happening and parents have concerns concerns and they can report to our CyberTipLine. And so you can go to cybertipline.org to make any reports about that. After the child is recovered, we do offer, you know, recovery support to victims. We do a lot of trainings regarding how to identify trafficking. And we have an entire analytical team here at NCMEC who can provide support to law enforcement. So if you do, you know, find some information out about a possible trafficker, you can always go onto our website, submit that information, our analysts will take a look at it and send that out to law enforcement for further investigation. So what are the steps that you can do? You know, is to know the indicators for child sex trafficking. Talk to your child and monitor what they’re doing. So open communication is, is really key. Explain the dangers of sex trafficking. I know a lot of times, you know, it’s glamorized, you know, on TV and movies. People use pimp and pimping, you know, in everyday language without actually understanding what all of that means. Talking to them about online safety. And then monitoring, you know, what they’re doing online, who they’re talking to. Don’t be afraid, you know, to ask them what they’re doing and to check in on their profiles. If you do see anything suspicious or things you have concerns about, you know, call law enforcement, or you can always call our hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST. You can call us. Our call center people will always be there to answer questions about it or take a report from you. And you can visit missingkids.org for additional resources, as well as our NetSmartz website. So this is an online safety program for, you know, kids K through 12. It kind of talks not only about different online safety things, but, you know, sextortion and, you know, other things that they might encounter while they’re online. And that is— that’s my presentation. Here’s my contact information if you guys need to get in touch with me. Thank you.
[00:17:58.75] – Speaker 2
Great. Thank you, Megan. For those of us— just to let you know how the program is going to go, we’re going to hear from Erin Fisher from Just Ask Prevention, and then after both of these presentations are finished, we will then begin to take questions from, from the audience or the participants. So you can send— start sending those questions if you’d like into the question-answer area. But now we’re going to hear from Erin Fisher. Leading teacher training and serving as a conference speaker for the Institute for Excellence in Writing, and writing and developing curriculum for Aquinas Learning. She is currently the director of the community engagement for the Just Ask Prevention Project, an active advocate for educating others on human trafficking. Erin is a proud mom of 6 amazing kids and lives in Northern Virginia. Thank you, Erin.
[00:19:21.48] – Speaker 4
Thank you so much. And I’m putting up my screen here. Why did it go away?
[00:19:27.92] – Speaker 2
Here we go.
[00:19:28.79] – Speaker 4
Okay. So first of all, I apologize. I am in my car. It’s usually a little more professional where I am, but I’m in Wyoming. So I had to find a place where I could get Wi-Fi and be able to avoid noise. So I apologize for that part. So what I wanted to talk to you today about is the— is understanding human trafficking and the patterns that traffickers use. And they’re pretty well— they’re pretty consistent among traffickers. So the most common myth that we have is that trafficking is not happening in my community. And if we believe that myth, then we are being complicit with the traffickers because they rely on our ignorance in order to facilitate what they want to get done, in order to contact our children, to use— by especially by internet, to— if we’re not talking with our kids about safety and safety measures and friendships and appropriate relationships with people, that’s something that they rely on. They rely on us not addressing the issues That are very common among human trafficking. So this is the methodology that we see being used very consistently, no matter who is doing the trafficking. We’re going to talk about who the human traffickers are, the main categories. But these are the methods that they use. The first thing that they do is they take time to scout out who they want to target. So they look for middle school age and teens, especially that we’re talking about today, on social media. Any kind of social media site where there can be conversation had, a trafficker is going to be on it. You have to remember that traffickers, for the most part, are very well funded. They can spend hours upon hours upon hours monitoring social media sites, looking for people to connect with. They also use public areas to scout.
[00:21:36.44] – Speaker 1
They look—
[00:21:37.16] – Speaker 4
shopping malls is one common place. Bus stops near schools is another place. They look for body language. They look for how a person holds themselves within a group of people. They also look in— they’re also scouting in schools and through friends. What we’re noticing is this increased pattern of trafficking using other connections. So I’m going to address that when we deal with the types of traffickers. The next thing, once they’ve scouted someone and have a conversation going, then they try to relate to the person. They usually seem too good to be true. They always understand the problems or the— they’re always in agreement with their common interests. They try to be boyfriends or girlfriends to the person that they’d like to traffic. They can buy presents. Again, that idea of watching for a kid coming home with lots of money or extra— an extra cell phone. Those types of things are big red flags because a trafficker is going to want to not only manipulate by their conversation and their understanding and relatability, But they’re also going to want to make that person feel special. And one of the ways is by buying presents. They also will listen and act interested in their lives. But most of all, traffickers are going to lie. And they’re going to lie about whatever they need to in order to manipulate the person or the teen into this trafficking situation. Once they’ve looked at the entire situation and they’ve most likely captured a vulnerability of that person, they’re going to trap the victim. Traffickers will trick and control young people into staying in the lifetime either by using threats of violence or threats of, as Megan said, reporting them to law enforcement or to immigration. They could give them false, false lies and promises of love. We’ve had a number of cases where a boyfriend and a girlfriend will plan a getaway weekend and the trafficker gets to the place where they’re supposed to spend their time and they suddenly don’t have their money or their wallet with them. And they will use that to start the idea of trafficking or just having sex with someone to get some money in order to pay for the hotel or the food or the gas. They can trap by using drugs as well, or any other kind of addictive method. Some of these methods— the targets that I’m going to talk about here for a second, Megan covered, but the traffickers are going to look for— these are the vulnerabilities: the lack of a sense of belonging to others, kids that don’t feel respected or valued by family members. They base their popular— their self-worth on popularity or relationships. They’re willing to keep secrets, including relationships with others. They don’t have good relationships with their parents, or they’re looking for a boyfriend or girlfriend. Oftentimes the traffickers are going to look for people who are bored and don’t have a whole lot to do and just want to hang out. And that’s how that scouting and manipulation, those phases start. They spend a lot of time away from home or away from family and friends in particular. And they’re willing to be a little— they’re a little more vulnerable because they’re easily manipulated. They take directions, they believe lies and promises that somebody tells them, and they may need safety or money to survive. So the types of traffickers that we see most commonly are the boyfriend-girlfriend, gangs, employers, and families. So let’s look at each one of these a little bit. Remember that these traffickers can come from all parts of society. They can be from any race, gender, or socioeconomic group. Remember, their, their, their well-being is going to be on finding the perfect product to continue this trafficking, which is a $150 billion enterprise worldwide. And in the United States, States, it is about a $50 billion industry just for sex trafficking. The boyfriend-girlfriend trafficker is going to be someone who’s a little bit older than the person being trafficked, and they pretend to be a boyfriend or girlfriend to the teen. These boyfriend-girlfriend relationships can be started as maybe someone who is being introduced to them by someone else, by a friend. They could be people that they meet at school or at work. We had a case in Loudoun County of a girl who was 17, had her first job at a mall, and met a boy who told her he was going to community college at the time, so he wasn’t much older than her. And they started a relationship and they dated for what she She considered dating for about 6 months until the boy came to her with a problem that he didn’t have the money to pay his rent and he needed her help. And she knew that because her parents were involved in her finances and knew what was in her bank account, that she really couldn’t help him. And he made the suggestion of sleeping with one of his friends in order to make some money, and it would be a one-time thing. And the girl asked to wait and consider the thing, give her a night to consider. And the next day at school, she was in a family life class that the Loudoun County Schools give the— losing the exact terminology, but the family life class was talking about healthy relationships and human trafficking prevention. And she recognized the fact that she was being trafficked and that her boyfriend was trying to get her into a situation that was potentially going to lead to other trafficking situations. And she reported it to her mother, who took her to the police. And the so-called boyfriend was then prosecuted, actually, in Virginia for trafficking. We also know that gangs play a big part in trafficking. Criminal gangs will make associations with a less threatening appearance They’re not all the— they’re not the ones that necessarily look like the part of a gangster. And those are the types that we’re finding more in schools. They are being recruited into gangs in order to find victims of trafficking. Fake employers are also people who will lure victims into sex and labor trafficking with promises of maybe modeling or glamorous careers. And family members, unfortunately, are now among the most common traffickers when it comes to what we call survival trafficking is what the label would be given. It would be trafficking out one of their children in order to pay rent or to facilitate a drug habit that they have. The most— the other type of trafficker under the federal law is the buyer. And the buyers are most commonly middle class, middle to upper class white males who are married with children and active members of their community, of their faith community. And we know that if there was not a demand, there would be no need to victimize and exploit people. So the need and the willingness to be able to speak up to friends and family about the problem of trafficking, especially in the Northern Virginia area, is critical because we are talking to other parents who could be buyers. And it’s, it’s very common, especially in our area, for buyers to be completely unaware that they are involved in human trafficking if they are seeking out what they would consider sex for money, a prostitution-type relationship. It’s important now, especially with the COVID situation, that we are especially aware of what our children are doing online. We know that traffickers are on social media sites, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and they are on gaming formats. So those types of formats need to be monitored very carefully. So know who your children is talk— children are talking to online, because— and make sure that they understand that not everyone is who they say they are. It’s a hard concept for a kid to really take into, to take seriously when they’re being spoken to in such kind ways. Also make sure that they’re limited to their time online. It’s really easy for a trafficker’s words to get into a kid’s head and to really, those manipulative lies that they’re using to really sway them to want to spend more time in chat-type situations. There are tools like Bark that monitor your child’s accounts. I had the privilege of speaking with the chief parental officer of Bark last month, who explained basically how the Bark monitoring system worked. And we certainly aren’t giving them a— you know, we haven’t— we have no relationship at Just Ask with Bark. But they are the type of tool that monitors certain words or pictures that might come up in an account on a child’s online platform, and they report it then to the parent. Another recommendation that has been made by many, many law enforcement agencies that we’ve worked with is to turn off the internet at night or make sure that your kids turn in their phones. Talk about the dangers about gaming and getting into private chat rooms or where they’re— or things that the child is doing online. Make sure that you— that they understand that everything that they’re posting is available to everyone. There’s never true privacy on the internet.
[00:32:10.38] – Speaker 2
And that is—
[00:32:11.08] – Speaker 4
that’s basically all that I had prepared for today, but I’m happy to take any kind of questions on traffickers and what we can do online to prevent them.
[00:32:23.50] – Speaker 2
Okay, great. Thank you both. Just to piggyback off of what you were saying, Erin, with regard to Bark for the parents that could go out and monitor the technology, Megan, isn’t there some sort of technology that you all may use, I think, to identify hotel rooms when pictures are posted?
[00:32:47.18] – Speaker 3
Yeah, so there is an app that people can download on their phones and it’s called Traffick Cam. So it’s spelled Traffick regularly with a K. So it’s a CK at the end of Traffick and then Cam, C-A-M. And when you download this app, when you go travel to different various hotels and that kind of thing, you can actually take pictures of the hotel rooms that you’re in and upload it to this app. And what that does is it helps us identify hotel rooms that these kids may be in. So when they’re posting ads online, like escort ads online, we can use the TrafficCam app to see, okay, we see a blue comforter with a red wall and, you know, this other kind of chair in the background. And we can look in that particular city and upload, you know, that picture and say, oh yeah, it’s a match for this particular hotel on this street. And that is something that’s Critical in terms of us giving that to law enforcement and having them be able to respond really quickly rather than saying, oh, we know they’re in St. Louis, maybe on the south side of St. Louis, and there’s a blue bedspread. So, so that technology has been super helpful to us.
[00:33:56.69] – Speaker 2
Right, great. And Erin, so, and is Bark, is Bark available on desktops and mobile devices, or how can the parents access it?
[00:34:06.08] – Speaker 4
Yeah, it is available on both. So if you go to the app, is probably the easiest way, is just to type in Bark, B-A-R-K. That was something that— that’s one way to get a hold of them. Otherwise, Bark, I think it’s bark.us. It’s not .com, if I remember correctly. But yeah, that was something. And there were a number of parents at the Loudoun County Public School meeting that we had presented at in the fall of last year that had also recommended looking into that. I know that the school system itself uses Bark for monitoring their own school computers, but one of the things that we don’t think of as a parent is that even though our kids are being— we may be monitoring our kids, they can go to a friend’s house and get online and not be monitored the same way that they’re monitored. So the kids will know how to get around things. So speaking to them about the importance of online safety and not trusting everybody you meet is even more important than having that little peace on your— I mean, the peace of mind of getting Bark or any other kind of application. Those should always go in conjunction. with open dialogue and lots and lots of really honest talking, especially around those middle school and teen years. It’s sad. One of the things she did say to me, the, the one from Barks, said— I’d asked her what her— what she was most surprised about. Now I’m in my late 40s, my kids are in their 20s and late teens. She said what she was most surprised about was that the new first base is now sexting. And that the sexting is happening in 5th and 6th grade on average. And that that’s the way that things, relationships get started. They don’t have to meet each other.
[00:36:06.38] – Speaker 1
Right.
[00:36:06.69] – Speaker 4
But they’re able to, the traffickers or just even other boys or girls are able to manipulate and talk these kids into sending inappropriate pictures to each other. So I found that— I mean, I don’t feel like I’m that old, but I was shocked that that was what they were— what she was talking about when we discussed the common threads that we’re finding online.
[00:36:31.92] – Speaker 2
Right. Exactly. And when we talk about common threads, and either Erin or Megan, you can address this, many times people want to like pigeonhole trafficking into trafficking. But sometimes child pornography, domestic violence, any of those can be in that gray area and eventually either may be part of trafficking. Because as we know, many traffickers don’t know they’re traffic victims until after the fact. So can you speak to that a little bit?
[00:37:09.01] – Speaker 3
Sure. So, yeah, so we do see a lot of crossover between, you know, domestic violence, You know, child pornography, and even like, you know, online enticement cases as well. So we know that they’re meeting them online. A lot of the ads that are getting put up, you know, have become more and more graphic. So, you know, the images that are being put up of these kids, you know, are not just ones where they’re covered up. You know, they’re very, very graphic photos that are being posted of these kids. And sometimes they’re also using sextortion. You know, the traffickers are using that as a way, saying, okay, they take these pictures of them or the kids send them the pictures and they say, okay, well, if you don’t do X for me, then I’m going to make sure that your family sees that you took these photos. So, so that is definitely something we’re seeing. And then on the domestic violence side of it, you know, as I mentioned before, they’re oftentimes in really violent situations with these traffickers. And so sometimes, you know, they may not have exchanged, you know, sex for money in particular, but they might have been getting to that point. And when police are called, sometimes there’s, you know, some confusion about what’s actually happening there. And a lot of times it presents itself as domestic violence when in fact it is trafficking.
[00:38:23.36] – Speaker 2
Right. So can you walk us through that, Megan? Like, for example, if a parent perhaps may think their child is spending the night at a friend’s house and then through after a couple of hours they realize that that child might not be there and they have consider that person missing, what should they do? Should they call you guys first? Should they call law enforcement first? Walk our parents through that process.
[00:38:49.76] – Speaker 3
Right, so we will always tell you, as soon as you believe that your child is missing, call law enforcement. That is the first number that you need to call. Call 911, make a missing persons report, and then when you’re done with that, you can call our 1-800 number. We have, we operate 24 hours a day, So call that 1-800 number, report them missing to us as well. We will, you know, get some posters out there for them. We’re going to coordinate with you, with law enforcement, you know, to make sure that we can, you know, put every resource into helping find the child.
[00:39:25.48] – Speaker 2
Right. Okay. And this one goes to Meagan and Erin. What is, for each of you, and you can take your turns, what is the one message That I know for me, Erin, you, you hit it right on the beginning, is that it is happening in our— in your neighborhood. It’s like there is no neighborhood that’s exempt. But what is the one message that either of you can say, not say too many times, to our parents to, to just be aware or to drive it home to them that it could be happening?
[00:40:01.78] – Speaker 4
So for me, I— there is— there’s a need for parents to just make that awkward conversation a regular touch base point.
[00:40:14.63] – Speaker 1
It—
[00:40:14.94] – Speaker 4
you need to build— for a child to feel safe in their own home and to be able to come to a parent with a situation as horrific as a trafficking type of situation or an abusive type of situation. whether it be for themselves or their friends, is a very difficult thing to do. And they have to know that they can come to— that their house is a safe place, that they can come to their parents and tell them what’s going on. We always recommend this idea of the 3 to succeed, where you have 3 trusted adults in your life that you can go to and tell them anything, and it’s not going to be a judgment call. You are going to have that Respect for what the child is telling you, and then the comfort of knowing— for the comfort for the child to know that you’ve got somebody who will be there to help you. So many of these kids feel like they can’t talk to their parents, or they’re so ashamed that they sent that one inappropriate picture. And now it’s being sent all over and it’s being used to extort them to do horrible things, we love them. They don’t understand that we love them so much more than the hurt that that’s going to cause. There’s nothing we wouldn’t do to help them. And I think that’s the one takeaway is just have the hard, awkward— it’s very awkward. It’s an awkward conversation and it’s a horribly sad and scary conversation. But if you can do it in a way that makes them feel that they’re safe in your home and with you as a parent and, you know, maybe 2 other people either in the family or that you’re close friends with that they can also go to and say, this is what’s happening. That’s what I would say is the big takeaway.
[00:42:03.40] – Speaker 2
Right. And Megan?
[00:42:05.48] – Speaker 3
To piggyback off what Erin was saying, you know, just make sure that open communication is there and also just you know, keep yourself educated on what’s going on and what they’re using. Because I can’t tell you how many times I talked to parents on the phone when their kid goes missing and is involved in trafficking. And they say, you know, not my kid, you know, I know they would have never done that. You know, there’s no way they would have, you know, they didn’t have a secret cell phone, or they didn’t have— they would never have set up a separate Facebook page that’s not under their real name. So just, you know, be aware of what your kids are doing and have that open line of communication. Because like I said, so many times I hear, I didn’t think my kid would do that, or, you know, there’s no way, I had no indication that this was going to happen.
[00:42:49.76] – Speaker 2
Right. I know we do have one person that wrote in and talked about how we need to have, like, pretty much a PR campaign on trafficking in our malls, in our restrooms, and things like that. And I can say from my point of view, the one thing is trying to find media and posters that change, that have a different narrative, because the many posters that you see, they have the scary hand up, and that’s not what trafficking looks like, and therefore you’re not going to pay attention. But to that writer, at the Trafficking Victims Assistance Program, we, in our outreach, we do— a large part of our work is going to hospitals, doctors’ offices, and different food kitchens and things like that to let people know what potential— a potential victim looks like. We also have very small hand sanitizers with the hotline number on them so that it’s something that fits in the palm of their hand that they can walk away with and be able to call if they need to. And at the end of this, we do have resources that if people want to take down the National Trafficking Hotline, is an excellent resource because they’re like NCMEC. They’re open all the time. You can text them if you can’t call. You can, you can do quite a few, quite a few things. So just, you know, it’s, it’s a— I’m almost pleasantly surprised and happy that the conversation’s being had a lot more. But before, trafficking used to be this little niche of a crime and no one thought that it affected them. So you all can piggyback on that. But I mean, from our— I know Erin, you guys deal in prevention. Megan, you all help on that end with the victims also and searching. And we try to do the prevention, but we do more of trying to identify the victim, and then we get them resources. So we have all those avenues here.
[00:45:03.50] – Speaker 4
I think one of the things that Megan had mentioned that was so important was changing that language because so many people still believe that someone involved in a sex-for-money transaction is a prostitute. And that’s wrong. It’s wrong when it’s—
[00:45:21.17] – Speaker 2
Right.
[00:45:21.57] – Speaker 4
It’s wrong all the time when it’s a juvenile, but it’s wrong in most of the cases where there’s an adult involved. So we have to really get that message out there that it is It is not the same ideas that we grew up thinking they were. That it is not prostitution in most cases.
[00:45:44.82] – Speaker 2
I’m sorry, we do have a question that came in. And Erin, I think we earlier, before we went on, we talked about this. The question is, isn’t it a characteristic of teens not to share regardless of how close to their parents to— are and to— or to feel safe?
[00:46:01.69] – Speaker 4
Given this age group to—
[00:46:04.59] – Speaker 2
given this age group to become independent, it seems counterintuitive. And that is a very fine line, but you know, I think when you have a teen and they’re— or even preteen or just a child and they’re really mad at their parents and they go in their room and, you know, we think that they’re cooling down, but can you Explain kind of how it’s important to have that conversation because what that trafficking conversation might sound like after the teen’s gone in their room and they’re angry?
[00:46:38.53] – Speaker 4
Sure. A trafficker is going to know what to say and respond. Oh my gosh, I totally understand. You know, my parent was so overbearing and I wish I would have just like got away more often and I wish that, you know, these are the things I would have done if I could do it over again. And that type of manipulation and thinking, putting those ideas in, the idea that I’ll help you facilitate that. Or, you know what would be really nice is just imagine you and I like snuggled up on the sofa watching a movie and how nice that would feel. And that’s how those little seeds start getting planted. I mean, it’s not like boom, they go from zero They go from 0 to 100. That’s not how they work. They will take their time and think, what would you think if you and I were together? It would feel so much better than if you were with your parent. Carly, you had sent me an article that had come out just recently about a girl in Loudoun County who was being manipulated by someone who was 27 years old. in New Jersey.
[00:47:49.13] – Speaker 1
Right.
[00:47:49.61] – Speaker 4
And he certainly was creating a relationship with the kid. And again, they’re going to use whatever vulnerability that they can find and they’ll play it off that they completely understand and would do anything to get them out of that situation. So in dovetailing off of that, again, you said, I understand. I don’t know. My father was a police officer. There were very few things I wanted to have to admit to him. Because I knew how upset he would be. And that—
[00:48:21.44] – Speaker 1
and it’s—
[00:48:22.09] – Speaker 4
and there’s shame involved in a lot of things that kids can get involved with, and it’s understandable. They don’t want their parents to be disappointed in them. But that idea of making sure you talk to your kids about having other people in their life that they can go to that are adults that are trusted. I did want to just— we, we talked a little bit about social services, and I noticed a few things popping up here. Forgive me for not knowing 100%. I know that legislation that was passed in Virginia in February before COVID they passed the General Assembly, allowed for social services workers to be able to go in and make reports without having to bring law enforcement in first. So if social services— and this I would assume goes to school counselors too— if they understand that there’s a problem, they can make the report.
[00:49:11.01] – Speaker 5
Right.
[00:49:12.42] – Speaker 4
the potential report with human trafficking or the potential of having some sort of abuse going on, they, they are now considered to be trusted officials in reporting. So for some kids, that’s another option of if you’re in fostering situation, you have that, that social worker that’s assigned to you, you can definitely go to them as well. They can be a trusted adult and kind of not circumvent law enforcement, but definitely get the ball rolling sooner.
[00:49:40.38] – Speaker 2
Exactly.
[00:49:41.65] – Speaker 4
I believe the governor has signed off on it, but everything’s been about COVID that I haven’t really heard any follow-up on that.
[00:49:50.42] – Speaker 2
Right. And I know when we— and we are a service organization, and we are not— the only time that we are required to really, really report is if it’s something— first of all, our first instance is to take care of the needs of the victim. And then we just, after a lot, a little bit of work, we determine if it’s still active and that sort of thing. But law enforcement is not the first call that we make. So we have another question, and I’m sorry, I lost it. It was, what partnerships, if any, do either of your groups have with, with social services?
[00:50:36.15] – Speaker 3
So our— the majority of our partnership with social services is, you know, more the reporting mechanism and working with them throughout the life of a case. So, you know, when a child goes missing, social services, given the law that I showed you earlier, is mandated by law now to report all of their missing kids to the National Center. So we work with them through the life of the case, and then after a child is recovered, covered, we continue to follow up with them, you know, especially if there’s trafficking involved, to say, okay, we know that these victims don’t disclose right away. They don’t come back and say, hey, I was trafficked. So, you know, we follow up with them later down the line to say, hey, okay, now that it’s been 6 weeks, now that it’s been, you know, a month and a half, you know, however long, you know, have they, you know, disclosed anything? Is there anything that we can do, any additional resources we can apply to this case, even if they’re not missing, you know, to make sure that they get the services they need. And if there’s an ongoing investigation, what can we do to assist law enforcement with our analysts and that kind of thing to make sure that the case, you know, moves forward?
[00:51:41.86] – Speaker 2
Well, great.
[00:51:43.38] – Speaker 5
Just Ask—
[00:51:43.59] – Speaker 1
oh, sorry.
[00:51:44.13] – Speaker 4
Just real quick. Just Ask offers certified training for people who are involved in social services. So just last week, I did a training for a group who had been given a grant for bringing in children who were being fostered. There were kids who were coming from New Mexico and Arizona from ICE, and they were being fostered up in the Northern Virginia area. So we gave a training as to what to, you know, what to look for, how to handle the situations that may or may not come up, and what trafficking was. So we do a lot of prevention in education, and it involves trainings for adults and for kids and for communities. So that, that’s our piece that are of involvement.
[00:52:34.40] – Speaker 2
Okay. And we do have time for one last question. It’s, once you identify a victim, can you speak a little about how you approach that victim as a victim? Often there’s a loyalty to the trafficker and they don’t see themselves as They don’t see themselves as victims. What resources or approaches do you use to help the victims come to terms with the fact that they are indeed a victim?
[00:53:02.25] – Speaker 4
I’ll just say from our— from Just Ask’s position that we are, because we’re on the preventative side, a lot of times we do not deal with the— once the trafficked victim is rescued. But I do know that it generally takes about 7 times on average for a victim to finally come for help and stay for help. A lot of times they will escape whatever safety they have and go back to the trafficker because they know nothing else and they’re terrified. They’re terrified of the violence and the manipulation that has been done on them for for as long as they’ve been trafficked. So I’ll let Megan talk a little bit more about what you guys do.
[00:53:49.40] – Speaker 3
So, you know, we, we have some stuff that we do to kind of prepare ahead of time. Like you were saying, there are, you know, these— our kids run a lot. You know, they get recovered, they run, they get recovered, they run. But one of the main things that we try to do during the, you know, when the kid is gone and before they get recovered is to work with parents and work with social services to say, what is our recovery plan? plan look like? You know, I know we’re focused right now on trying to find the child, but setting up the right services and making sure the placement is correct and, you know, very victim-centered. We want to make sure that is in place because that is going to increase the chances that the child will stay this time, that the child will eventually disclose and, you know, self-identify eventually, you know, as a victim. So that’s kind of what we do is really try to stress that a recovery plan and, you know, all the services being set up prior to the child being recovered is extremely important to their recovery.
[00:54:49.23] – Speaker 2
Okay, great. So I don’t see any more questions. I do know that it would— that if we could let people know again how to reach you guys. I know some of the main— Just Ask is very prevalent, and Loudoun NCMIC is great for for a resource. And of course, our National Trafficking Hotline is, is like imperative because even if you don’t know if someone is a victim and you make that call, they will take it from there and try to get— figure out if that person needs help, get them help, and that sort of thing. So that’s always like neat. And as I mentioned, they have— if you can’t talk on the phone, you can text them. You can do a number of things. And they will send help your way.
[00:55:41.71] – Speaker 4
If anybody is interested in having what we call a community conversation, which is a general overview of human trafficking for— in the— especially particular to the Northern Virginia area, but we offer online. Now we’re doing all Zoom meeting conversations for different parts of the country. We are more than welcome at Just Ask to do an informational. It’s about 1 hour, and we hold it through RingCentral meetings. And you just need to contact me. It’s my email, erin@justaskprevention.org. And that would be a wonderful way to help your community understand the realization of what’s going on, and we will tailor our conversation to wherever you need the presentation where your audience is primarily going to be from.
[00:56:36.96] – Speaker 2
Oh, okay. And before you— we did get— we do have a couple of questions still coming in, so we’re not going to wrap up this quickly. Sorry. And we have someone that says, are there duplicity of services between social services and nonprofits, and is there room for collaborative opportunities? And I can actually say yes, but I’ll let you guys answer that.
[00:57:04.84] – Speaker 3
Yeah, so I mean, we are willing to partner, you know, with different organizations and, you know, with social services. Our Family Advocacy Division at NCMHC, they actually do a lot, and they’re the ones who actually come up with the recovery plans, and they do a lot of, you know, they also help with trainings and some other things. So I know they work with pretty closely with social services and, you know, partnering with them. So that is definitely something that, you know, we could talk about. Feel free to email me if you have any additional questions, or you can always go to missingkids.org and look at the different resources we have there and, you know, maybe come up with different ideas on how you would like to partner with us.
[00:57:44.23] – Speaker 4
Yeah, and we do the same thing. We’re more than happy to partner with other organizations A lot of times it has— we’re partnering with organizations who are putting on conferences and so forth, and we deal with the educational piece. But we also work a lot with school districts to help to present to parents the awareness that they need to know that trafficking is something that is happening in our schools everywhere and online, and how to protect their children. And there’s also law enforcement we partner with and so forth. trainings and so forth. So yeah, we’re happy to work with whomever needs the help.
[00:58:22.65] – Speaker 1
Okay.
[00:58:23.07] – Speaker 2
And I know we did have one question on if we knew how many— what the average number of cases were in Loudoun. And I know I don’t have that number. And when we— in part 1, they— it seemed a little small. But you— I don’t know if you all have that. But Those numbers, I mean, as far as 2019, do you all have an idea about Loudoun?
[00:58:48.61] – Speaker 4
The only numbers that I am fairly sure on are— is Fairfax, which is fairly relevant. So of the cases reported to the human trafficking hotline, 10% came from Fairfax County. I believe that was a 2018 statistic. So that kind of gives you an idea as to, you know, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William. I mean, we’re all kind of in that same group.
[00:59:17.59] – Speaker 2
Right.
[00:59:18.28] – Speaker 4
And again, the belief that the— still the idea is, and Megan, correct me if this has changed, is that it’s really only 3 to 5% of cases are actually reported. And of those, so you know that it is a completely underreported crime and that there’s many more victims that are out there that we don’t know about because they may not realize that they’re being trafficked or they— or people may not identify it as being human trafficking.
[00:59:46.32] – Speaker 2
And that’s— and I can say, and that’s human trafficking from the sex trafficking aspect. There is labor trafficking, which is a whole nother number that, that is very, very much On the, on the uptick.
[01:00:02.76] – Speaker 4
Yes, very much so. And, and kids are susceptible to the labor trafficking as well. I was just having a conversation with somebody about these. She was— she had 3 kids come up to her door and they were selling things that were very random, and they were part of— they had a card, they were part of an organization And she immediately called the trafficking hotline because she had been familiar with them through a volunteer process and said, this just doesn’t seem right. And there are people that would exploit kids without even blinking an eye. And those types of employers are doing it with the youngest of the kids that think that they’re going to make tons of money and they end up turning around with nothing at the end.
[01:00:50.73] – Speaker 1
Right.
[01:00:50.86] – Speaker 4
So yeah. Labor trafficking happens too.
[01:00:57.32] – Speaker 1
Yes.
[01:00:57.65] – Speaker 2
So I think, I think that we— if in our chat, they— both Megan and Erin’s email is listed for anyone that might want to contact them directly. I thank you both for such an informational, like, blast of great And I think now we’re going to turn it over to Angela for closing remarks. Oh, I’m sorry, Jermaine, because you have the list of resources that folks can also take down.
[01:01:34.23] – Speaker 1
Yes. Okay, so I have, um, put up before you—
[01:01:56.88] – Speaker 4
Share screen.
[01:02:09.71] – Speaker 1
Okay, so here is the— they’re going to scroll through so you’ll have the opportunity to record the different resources that are available. We have Catholic Charities, Just Ask, the National Human Trafficking Hotline number. And then we have NOVA HTI Safe Center. That’s with the University of Maryland. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and their hotline is there as well. That is a 24-hour hotline, as well as the National Human Trafficking.
[01:02:50.07] – Speaker 2
And Jermaine, if you could go back, because as I mentioned with the National Trafficking Hotline, they do have the text information there also in case someone can’t can’t call, they can also text information, and there are always people there. You know, there’s like— so there’s a chat line, there’s a text number, and if you can’t remember all the numbers, it’s BeFree, and— or you can call that hotline.
[01:03:23.34] – Speaker 4
I—
[01:03:24.82] – Speaker 2
we get a number of calls from there daily.
[01:03:42.73] – Speaker 1
referrals. So, wow, so much information tonight, a wealth of information. I just want to say thank you on behalf of the Loudoun Commission on Women and Girls I would like to express my appreciation for— to all the participants for taking out time to join us tonight to learn of ways to prevent human trafficking. To our distinguished panelists, Erin and Megan, thank you for your— for sharing your experience and your expertise on the prevention of human trafficking. Let us all go away from here with one mind, that the best way to eradicate human trafficking is to say something if we suspect it and to know the signs of human trafficking. Don’t be afraid to report. Even if you report and it’s unfounded, at least you took the time to report just in case it is. Working together as a unified community will move closer to the eradication of human trafficking. So I thank you for your participation, and I do hope that you’ve learned something, something tonight.
[01:04:43.61] – Speaker 5
Thank you.
[01:04:43.82] – Speaker 1
that can help you protect your family, your friends, and your loved ones. So I’ll pass it on to Angela, our distinguished chairwoman.
[01:04:52.98] – Speaker 5
Thank you, Jermaine. Just want to thank all of you all for participating tonight. I especially want to thank Carla, our moderator. Also Megan and Erin, thank you for taking your time to give us this information. You know, the Loudoun Commission on Women and Girls, we’re very focused on educating, collaborating, and empowering women and girls in Loudoun, and you just helped us achieve our strategic intent again tonight with this wonderful, wonderful wealth of information. Just for everyone on the call, we are planning to have additional sessions this summer, and some of those great topics we’ll be talking about— domestic and sexual violence and child abuse. So look for that information on our website, and the recording of this session will be posted within a week. I thank you all again and stay healthy. Good night.
[01:05:44.11] – Speaker 1
Thank you.
[01:05:44.92] – Speaker 4
Good night.
[01:05:46.28] – Speaker 1
Thank you.
