Child sex trafficking in America | Nacole | TEDxRainier

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so like Elizabeth said I'm Nicole and I'm here today to talk about what I consider one of the most incredible human rights issues of our time child sex trafficking a form of modern-day slavery I'll start by telling you just a little bit about my family and our background my husband Tom and I have been married for 20 years we have four children and three grandchildren three years ago our youngest was 15 it was her freshman year of high school her grades were fine and she was doing incredible in sports she played the violin you know now things weren't perfect like in every household her older brother gone off to college and there were other changes at home and at school affecting her which seemed to us have produced the normal teenage drama nothing we couldn't handle as a family but then our world turned upside down she was gone she had run away from home left a note with a friend it didn't explain much it said that she loved us but she needed to go find herself so we reported her missing and of course we started hunting for clues we turned her room upside down and under her mattress we found a report card and she'd written on it sorry to disappoint you dad she'd gotten a D I can't tell you what those words did to Tom but he took care of me because he could tell I was terrified he says look she's thinking like a child she'll come home in a few days it will be so happy to see her that I'll be forgiven you'll see she's hiding with a friend I could see that he was just as worried as I was ten days later we got a call she'd gone up to a police officer and reported that she was a runaway she was still in the patrol car and I raced to meet them when I got there I could see the physical changes her hair was cut in colored her nails were done she had new clothes she didn't look like herself and all I could think was get her home but then on the drive back I couldn't believe what she started telling me my baby had been held captive she'd been raped and she'd been sold sold for sex and I thought this is something that happens here in our own backyard you know you hear the stories about overseas but not here sorry so we got her home and we took her to the hospital and at the hospital they examined her and that was pretty much it gave us some pamphlets and sent us on our way I called the local detective that was handling her missing-persons case and he wanted to talk to her but she didn't want to talk to anyone when he he just never called back I'd like to tell you that according to the Department of Justice human trafficking is the second fastest growing criminal enterprise and currently there are as many as 300,000 children in the US alone that could fall victim to this and the range of victims across all social and economic boundaries well after we got her home and she didn't want to talk to anyone we decided okay she needs to feel safe we'll just wipe this under the rug and do the best we can to survive give her back her normal life but that was a mistake we were on our own we didn't know three months later we were watching the news and I looked over at my husband and there was a report of a missing seven-year-old on that news and we were both crying so grateful that our daughter was home and such compassion for that family that was a fleeting feeling however because within an hour we would realize that she was gone again no note this time she'd just neatly stacked her schoolbooks on her bed and on top she placed the cross that she'd been wearing since the day she returned she'd been lured away this time by a girl that she had met out on the streets and soon she ended up in the hands of a very evil man what's in 36 hours he had posted an advertisement for my daughter on a website called backpage.com we'd find out later but for 47 days there was no word I remember I used to get up suddenly and I'd start searching the closets it was convinced I would just hide find her hiding somewhere there was this crazy hope Thomas since told me that he did the same thing but for 47 days there was no word it's an endless nightmare the Sun comes up each day as if nothing is wrong and you wonder why the world hasn't stopped on day 47 she called me to wish me a happy birthday I pleaded with her to come home and over and over again she said she couldn't and then she hung up meanwhile tom was going out nights looking places I didn't want to think about handing Flyers to anyone that would listen and then he'd come home and he'd start checking the web sites places they'd put children up for sale there's hundreds of them online right now let me tell you just a little bit about back page three years ago when this happened to my daughter they were making 17 million dollars a year off their escort services at about the same time Craigslist shut down their escort services and now back pages profits have shot up to about 38 million dollars this is the web site where my 15 year old daughter was sold as the weekend special and thousands of others are sold each year and they've been asked by every Attorney General in the United States clergy from around the u.s. are local elected officials and many others to stop the sale of children and each time their response is the same we're protected under a federal law and we do self screening to protect children I'm here to tell you that if one child is sold it is one too many after a hundred and eight days my daughter was arrested along with the man that had been selling her and she was so angry at everyone except for him and I knew right away we were going to need professional help you see the child that leaves isn't the child you get back and we had already made this mistake once and we weren't going to make it again but help found us Noel from the bridge program at youth care was there she met with our daughter in juvy and she's been there ever since there was going to be a trial and she was going to have to testify and with lots of counseling and help from what I call her posse a vice detective a prosecutor Noel and the love and support of her family she slowly started to get used to the idea now let me tell you a little bit about why it's so important to have trained first responders not too long ago my husband and I were talking to a lieutenant of a police office here in the local area where she had been held for six hours on suspicion of prostitution but they couldn't prove her identity and they let her go right back into the hands of the pimp that had her and when we confronted them about this and we're asking the lieutenant looks at us and goes well these girls lie big boobs in a pretty face we didn't know this is why it's so important that our first responders are trained so that they can tell the signs of what a victim looks like because my daughter was beaten and she was coerced and she was lied to you see everything was different this time because we did have those professionals and they cared the vice detective I talked about he calls my daughter to this day to make sure she's doing okay three years later he calls my family and he's a support and when it came time for her to testify man was she strong stronger than I was and I'm happy to report that this man was convicted and sentenced to 26 and a half years meanwhile in the bridge program she was able to be with girls that had experienced what she had she wasn't alone the staff didn't judge or pity her they didn't treat her as damaged and I watched this happen in the care of these good people my daughter came back I'd like you to know that there are about a hundred and fifty beds across the u.s. that specialize in the care of these victims and that just isn't enough in the last three years I'd like to say that the Seattle area has become a for a fighter on the forefront of this issue Mayor Mike McGann has formed a coalition of Mayors the attorney general's office under Rob McKenna formed the pillars of hope and the Washington State legislation has passed several laws that enhance sentences and protect these victims we're fortunate in this area to have several different organizations that help support these victims and their families I've mentioned the bridge program at youth care I mentioned Noelle who now runs ops it's for survivors and stolen youth provides money to these services for wraparound care for the families and their and the children of these victims we need to work together to change the law that protects this website it's section 230 of the immunities communication Decency Act Congress passed this statute in order to protect websites from third-party postings however I feel that some courts have misinterpreted it to give immunity to back page so that pimps can prop can promote their prostitutes even their underage prostitutes on a massive scale my hope here today is to change your perspective if this can happen to my family it could happen to yours these children need a voice and you have to be it we need to work together to support these victim and to make sure that there's not one more child sold thank you you

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Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 113,410

Rating: 4.9117646 out of 5

Keywords: ted talks, tedx, tedx talks, tedx talk, English Language (Human Language), ted, Human Trafficking (Crime Type), ted talk, TEDx, TEDxRainier, Seattle (City/Town/Village), ted x, United States Of America (Country)

Id: C7EbFtg8ALk

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Length: 12min 21sec (741 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 22 2014

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