Sex tourism targeting US minors

At Lois' Lodge we have served many girls over the past several years, who have surprised and shocked their families. These girls are intelligent and well-liked – raised in a strong Christian family. Oftentimes they are heading towards graduating high school with excellent grades. They run away with their boyfriends. Not just any guy, mind you, but a grown man, who may even already be wanted on charges relating to prostitution and physical assault on a child. These girls leave by their own choice. They are gone for days or even weeks fleeing their parents, their church and the police before finally turning themselves in. Ultimately they are brought to our setting, pregnant, because their families are not able to control them and to keep them away from negative environments and influences. All of us need to stay alert in order to protect our children from predators.

I have worked with teenagers and their parents for many years and have raised my own two teenagers, with my own share of challenges. There is very little I haven’t seen in the way of teenage rebellion. Substance abuse. School expulsions. Runaways. Disrespect. Car accidents. Peer pressure sexually transmitted disease, pregnancy.... The list goes on. Please know that I and the staff at Lois' Lodge are available to you. Contact us if you need some support and/or advice. I encourage you to seek counseling for yourself and your family if your teen's rebellion seems to rise to a level that is dangerous. Your pastor can refer you to a Christian counselor that can help you to navigate through these challenging years.

The story below is information of which we should all be aware.

Baptist Press 9/26/07

Sex tourism' targeting U.S. minors.

By Erica Simons WASHINGTON (BP)--

Demands for commercial sex have created a growing market of sex tourism and human trafficking in the United States, with an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 American children at risk of becoming victims of sexual exploitation, according to a new report. "DEMAND" is both a video documentary and comprehensive report on a 12-month investigation conducted by Shared Hope International. Based in Vancouver, Wash., SHI is a non-profit organization that compiled the information in an effort to understand and bring an end to human trafficking.

"U.S. citizens and permanent residents under the age of 18 are increasingly being recruited into the commercial sex markets," the report says. Runaway children and underage American women are among the most common victims of human trafficking."People talk about how awful it is that in a place like Nepal, or in Thailand, you can have a people or a country who can allow their children to be sold, but the reality is it's no different in Washington, D.C.," says Derek Ellerman, co-executive director of the Polaris Project, in the documentary.

The report also focuses on the market aspects of the "multi-billion dollar industry," specifically our society that generates such high volumes of buyers of commercial sex. "As the culture continues to normalize sexual images and activities, the markets grow," the study says. "The sexualized popular culture ... reduces moral barriers to accessing commercial sex." Advertisements, television and music, along with video games that "glamorize pimping and prostitution," seem to be the culprits, quickly expanding an already large industry, the study says.

The United States, the report says, presents a unique challenge to those combating the sex slave industry: Most Americans are wired. "With nearly 70 percent of Americans accessing the Internet, the accessibility to commercial sex markets on the Internet is staggering," according to the report. The web facilitates arrangements for prostitution and allows child pornography to be made easily and inexpensively.

SHI's commitment to reducing the number of victims who are pulled into human trafficking focuses on one area: demand. "Too often, police enforcement has focused on the prostitute, with practically no attention given at all to prosecuting the traffickers and so-called customers," said Duke, the ERLC's vice president for public policy. "As long as demand exists, there will be unscrupulous people who will be willing to traffic human beings to meet it."Awareness is one way SHI hopes to decrease the demand, by revealing the tragedy behind the sex market. "If there were no buyers, there would be no sellers, and there would be no victims," the documentary says. To watch "DEMAND," visit SHI's website at: http://www.sharedhope.org/what/enddemand3.asp