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What is human trafficking? How can we keep kids safe?
by Irene van der Zande
Human trafficking is the use of emotional, legal, or economic coercion or of physical violence to force someone to provide labor or sexual services.
Sexual trafficking can include requiring prostitution, photos, or videos from someone against their will. When this happens with children or teens, this becomes an extreme form of child sexual abuse.
Labor trafficking can include forcing people to work without the rights, compensation, and freedom of choice that they deserve.
Trafficking is modern-day slavery.
Who is at risk?
Trafficking can happen to anyone, no matter their age, gender, race, socioeconomic status, or abilities. Human trafficking can happen anywhere in the world, in every country and every kind of community.
Some groups face higher risks, especially those whose fundamental needs for community, safety, security, and shelter are not being met. These groups include people who:
- are lonely or isolated are in an unsafe living situation or experiencing homelessness
- are in a vulnerable position due to their immigration status
- don't have enough resources to get enough to eat, feed their loved ones, or get an education
- struggle with addiction to alcohol or drugs
- have disabilities that make it harder for them to recognize unsafe behavior or set boundaries
How does trafficking happen?
Often when people think of trafficking, they think of someone being kidnapped and trapped by violence.
Although this does happen, most people are coerced into trafficking situations, especially at first, without being aware of what is happening, often lured by promises of love, safety, shelter, or security.
Traffickers are very skilled at very quickly creating a sense of connection, building trust, and developing dependence with a vulnerable individual.
Even worse, instead of being strangers, some trafficking perpetrators are people the victim knows, such as friends, employers, partners, and even family.
When a trafficking perpetrator is engaging with a potential victim, they use a set of techniques called "grooming."
The grooming process often starts with the offer of something the victim needs or wants, such as love, shelter, or money. This tactic works by triggering very strong positive emotions. For example: You have run away from home and a friendly, kind person who buys you lunch and offers you a place to stay seems like a savior.
You are bored with school and feel very excited when you suddenly meet a sweet nice-looking guy who tells you how beautiful you are and that you can make a lot of money modeling.
You are struggling with relationships with your parents or friends. When you connect online with a supportive community or potential romantic partner who showers you with love and affection and promises to take you away to a better life, this may seem like a dream come true.
You are struggling financially and feel incredibly relieved to finally have an offer of stable income even though you don't know much about the employer.
These feelings can make it very hard to think clearly, especially for more vulnerable people.
Red Flags
Remember that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. We can recognize for ourselves and teach young people to watch out for red flags such as someone who is:
- Trying to get you to undermine your current relationships by encouraging you to complain, magnifying your grievances instead of helping you to gain perspective, and vilifying people who are trying to help you.
- Offering you jobs that will pay a lot of money with no or little relevant experience - especially where housing and transport are covered, descriptions of what the job involves are unclear, there are no clear and transparent contracts, or the employer makes immigration promises that are unlikely to be possible.
- Romantic relationships that move too fast, where someone instantly tries make you feel as if you have found the love of your life because you are so special and they care about you so much.
- Isolating you from your friends, family, or community, either physically such as leaving home, or emotionally, such as keeping secrets about who you are seeing and what you are doing together.
- Offering favors and then, after the fact, demanding something in return. This tactic works by making people feel like they owe the perpetrator. However, you do not owe anything to someone if you did not agree beforehand the terms of the trade. Even if you did agree the terms of a trade, you deserve to be able to change your mind if you later realize that what you agreed to do is unsafe or unethical.
- Ignoring your right to privacy even though they are not your responsible adults by demanding to have access to your phone or relentlessly stalking your social media.
- Trying to convince you that they are all you need, and acting hurt or angry when you express your desire for time with other people.
- Trying to convince you to physically leave home and stay with them.
- What can we do to protect our kids
As adults, we need to be prepared to:
- Manage our own fears and emotional triggers - so we can communicate positively and stay connected with the young people in our care even when they might be very rejecting.
- Recognize potential danger signs - such as when a child or teen seems very isolated, becomes withdrawn, loses interest in activities, suddenly has money or expensive possessions, or has an older boyfriend or girlfriend, spends a lot of time online and becomes very secretive about what they are doing.
- Model and teach self-protection skills to young people in ways that are age-appropriate, effective, and emotionally safe.
- Intervene when we suspect trafficking or any kind of abuse.
- Find the right kind of help.
Here are psychological and personal safety self-protection skills we can use ourselves and teach our kids:
- How to recognize and resist unsafe behaviors, situations, and relationships
- How to know the difference between someone acting friendly or being a true friend
- How to develop positive healthy relationships and to use positive communication to prevent and resolve conflict
- How to notice and manage our emotional triggers so that our positive or negative feelings don't stop us from making safe and wise choices.
- How to be persistent in setting powerful, respectful, appropriate boundaries even if someone we care about gets upset
- How to pay attention to warning signs that someone might be trying to trick or pressure us into doing something that might be against our best interests.
- How to get away from a person or group that might be involved in trafficking and get to safety
- How to use self-defense skills to escape from someone who is threatening us
- How to be very persistent in getting help from busy or impatient adults
- How to stay safe online and on social media
Want to learn how to teach these skills? Check out our website at Kidpower.org or contact us at safety@kidpower.org
Share our Safety Resources Through Your Social Networks
Do people in your social networks worry about protecting their kids and vulnerable adults in their lives? Do they struggle with relationships, hurt feelings, and conflict? Are they being bullied or at greater risk of facing violence because of prejudice? Are they frightened because of a news story about kidnapping, abuse, or assault?
In even a few minutes a day or a week, you can share links to free safety resources that your friends, family, and colleagues can use right away to protect themselves and their loved ones. You can share by email, social media, chat – any way that works for you.
Our Issues and Resources page provides links to resources that address specific problems.
Here are some of our most popular links:
- Bullying Solutions for All Ages
- Child Abuse Prevention
- Early Childhood Safety
- Prejudice & Discrimination: Protecting Ourselves & Others
- Stranger Safety: Assault & Kidnapping Prevention
- 30-Day Safety Leadership Challenge
- Kidpower Workshops for All Ages
- Recursos para el liderazgo en seguridad
- Free Kidpower Online Resource Library featuring over 400 articles and blog posts!
If you don’t see what you need, ask us for help – and please let us know what you’re doing! Contact us using the form below or at safety@kidpower.org.
Organize an online workshop for people you care about
Volunteer Workshop Organizers use their planning skills to bring our services to their families and friends, schools, organizations, workplaces, faith communities, and/or neighborhoods. All of our workshops are tailored to meet the specific needs of your group.
We teach emotional safety, boundary-setting, conflict resolution, personal safety, bullying and abuse prevention, and self-defense skills for all ages, abilities, and walks of life in ways that are empowering, effective, and fun. These skills help to prevent harm – and to strengthen relationships.
People tell us how grateful they are when someone takes the lead by organizing a service they all really want and need. Whether you organize many workshops or just one, you will make a lasting impact in their lives by giving them skills they can use right away.
To learn more, see: How to organize a workshop
To arrange a time to talk about next steps, please use the form below or contact us at safety@kidpower.org.
Learn and Teach Kidpower Skills with Your Children, Colleagues, Friends, and Family
Learning to teach Kidpower Safety Lessons with children, teens, and adults in your life is FUN and can make a lasting difference in their lives. We have a wealth of resources and books – as well as courses in our Online Learning Center – to show you how.
Please tell us how it goes and ask ANY questions. We love photos and videos as well as stories!
Help Raise Funds to Support Our Work
Raising money can be easy, successful, and FUN! Our Kidpower Fundraising Volunteers play an essential role in making it possible for Kidpower to greatly increase our capacity to provide services for those most in need. No gift is too small…or too large! As part of our Kidpower Fundraising Team, we will support you every step of the way.
- Celebrate your birthday and other important milestones. Ask that people make a gift to Kidpower as their gift to you. Let your friends and family know that you want Safety for Everyone, Everywhere for your birthday this year.
- Honor people who are important to you. Ask that gifts be made to Kidpower in honor of or in memory of a loved one. They can include a personal message to you in the online donation form.
- Nominate Kidpower to be the beneficiary of a company’s philanthropic giving whether you are an employee or a customer. We are happy to answer questions and provide information.
- Ask that Kidpower be the beneficiary of your company’s holiday/annual giving.
- Ask your company about matching donations. Some companies give funds to organizations where their employees volunteer – or match employee gifts of time or money with a financial donation.
- Organize an event such as a Fun Run, Yard Sale, or Bake Sale with Kidpower as the beneficiary.
- If you use Facebook, start a Facebook fundraiser and invite your friends to support Kidpower – we will provide you with posts and tips for how to make this very successful. You can do this in just a few minutes a day!
- Take quick and easy surveys in SurveyMonkey to raise money for Kidpower! SurveyMonkey will donate $.50 to Kidpower for every completed survey. Some of them are only one question! Sign up now to start!
- Share any suggestions YOU have about how to raise donations to Kidpower.
Please let us know what you are doing and how we can help you help Kidpower by using the form below or contacting safety@kidpower.org.
Help Translate Our Resources
Volunteer translators make it possible for people who speak different languages to learn essential safety skills and strategies. Here are examples of resources that have been translated by volunteers into multiple languages, and people need these in as many languages as possible:
- Kidpower Coloring Book
- Kidpower, Teenpower and Fullpower Safety Tips
- The Safety Leadership Challenge
- Kidpower Protection Promise
- Kidpower 30-Skills Challenge Handbook
- Kidpower Safety Signals
If you are fluent in writing and reading in a language other than English and want to be part of our Translation Team, please let us know and we will help you get started.
Please let us know what you are doing and how we can help you help us by using the form below or contacting safety@kidpower.org.
Create Teaching Mini-Videos At Home
Kidpower ‘Safety Video’ Volunteers have fun making short (10-60 second) role-play videos with two or more people showing positive communication, advocacy, and safety skills ‘in action’.
We provide you with sample easy-to-follow scripts and directions about how to make the kind of videos we need. And we welcome your suggestions and ideas.
We use these videos in our live online workshops and Learning Center to provide many examples of how to use Kidpower skills to prevent and solve problems with people.
Video Volunteers also help us to show the great diversity of the many voices, bodies, ages, abilities, and lives of the people we serve worldwide.
To get started, contact us using the form below or at safety@kidpower.org.
Help Safety Skills Go Viral on Social Media
The most common complaint we hear in Kidpower is, “WHY have I never heard of you before?! EVERYBODY needs to have these skills!” You can help safety skills go viral by reposting, sharing, liking, commenting on, and otherwise uplifting our many Kidpower posts in social media:
You can give 5-star reviews for Kidpower on Great Nonprofits; for Kidpower International and local Kidpower centers on Facebook; and for Kidpower publications on Amazon.
We’d love to know what you are doing and any suggestions you have. Use the form below or contact us at safety@kidpower.org.
Share Your Professional Expertise
Pro-Bono Volunteers offer their professional expertise to help Kidpower grow! Your technical skills in graphic design, video production, media relations, book marketing, etc. can increase our scope, visibility, and sustainability.
Use the form below or contact us at safety@kidpower.org to let us know what skills and time you have to offer.