Human Sex Trafficking Hitting Close to Home

We all know there is an ugly side to this industry, it’s not something I spend a lot of time blogging about, but I spend a lot of time following it. A few days ago, a wonderful girl (non-adult industry) who is desperately trying to be a model in Los Angeles tells me she has landed an amazing twelve day job shooting in a fantastic location and she needed me to cat sit for her. I said yes and congrats. She is only 21 and I (feeling maternal), asked her to give me a full itinerary, a copy of her ID and her passport and the numbers of emergency contacts, just in case there was an issue.

But she didn’t have it. I said to her, “No professional agency is not giving you an itinerary.” I asked her to explain the trip in greater details. And I got this:

• Oh, I only have five days to prepare, it’s last minute.
• I found it on XXXXXXX.com.
• We fly to New York on a private plane.
• We then transfer to another private plan and we are flown to <XXXXXXXX>.
• We are shooting for 12 days.
• There is no pay, just work for her portfolio.
• We are staying a private house (all the girls together).
• We then have to pay our own airfare back to the US.

I was quiet, none of this added up. I start to think, this is Los Angeles, any decent agency flies models on commercial airlines and put them up in their own rooms in hotels. Modeling is actually stressful and girls here get private rooms to decompress after shoots. She knew this! And no return airfare home?

I emailed the scenario and the post to a friend who works with trafficked victims in California because I was suspicious. She said “absolutely not.” Too many red flags. After two days, I finally convinced her not to go, I told her my extensive history of adult (and that I didn’t just design websites for people), that caught her attention. Was this gig a bad thing, maybe not. But everything I knew about screening clients and safety was screaming “NO! Don’t go, you will not be heard from again!” I don’t think I would have forgiven myself if something had happened to her. I had just imagined, she gets off the plan in New York, passport taken and that’s it.
In researching Human Trafficking as it relates to the U.S. and other areas, I was amazed to find the following information:

• It is estimated to be a $5 to $9 billion-a-year industry in the U.S.
  
• 27 million are trafficked everyday, that’s one person every 1.5 minutes.
• Globally, its $42.5 billion per year.
  

To learn more and to help prevent, please visit: StopTheTraffick.org

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