Writes Dionysus, Content Writer, Headline Diplomat eMagazine, LUDCI.eu
It is difficult to find figures around the problem of human trafficking since many cases are not counted due to their illegal nature and lack of complaints. But it is estimated that children and adolescents make up one-third of all victims trafficked by trafficking networks, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
It is estimated that 70,000 girls and boys are used for child sex tourism in Mexico, according to 2018 reports from the ECPAT. 70 thousand minors suffering continuous sexual abuse and being a source of profit for pimps!
It is also estimated that child sexual exploitation generates from $32 billion to $37 billion annually worldwide, according to the United Nations.
By 2016, the United Nations identified more than 25,000 victims of trafficking. A constantly increasing number since 2011.
Human trafficking encompasses abuses such as sexual exploitation, forced labor, or exploitation in begging. In 70% of trafficking cases, the victims are young girls and women, according to Deutsche Welle, a state-owned German broadcaster.
Currently, the record of missing children is estimated in the hundreds of millions. 1.2 million children are victims of trafficking networks each year, according to reports from the International Labor Organization.
Therefore, it is essential that children understand the importance of their rights and how to avoid and prevent themselves from vulnerable situations.
Telling kids to avoid strangers isn’t enough
According to the Kids Health Organization, “do not talk to strangers“, is the typical phrase with which parents traditionally use in dissuading their kids from speaking to suspected kidnappers and child traffickers. But how effective is such a warning in preventing their kids from getting into the claws of desperate crime and trafficking syndicates?
Social experiments reveal that it really isn’t the best way to keep kids from strangers. Children that are as young as three can accurately evaluate trustworthiness when they meet a stranger for the first time, says British psychotherapist, Philippa Perry, while citing a study on the subject matter which was published by Psychological Science.
Most children tend to be very social which allows them to easily interact with new people whether they are their age or adults. Experts explain that the more children are told not to do something, their motivation to do it will be greater. Especially if the person approaching you is doing so in a cunning and malicious manner.
This, scientists call “reactance.” It’s a notion that forbidden fruit tastes so much sweeter.
“When someone discourages you from doing something, you often feel that your freedom is being threatened, which motivates you to regain choice and control by doing exactly the opposite,” explains Adam Grant, a writer, researcher, and professor of the University of Pennsylvania.
“Experiments show that children become more interested in a toy after they’re put under severe rather than mild pressure not to play with,” Grant explains further, putting a perfect analogy into play.
Therefore, the phrase “do not talk to strangers” will lack rigor if the child is not clear about the dangers they are facing if they meet a potential trafficker and how to deal with the situation.
In that sense, it is essential that schools and adults at home test the imagination and inculcate effective safety rules that are easy for children to learn and which, they can put into practice when they are alone.
To achieve this, many leaders, experts, and educators are calling for the inclusion of topics, subjects, and courses in school curriculums, which seek to impart knowledge on the current global problem of human trafficking. According to them, they must be taught, in general, the dangers they are surrounded in, and how to ward off a potential trafficker.
In the US, community leaders, earlier in 2019 during the National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, have come out in protests, asking for steps to be taken in combating the global trafficking epidemic while also having several hours of brainstorming with education officials and the public.
The new demands by those concerned are coming following the new legislation made in Florida last fall of 2019. With the support of the state’s education commissioner, Richard Corcoran, and Governor DeSantis, Florida became the first state to require a child trafficking curriculum for all K-12 students.
According to the board’s news release, this new rule requires “each school district to submit an implementation plan for child trafficking prevention education to the commissioner and post the plan on the school district’s website.”
Similar advocacy, regulations, and legislation on the inclusion of child trafficking curriculum are rare outside the shores of the USA.
Countries with the highest number of human trafficking cases in the world include Bangladesh, India, China, Thailand, and Pakistan; and 127 countries are affected, according to data from the UNODC. One of four victims of human trafficking around the world is children, according to the International Labor Organization.
However, as global as the problem seems to be, no country around the world has thought about the inclusion of trafficking curriculums in school as a tool for generating awareness and letting children in school be aware of their rights and how to prevent abuse of such rights.
Why education is the key
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,” late African anti-apartheid revolutionary and political leader, Nelson Mandela once said.
As school personnel, away from home, have been the biggest catalyst in the development and training of kids on how to tackle social problems, many experts believe that they can be integral in rights education and training children and teens on how to prevent the unknown.
“Everyone who is part of the school community—administrators, teachers, bus drivers, maintenance personnel, food service staff, resource officers, and other school community members—has the potential to be an advocate for child victims of human trafficking,” a free guide publication for school staff developed by the Office of Safe and Healthy Students of the US Department of Education reads in part.
American civil rights leader, Rev. Kevin McCall, during the protest in the last National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, had explained the role of parents and teachers and why children must be taught strategies to prevent and get out of vulnerable situations.
“Parents have to teach their children the essentials of life, but with human trafficking, they need to know what to do if they find themselves in a stranger danger situation — kick, scream, shout, yell — the teachers have to teach them about this,” Rev. Kevin McCall says to ABC News.
What’s been done so far?
Despite the apathy of the education departments and ministries of government in tailoring effective programs in the form of curriculums, some organizations are already taking the bull by the horn.
A21 is an American nongovernmental organization that has been at the forefront of the fight against modern slavery. The education division of the NGO has developed a free curriculum resource known as Bodies Are Not Commodities (BANC). So far, this curriculum resource has been used in as many as 42 states in the USA, according to the ASCD In-Service.
The Freedom Story is also an organization that seeks to prevent exploitation and child trafficking with the development of programs that are culturally relevant for vulnerable children.
In recent years, the organization launched a human rights and trafficking awareness program which is intended to help Thai children understand their human and legal rights so they can keep themselves safe in vulnerable situations.
The organization has given out to children more than 120 scholarships to keep them in school. They have also given out more than 5600 hours of mentorship programs to students. According to One Day’s Wages, the children are also taught about the rights of their bodies and also defensive strategies they can use when caught up in abusive situations.
Conclusion:
According to figures registered by UNICEF, in the last decade, the number of children kidnapped and who have fallen into networks of sexual and labor exploitation, have increased drastically. However, even though education is traditionally used as a tool for changing virtually all aspects of human life and its environment, it is clearly missing in this fight against human trafficking.
Apparently, the cost of imparting trafficking education is lesser than the cost of providing services to trafficked victims, not to talk about the psychological trauma of victims and the effectiveness of such services.
Education has always been one of the tools for preventing and solving social problems. However, many schools and universities do not teach anything about human and child trafficking and how youngsters and students can protect themselves from predators both online and in the streets.
Florida has begun with the inclusion of trafficking curriculum in all K-12 classes, so other affected states and countries should definitely follow suit!
