Sometimes it Takes a Movie to Shine a Light on Darkness

Where child trafficking is concerned, no shortage of information exists. You could spend your life perusing websites geared to what many experts say is a growing problem worldwide. But sometimes it takes a movie to shine a light on darkness.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you’ve probably heard something about Sound of Freedom, which hit theaters over the July 4 weekend. A Variety reviewer called it a “conservative” thriller based on the true story of Tim Ballard, a former U.S. government agent who quits his job to rescue kids from sex traffickers.

Some questions. Since when is child trafficking a conservative or liberal issue? Why would the reviewer see the film as perhaps “adjacent to the alt-right paranoia…the wing-nut conspiracy theory about a Washington,D.C., pizza parlor being the front for a pedophile ring…”?

Why would Rolling Stone pick up the narrative and say, “The QAnon-tinged thriller about child trafficking is designed to appeal to the conscience of a conspiracy-addled boomer.”

Must we politicize everything, including crimes against children?

You can make up your own mind.

I’m just glad the movie released despite Disney’s decision to shelve the film in 2018. If more people become aware of what’s happening in their towns and cities, all the better. Sometimes it takes a movie to shine a light on darkness…just a few weeks before World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.

The Reality: A Putrid Underbelly of Greed

As the movie points out, and as the Variety reviewer mentioned, child trafficking is the fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the world. More people are enslaved now than in any other time in history. Are you shocked? Are you shocked that an estimated two million children get trafficked each year?

These minors work as sex workers, laborers, and child soldiers. They didn’t choose the servitude. Their subjugation enriched someone else, including those who profit in organ trafficking, a lesser-discussed form of illicit trade. Finding the putrid underbelly is typically easy—follow the money. Trafficking, whether it be for sex or something else, is a multi-billion-dollar industry.

“Only drug trafficking is larger, but a person can sell drugs only once. Someone can sell a person repeatedly. It’s a commodity…just a normal profit-loss equation for traffickers,” an expert told me in my first blog post about the topic.

Although Sound of Freedom depicted a snatch-and-grab situation perpetrated by a stranger, a former beauty queen, the most common trafficker is someone the victim knows and trusts. A mother. An uncle. Boyfriend. Or grandmother. They sell these kids to buy drugs, pay the rent, or simply to pad their pockets.

Let that sink in.

Also worth mentioning is the fact that anyone can fall prey. Kids who come from stable homes are as vulnerable as runaways and those in foster care.

Through social media and friends (remember how Jeffrey Epstein used underage girls to recruit others?), kids become involved with people who promise gifts, careers, and other financial inducements. In the movie, the former beauty queen recruited her victims by promising gigs with a modeling agency.

Sometimes it takes a movie to shine a light on darkness.

What the Movie Didn’t Show

While the movie succeeds at raising the alarm, as evidenced by comments posted online, it doesn’t address the emotional trauma these young victims experience.

I saw the trauma firsthand when I interviewed “Polly” several months ago. The fear of this formerly trafficked woman was palpable. She didn’t want people to know her name or where she lived. “I don’t want people coming and looking for me,” she insisted. “I’ve seen this happen when people leave the life. They are followed all over the country.”

She abruptly ended our interview and I never heard from her again.

Make no mistake, these victims do suffer. Some, like Polly, live with extreme fear and anxiety. Others resort to self-mutilation or turn to substance abuse. In fact, traffickers often use illicit drugs to maintain control over their victims.

As a blogger who writes about trauma, I can attest to the lasting repercussions of this crime against children. Many of the men and women I’ve interviewed trace their difficulties to child sexual abuse.

What Do We Do?

We can blame ourselves for the exploitation, especially in the area of sex trafficking. The U.S. is the number one consumer of sex worldwide. As an official told me more than a year ago, we aren’t going to arrest ourselves out of the problem. We must fight demand. Without a market, there would be no need for a supply.

We also need to pull our collective heads out of the sand. As unpleasant and disturbing as this topic might be, we must be aware of what’s going on and start asking questions.

How, for example, did the government lose track of 85,000 unaccompanied children over the past two years? Could evildoers now be exploiting those children for personal gain? Just a question.

Sometimes it takes a movie to shine a light on darkness. Will you be the light?

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you can start by familiarizing yourself with the signs and paying attention to the people around you.  the National Human Trafficking Hotline offers pointers and a confidential, 24-hour numbeR —1-888-373-7888—to report your suspicions.