Young, Jack County Republicans briefed on child trafficking

Trafficking of children by their families or trusted caregivers is the fastest-growing form of child trafficking in the United States and no zip code is immune, Jaco Booyens, who directed the film “Sex Nation” and whose sister was trafficked, told Young and Jack County Republicans at a presentation in Jacksboro.

Olney Mayor Pro Tem and Olney Police Chief Dan Birbeck attended the event at the Concerned Citizens of Jack County on Sept. 12.

“I think we all have a responsibility for the safety and health of children,” Mr. Parker said. “And I think anything we can avail ourselves of for information and avail ourselves to assist organizations, we need to do that when it comes to children.”

Mr. Booyens told the group that his organization, Jaco Booyens Ministries, recently completed a story of 2,000 cases of child trafficking across the United States showed that “25 to 47 percent of all trafficking cases in America are familial, meaning it is a trusted member of the family.”

In families without a father, people with “proximity to the child” who are able to build trust and rapport can also be in a position to traffic them, he said.

“When you think of trafficking, think of the exploitation of vulnerability. A child in Oak Cliff, Dallas in the projects is trafficked differently than a child in Highland Park where the parents are earning a couple million dollars a year. Both traffickers,” he said. “This crime doesn’t profile … it is a crime driven by demonic forces, demonic spirits. It is a spiritual battle.”

Mr. Booyens said a third of all child trafficking cases in the United States had a “spiritual ritual abuse” component.

“These are not minors who come across the border – that’s a different situation,” he said. “These kids are trafficked by their own families – still going to school, playing basketball, playing softball, on the soccer team, on the cross country team - the signs are there but you can’t see what you don’t know.

“But they are being trafficked by a family member, a coach, a pastor, Republican, Democrat, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “It is a cultural dilemma that is in our midst. There is not a single zip code in the United States where sex trafficking has not been investigated.”

A native South African and American citizen, Mr. Booyens said he spent six years trying to rescue his younger sister after she was trafficked at age 13. In addition to directing films, he is involved in efforts to reform national and local laws in “problematic areas relating to sex trafficking and the education of children.”

A former advisory member to the Trump White House Anti-Trafficking Council, Mr. Booyens warned that the normalization of pornography and the disintegration of the family has contributed to the ease with which sex traffickers operate.

“We have normalized this,” he said of children being exposed to pornography as early as eight years old. “It points to a culture that has abandoned morality.”

Traffickers can reach children and “buyers” on social media. “This is the generation that doesn’t need a pimp. Instagram is the pimp … Xbox, Play-Station, Discord … is the pimp. Now the buyer is speaking directly to the child,” he said.

He also decried the lack of treatment options for children and adults who are rescued from traffickers, citing a total of just 1,285 trauma beds across the United States to serve a population that includes “79,000 women and children in the environment of sex trafficking in Texas at one time.”

The solution “is local … it’s got to be local,” he said.

“I get it that you love Trump,” he told the GOP audience. “I served under him … No one man in the White House is going to fix sex trafficking. It’s not how it works … because it’s the morality of each man. When you see all the stuff online - Trump will end trafficking … no, not possible. No one man in the White House can fix this problem.”

Instead, parents should teach children how to recognize predators and empower them to walk away from uncomfortable conversations with them – in person and online - and that nobody can make them do, say or send anything, he said.

He encourages parents to tell children not to keep secrets. “Encourage them that they can come to you and be honest about anything they see or hear,” he said, especially when strangers attempt to give them gifts or flatter them.