Human Trafficking

Let Kids Be Kids

At Let Kids Be Kids, we applaud courageous youth who have a heart for their peers. We appreciate and stand beside those who research, share information, and get involved in the conversation about the BIG topics.

We don’t want our kids to be in the frontlines… adults should be protecting the innocence our children and ensuring they are not carrying the heavy burdens of society. However, the brave youth who display courage, critical thinking and love, are leading the way for their generation, and set an example for adults who are still to find their voices.

Hi, I’m Gracie and I’m going to talk to you about human trafficking: a problem that needs to be solved.

There are many types of human trafficking happening in the world. The three common ones are:

Forced labour
Sex trade and
Servitude.

Today I am going to talk about the sex trade

The sex trade happens everywhere and is one of the most common types of human trafficking that happens and the governments don’t do enough about it. Why is that? Most of you might think the government would never do that. But I’m sorry to say it but you’re wrong: the government does all sorts of things we might think they would never do and one of the many many things is doing nothing about stopping the sex trafficking industry.

A book I read called Relentless Pursuit: My Fight For The Victims Of Jefferey Epstein by Bradly J Edwards, says…

“…he was able to negotiate an agreement with the United States Government that essentially immunised him from the Federal sex crimes he’d committed against dozens of children. Even more offensive, the government worked with Epstein to keep the immunity agreement concealed from the victims he had abused.”

So the reason why the governments and politicians don’t do enough about the sex trade is because they work and/or make agreements with the people who sexually exploit others.

Statistics from stopthetraffik.org quotes,

“We know from the raw data that MSHT (modern slavery and human trafficking) has a disproportionate effect on women and girls. By some estimates, 70 per cent of all victims of MSHT are women and girls. Perhaps unsurprisingly, women and girls make up almost all victims of sexual exploitation across the world, with estimates ranging from 97–99 per cent. This does not discount the experiences of men, boys and gender diverse individuals who experience a range of exploitation, including sexual exploitation.”

It has been estimated 4.8 million people are getting sex trafficked in 2017, that is the same amount of people as the population of New Zealand in 2017 and is increasing each year.

Can you believe that New Zealand is a Tier 2 country in sex trafficking?

An article from 2016 from Olivia Carville in the New Zealand Herald quotes,

“The US Government identified New Zealand as a destination for human trafficking in 2004. So why did it take 12 years for authorities here to secure a conviction? A young woman sold to an undercover police officer for $3000; starving, unpaid migrant workers stealing food; foreign woman forced to work as a sex slave 12 hours a day.”

At least the New Zealand government has done a little bit to try prevent sex trafficking.

In conclusion, human trafficking is a worldwide problem that could happen to anyone of all ages, any race and both genders.

Human trafficking needs to be stopped and taken seriously.

Gracie’s speech last year

It’s the second time Gracie shared her speech with us – ain’t she awesome? Check out her 2023 speech here...

Student speech on RSE and Navigating The Journey Let Kids Be Kids 16 November 2023 Gracie and her parents have been dealing with inappropriate sexualised teaching in two different schools over the last couple of years. Gracie’s dad initially thought the situation was isolated and so moved her to a different school. Low and behold, it was happening at her new school too. Gracie’s dad did more digging and found a network of parents who …Read full story

Interview with survivor of child sex trafficking and abuse

Gloria Masters is a survivor of sexual abuse, and sex trafficking. She now runs Handing The Shame Back, a Foundation that helps survivors. Her years of terror happened in Auckland, New Zealand, in a middle class community.

This article was originally published by Let Kids Be Kids.