
Speaking up could change the face of trafficking.Do you Remember Elizabeth Smart? Kidnapped at age 14, was held hostage for 9 months before reunited with her family.
Elizabeth is doing work to bring awareness to issues of child sexual assault including a podcast “Smart Talks.”
In her recent interview with NCOSE She talks with Dawn Hawkins about things that are trending, good work being done, places that still need attention and the hardest thing EVER, when do we talk with our kids about all of this?
Dawn Hawkins, National Center on Sexual Exploitation, says: “We need the tech companies to step up and make changes. And so in addition to the policy, we’re just hitting them where it hurts and that’s the pocketbook”.
What is trending actually exploding is image-based sexual abuse.
Policy has not caught up with this. The fact that increasingly abuse is being filmed and then distributed further, what does that mean for the kids whose entire schools are seeing images of their abuse or for the young woman or young man who 10 years from now has like made it through years of therapy and college and suddenly abuse is circulating again, as she/he starts, a dream job. Like this is having lifelong impacts and it’s, it’s so many and, types of abuse now are being filmed and recorded. And then people are watching this thinking that it’s consensual when it’s so far from consensual.
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is the leading organization exposing the connections between all forms of sexual exploitation, including sex trafficking, prostitution, pornography, and child sexual abuse.
Dawn Hawkins is the CEO of NCOSE. She has called out corporate entities facilitating exploitation through the annual Dirty Dozen List, fostered an international movement, and constantly advocates for survivors. Her work has sparked change at Google, Hilton Worldwide, Comcast, Walmart, the Department of Defense, Instagram, TikTok, and other influential firms.
How can we get involved? Make a difference?