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“Inside Out” — the Family Life news feature

Sex trafficking may be the farthest thing from your mind this Christmas. But during the coming school vacation, parents actually have a chance to stand in the way of human traffickers. How? By paying attention to the very same thing traffickers focus on: how your children use the internet. School vacations not only scramble our schedules and give children more time on social media,  the time away from friends can also leave kids feeling lonely for companionship.  

“Anytime there’s an increase in unsupervised time for kids and teens, the vulnerability to trafficking increases,” says Deb Kuehner, executive director of The Potter’s Hands Foundation, a Western New York residential treatment program helping exploited women. “Covid was a perfect example of this for adults and kids. Traffickers took advantage of the global crisis, capitalizing on people’s loss of income and the increased amount of time children and adults were spending online.”   

 “For many individuals, the holidays are a very stressful time and people are hungry for community,” she says. “Vulnerable individuals will often look online to fill relationship gaps—they’re so hungry for someone to pay attention to them and to love them, that they’ll open themselves up to strangers who may not be safe.” 

Parents can monitor how their children use the internet—but they need to know what to look for. They need to know what apps they have on their phones, and what those apps are used for.” Some messaging apps, called “secret” or “hidden” apps, are disguised to look like games or calculators to hide their function from anyone monitoring the way the child’s using the internet.   “I just encourage parents to Google information online on how to be educated about different apps, and what their kids are using. It’s so important that they do.”   

This is true even if you think of your children as good kids. “I also need to say that parents who think that their children would never do something like this, need to check anyway. Because I can’t tell you the number of parents that have come to me and said, ‘I never expected my child to do something like this,’” she says. “No parent expects it. Kids can get in over their heads so quickly that they don’t even know how it happens.” 

Hit the “play” icon above to hear from Deb Kuehner about the expansiveness of sex trafficking, and how you can help women who’ve been exploited. 

 Learn more about The Potter’s Hands Foundation here.