CSEC Prevention Resource Guide

CSEC Prevention Toolkit for Communities & Businesses

In 2016, under the direction of the Nevada Coalition to Prevent the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC Coalition) the CSEC Prevention Resource Guide was created to compile efforts happening in Nevada to prevent the sexual exploitation of children. The Prevention Resource Guide was structured into three introductory chapters, and eleven strategies and resources chapters. You can find the complete 2016 Prevention Guide in PDF format here.

The content on this webpage is an updated summary of the information from the 2016 Prevention Resource Guide developed by the 2022 Strategic Planning Subcommittee and approved by the 2022 CSEC Coalition.

CSEC PREVENTION STRATEGIES & RESOURCES

According to research and data (ASU Office of Sex Trafficking, 2022) often traffickers force their victims to work out of hotels and casinos. Nevada has one of the largest hospitality industries in the country and a unique opportunity to create awareness through public announcements, staff trainings, and visitors’ sensitivity towards the sexual exploitation of children and people.

Educating the hospitality industry:

Toolkit to Reduce Demand

The term “sex buyer” refers to the individual who exchanges something of value, for commercial sex, which may include exchange of money, a place to stay, food, clothing, food, etc. for child sexual exploitation, pornographic images and/or videos. For adult males convicted for offenses related to the purchase of direct sexual acts with minors (i.e., not viewing child pornography), the California Sex Offender Management Board recommended the following:
Evaluate the individual with validated tools to assess the risk of sexually motivated offenses, such as Static-99R and STABLE-2007.
Identify and treat the criminogenic needs as identified by the dynamic risk instruments.
Research on this specific population should be conducted.

According to the California Sex Offender Management Board, it is rare that females are arrested for offenses related to the purchase of sexual acts with minors.

Research specifically about adult males who pay to engage in sexual acts with minors is scarce. While there is research on sex buyers, often called “johns” in the literature, the research does not differentiate between those purchasing sex with adults and those purchasing juveniles (pubescent children). Many believe the sex buyer is the driving force behind sex trafficking, as they create the demand. Farley, et al, studied a group of sex buyers and compared them to a comparable group of non-sex buyers in Boston.48 They found that in general individuals who purchased sex, preferred to have a variety of sex partners, and non-relational or non- committed sexual partners. Individuals who purchased sex were more likely to report they feared rejection by women. They were more likely to endorse rape myths, such as the belief that “prostitution reduces the likelihood of rape. ”They were more likely to report that they would force a woman to have sex or rape them if they could get away with it and had engaged in more sexually aggressive behavior. Men who purchased sex tended to view prostitution as consenting sex and were less likely to evaluate accurately the emotional state of the women in prostitution. Despite this, two-thirds of the sample of sex buyers believed that “a majority of women are lured, tricked, or trafficked into prostitution” and knew that minors were available for purchase. They also believed that prostituted women were intrinsically different from other women.

Toolkit to Promote the National Human Trafficking Hotline (NHTH)

The National Human Trafficking Hotline connects victims and survivors of sex and labor trafficking with services and supports to get help and stay safe. The NHTH also receives tips about potential situations of sex and labor trafficking and facilitates reporting that information to the appropriate authorities in certain cases. The toll-free phone and SMS text lines and live online chat function are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Help is available in English or Spanish, or in more than 200 additional languages through an on-call interpreter. For more information on the NHTH, visit the Polaris Project.

NHTH Number 1-888-373-7888
Text 233733

Toolkit for Faith Communities/Partners

Based on Polaris Project, research these are the actions-steps that faith-based organizations should take prior to getting involved with servicing survivors of human trafficking.

Educate: Learn and share the facts about labor and sex trafficking. Resource Library
Welcome: Create a welcoming environment for trafficking survivors. Cultivate a welcoming community for survivors, whether they have disclosed their history or not. Avoid judgment about survivors’ experiences and do not be prescriptive about conditions for services or support. It is important that they feel welcome and supported without the coercion of following a particular faith.
Partner: Building partnerships with organizations servicing survivors. Fighting human trafficking requires the collaboration of actors from the entire community. Partner with local organizations that are already doing the work and servicing survivors.
Report: Call the National Trafficking Resource Center. If you have information about a potential situation, call your local authorities or the National Hotline.
Prevent: Engage in prevention work for human trafficking. Efforts to educate members about the commercial sex industry and meet basic needs can reduce the risk of exploitation. Education is important as well to address those individuals who are buying children for sex.
Advocate: Advocate for stronger protections for survivors. Faith communities can play an influential role in advancing efforts by advocating for strengthened legislation.
Volunteer: your time and skills to local organizations. Encourage members of your faith community to volunteer their time and talents for local initiatives.
Donate: to local organizations that are servicing survivors and victims of trafficking and exploitation.
Purchase: Shop fair trade and support ethical business practices. Communities of faith can influence corporate policies and practices by pushing for companies to develop ethical business practices as they relate to human trafficking.

Toolkit for Parents, Guardians, and Caregivers

Online educational resources for parents:

What Parents and Guardians Need to Know

You can find here a quick visual with tips, information, and tools that help parents and caregivers to identify red flags, understanding is sexual exploitation and trafficking, and how to respond to help your child.

Parent Coalition to End Human Trafficking: Anti-Trafficking International

You can find a diversity of services and tools here. From parent support to youth prevention education.

Nationwide Children: Human Trafficking. Understanding the Red Flags.

This article will provide you with some of the most common red flags to recognize if your child or a loved one is being target or recruited into exploitation or trafficking.

Baylor University. How to Talk About HT with Children and Adolescents

This article gives an overview of what human trafficking is, how to speak to young and older children, and adolescents about trafficking, and how to help them. In addition, the article provides with tools for parents and educators.

Toolkit Related to social media and Mobile Apps

In this section, you will find a list of resources for parents to gain some insight into monitoring their children's social media. Additionally, some of these sites have information created specifically for children.

This is a great site for families. They review all kinds of applications including some monitoring apps. The great thing about them is that they have adults and children reviewing applications. The children's reviews are very valuable as they offer more insight into what the application is like from their perspective. www.commonsensemedia.org

This site teaches parent controls and hosts internet safety webinars. www.protectyoungeyes.com

This site helps with methods to look through devices and navigate social media applications so that parents can do better jobs when checking their child's social media. www.fosi.org/good-digital-parenting

The information on this site is created and maintained by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It has some good info, and it is categorized very well for parents, young children, teens, teachers, and law enforcement. There are presentations and PSA videos that could be downloaded. www.netsmartz.org

A great app for parents with gamers in the house. This site can be used to search for the rating of a particular game, and it also explains why some applications and games have certain age ratings. www.esrb.org

Methods for Parents

How can you keep your child safe while surfing the internet? Remember that any app can be a door for predators to reach children. Wherever children go, criminals intent on hurting or exploiting children will follow. Here are some methods that you can employ to make children less vulnerable online.

Set expectations and enforce consequences: Far too many parents give children a phone or tablet with no rules, expectations, or limitations. You will never give your child a car without knowing how to drive, right? Be very direct with rules and expectations. Make sure to enforce the consequences of failing to follow the internet rules and expectations.
Set limitations: Limit the time, location, and frequency of phone or tablet usage. Preferable children should use their tablets or smart phones in the living room, dining room, or kitchen where they can monitor usage. When children are lured into posting something inappropriate, the creation of the inappropriate files tend to occur in a bathroom or bedroom where the parents are unable to monitor. Interesting note, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, Reddit founder Alex Ohanian, and Snapchat Evan Spiegel are all well known for limiting or setting plans to limit their children's usage of electronic devices. Just saying! Additionally, the World Health Organization has set limitation recommendations for screen time. Read the report here.
Direct monitoring: There are no filters that can replace an attentive parent and the direct supervision of parents. Do not rely on applications to keep your child safe. Remember that every time you download an application, you have to give that application certain permissions. You may have no way of knowing what information is extracted by filters or what is done with that information.
Keep lines of communication open: Cultivating and encouraging open communication with your children can prevent them from keeping information from you that can be harmful to them. The earlier a parent knows about a problem, the better. Open lines of communication with our children potentially increases the possibilities for our kids to be at risk while using the internet.
Report: Parents should report incidents. The best way to report is using the CyberTip line operated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The site is www.cybertipline.org and the phone number is 1-800-THE-LOST.

Additional Resources

https://www.supporthtsurvivors.org

https://www.missingkids.org/theissues/trafficking

Dalton, J. Dr. (n/d). Sex Trafficking’s Vulnerable Targets: Children with Intellectual Disabilities.

Smith, M. A. (2013). Culturally Sensitive Trauma-informed Therapy for Youthful Victims of Human Sex Trafficking: Setting a Course to Healing. Journal of Modern Education Review, 3(7), 523-532.

Youth who Identify within the LGBTQIA+ community:

https://www.dressember.org/blog/the-link-between-lgbtq-youth-and-human-trafficking

https://polarisproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/LGBTQ-Sex-Trafficking.pdf

https://www.supporthtsurvivors.org/lgbtq

Youth of color:

https://polarisproject.org/blog/2020/07/racial-disparities-covid-19-and-human-trafficking/

https://www.dressember.org/blog/raceandtrafficking

https://love146.org/lets-talk-about-race-and-human-trafficking/

https://www.dressember.org/blog/raceandtrafficking

Youth with disabilities:

https://www.ovcttac.gov/taskforceguide/eguide/4-supporting-victims/45-victim-populations/victims-with-physical-cognitive-or-emotional-disabilities/

https://polarisproject.org/blog/2018/08/individuals-with-disabilities-may-face-increased-risk-of-human-trafficking/