Take a moment to look around. Surrounding you is a life of opportunity, choices, free will... Now imagine that control of your own life being stolen from you. Imagine not only another human being controlling your actions momentarily, but your thoughts, emotions, and fears dictating your every thought for the rest of your entire life. The results of sex trafficking expand further than the immediate physical trauma. Sexual abuse is more than one instant. It is a lifetime. And chances are, it is not far from you. One in four girls are abused sexually before the age of eighteen. Children are being posed and controlled as puppets. Someone's daughter or son, someone's childhood best friend, someone's sister or brother is being labeled with a price tag and sold like property as you read this. And since that child can't use his or her voice, it's your job to use yours.

There are more slaves today in the world than during any other era in American history. This indescribable, horrific crime takes place in the town you are in now, and the longer we ignore the fact that this is happening in our own backyards, the more children are dehumanized. $32 billion worth of income is brought in yearly worldwide as a result of the selling of bodies. That is 32 billion dollars too much, as life, bodies, and humans are priceless. The value of one's life is more than the sex industry could ever profit. A child's mental health, physical being, and entire future has more weight than any amount of dollar bills.

As social media grows, it is easier for traffickers to get a hold of youth. Life revolves so much around virtual communication that the glass screen that a teenager sits behind could easily shield them from the truth of who they are talking to over the web. At such a vulnerable age, teenage girls specifically could be coerced into meeting someone they have "trusted" and "gotten to know" over many months. That "friend" could be their worst nightmare. Teenagers can be told over and over again about the dangers of online chatting and meeting with strangers in general, but it also takes standing up to the sick minds who mold the future generations of the world into their objects of lust. It takes "ordinary" people like us, who can become much more than ordinary through volunteering, donating, and educating, to end what has become the worst slavery epidemic in history.

The world seems to be shaping itself into a community where the sex industry is more than acceptable, where objectifying any human being is just a part of life and that is sickening. While the world is being driven into this disgusting pit of dehumanization, educate yourself so that the brakes will be put on this awful issue surrounding every community. Every city has a different situation when it comes to sex trafficking, so it is important to do the research, because no matter how much the problem varies place to place, it all boils down to one result: the pain and objectifying of voiceless children. Take a step to address sex trafficking, so that others will stand beside you. We must walk through this together for our sons and daughters, for our childhood best friends, for our sisters and brothers. The price of bodies is more than just a value: life is unconditionally priceless.

Organizations in the Houston area that address sex trafficking:

http://uaht.org/

http://www.freethecaptiveshouston.com/

http://redeemedministries.com/who-we-are/our-leade...

Books and movies with extensive information:

The White Umbrella by Mary Frances Bowley

The Abolitionists directed by Darrin Fletcher and Chet Thomas

http://theabolitionistsmovie.com/

Source: The White Umbrella by Mary Frances Bowley