Teen Sex Trafficking Hides in the Internet

According to police, almost all adult prostitutes started as children

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By Lauren Maxwell
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Story Created: Jun 19, 2012 at 7:22 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Jun 20, 2012 at 8:32 AM AKDT

ANCHORAGE - “People would be shocked at what is happening right here, in their own town,” said Sergeant Kathy Lacey. Because these days prostitution doesn’t hide on street corners, it hides in the internet.

Underground sex traffickers never have to put young girls on the street.

“A lot of it is behind closed doors,” said Lacey. “So we as a society think it’s not exploding. There’s so much money and cash involved in prostitution, it’s incredible.”

According to police, almost all adult prostitutes started as children. In Anchorage the average age is 15 years old. However, one Covenant House worker has a story about a 14-year-old who confided in her after watching a television show.

“A story came on about human trafficking, and she later disclosed that she had been a victim of human trafficking,” said Lauren Rice. “So you have this young 14-year-old, wearing bunny slippers, sitting in our shelter that night and two weeks earlier she was being raped in hotel rooms.”

Outreach workers say their only chance is to try and give vulnerable kids a choice. They don’t just need a place to stay, but a sense that there are people who care.

“They have to be able to trust us, to disclose some of the stuff that's going on and trust that we have their best interests in mind,” said Matthew Dompier of Covenant House.

The offer of the kind of help that may convince some to take control of their lives before they end up giving everything away.

According to detectives, sex traffickers do everything they can to keep their young victims off the radar, so it is difficult to make arrests or get actual numbers as to how many young girls are involved.

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Slick said on Tuesday, Jun 19 at 9:40 PM

In our society, there are some families who just shouldn't have children, but they doI would like to see the bands transmit and receive from a closing distance. Enough of free creeps!

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Little Eddie said on Tuesday, Jun 19 at 8:20 PM

Nice spelling KTVA! "In there own town" What college of Journalism did Lauren Maxwell go to?

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