January is Human Trafficking Prevention Month. While people of any age can be trafficked, the truth is that children as young as 10 are being sold for sex on-line, as well as in-person by boy or girl friends, family members, friends or gangs. No child should be sold for sex!

IN 2020 alone over 440 missing or exploited children were rescued by the United States Marshals Service (USMS) in Georgia, Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, Louisiana and other states. Thank God for their rescue and safety. But sex trafficking should not happen in the US at all! No child should be put in such awful circumstances.

Parents, you need to know how to protect your kids from their being caught in trafficking. “Connect” (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: Parent CONNECT: Child Safety Virtual Discussion Series (missingkids.org)) is a web site maintained by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It is filled with helpful videos to give you tips about topics like Talking to Teens about Sexting, COVID and On-line Safety, Live Streaming and Online Exploitation and others. When you click on the link above, hit the ‘register’ button that appears at the upper right on the screen. That will give you access to the videos. Each is about 30 minutes long and you will be better equipped to handle the topic material in your own family.

Dire news coming from Richmond. The Family Foundation says that our governor has replaced the Teen Sex Text Hotline with two more ways teens can communicate with complete strangers about sex and related issues without their parents’ knowledge, Gov Northam Promotes MORE Teen SexText Hotlines! (familyfoundation.org).

The Virginia Department of Health website has links to three webpages where kids can communicate with someone anonymously, one of those being Planned Parenthood!  Your kids can talk online with total strangers about very personal and intimate matters and you won’t even know it. Someone’s daughter could become pregnant and discuss abortion without their parents’ involvement. Is that what you want for your daughter?

Having access to web sites like this is another form of exploitation of our children. Parents, you need to be the one(s) involved with your children in making decisions involving sexual issues and concerns, not total strangers! Please! Look at the videos cited above. Talk with your children and build a relationship of trust with them, so they can come to YOU with their questions and secrets, not rely on total strangers.  You can do it! You MUST do it for the sake of your kids!

— Posted by Tom Salmon for Doris, a fellow member of the Prince William and Manassas Family Alliance