The Affero Blog
Girls Are Not For Sale
By Rob Harvey in News
Rachel Llyod
Rachel Lloyd is a champion. She is also a survivor of human sex trafficking. As a child she was exploited commercially in the industry, first as a nude model at age 14 and then as a prostitute three years later. After a few years, Rachel left the sex industry and immigrated to the United States to work with incarcerated adult women, and later working to end domestic human trafficking. She began working with adult women who were coming out of prostitution, as well as women incarcerated at Rikers Island and county correctional facilities. She also reached out to women working the streets on Hunts Point in the Bronx. She now runs Girls Educational & Mentoring Services which empowers young women, ages 12-21, exit the sex industry.
Very Young Girls is an exposé of the commercial sexual exploitation of girls in New York City as they are sold on the streets by pimps, and treated as adult criminals by police. The film follows barely-adolescent girls in real time, using vérité and intimate interviews with them, documenting their struggles and triumphs as they seek to exit the commercial sex industry. The film also uses startling footage shot by pimps themselves, giving a rare glimpse into how the cycle of exploitation begins for many women. Very Young Girls will change the way law enforcement, the media, and society as a whole look at sexual exploitation, street prostitution and human trafficking that is happening right in our own backyard.
CraigsList Prostitution Sting Shows Illegal Sex Trade Still Rampant. A year after investigating prostitution via Craigslist, MSNBC has gone undercover to once again probe the illegal sex trade on Craigslist and see what the site has done to “clean up its act” since last May. The report found that prostitution on Craigslist was still prominent, even after the site had promised to crack down.
MSNBC’s Jeff Rossen rented a hotel room in New York City, then contacted individuals who had posted ads on Craigslist’s “Adult Services” section. Once the escort arrived at the hotel, “within seconds, it was clear this was all about sex,” Rossen reports. Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal compares the sex trade on Craigslist to “an online red light district” that’s “as obvious and plain to you as Times Square was in the 70s or 80s.”
The New York Times has a story estimating Craigslist’s sex-related revenue to be around $36 million dollars, or something close to a third of its estimated $100+ million in revenues. Many ads are are related to prostitution, and some to underage prostitution. So obviously Craigslist is being investigated yet again over this revenue. The fact that the company is fiercely private about its revenues and organization doesn’t make the picture any easier.
We believe the end of modern day slavery will come from individuals who gather together to push on businesses, media, and governments to support their existing values for human rights. We believe that this is a bottom-up movement that needs dynamic information, sustained inspiration, and most importantly, tactile activation. Will you join the movement?
CALL+RESPONSE produced documentary film that reveals the world’s 27 million dirtiest secrets: there are more slaves today than ever before in human history. CALL+RESPONSE goes deep undercover where slavery is thriving from the child brothels of Cambodia to the slave brick kilns of rural India to reveal that in 2009, Slave Traders made more money than Google, Nike and Starbucks combined.
There is a sea of change happening in human rights activism. The world’s issues cannot be solved alone by governments and non-profits, but require community-based participation. As a feature film, CALL+RESPONSE serves as a deft tool in the hands of 21st Century Abolitionists. We believe this is a fight that must that is won with passion, innovation, and commitment. What’s your response going to be?