ONLINE SAFETY TIPS to Protect Children from Human Traffickers
Here are some important ONLINE SAFETY TIPS to protect your children from human traffickers online. In this video, District Attorney Summer Stephan shares some important tips:
When it comes to children, parents have to be extra careful because the average age of a victim of human trafficking is 15 years old, but sadly we have seen victims as young as 12 years old in hotel rooms being prostituted. Kids are easily susceptible to attention online and even boys can be victims of human trafficking. Often times, traffickers and predators find them in gaming rooms and develop a relationship where they pose as a similarly aged boy or girl.
📌 Talk to your kids about the safety of the internet.
📌Make sure that their phone is not with them at night, that they’re using it in a public/shared space in your home.
📌 Make sure that they don’t have a second account that is hidden from you.
📌 Use the protective/parental controls that are available in different apps to control the content your child can see.
📌 It’s OK to say “no” to providing a phone that does anything more than just call you, a limited number, or siblings, cousins or parents. You have the right to set those parental controls until there is a full understanding of the safety risks that social media and the ability to be contacted by the entire world online.
⚠️Communication is very important⚠️
Continue to talk to your kids about safety and make sure that they know that you will be able to help them make their phone safe if they ever receive anything that scares them or asks them to do something that is out of their comfort level.
📌SAVE and 📣SHARE this information with everyone you know.
🚨If you are in immediate danger, contact 911.
☎️For immediate assistance, call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. You can reach the Hotline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in more than 200 languages. All calls are confidential and answered live by highly trained Anti-Trafficking Hotline Advocates.
