“Human Trafficking” is the thirteenth of fifteen teen articles received in spring 2024 from Piute High School students. Three of them were published in The Byway‘s most recent May paper. The rest will be featured online.
Human trafficking is a worldwide crime that has terrorized people all over the world. It is the process of trading people and exploiting them to make a profit. All people can become victims of this crime and it is one that needs to be stopped. Traffickers or criminals who are a part of human trafficking use violence, fake promises of education, fake job opportunities, and fraudulent employment agencies. Basically traffickers deceive their victims in any way they can to lure them in. We need to begin to make a major effort in trying to stop or just slow down this global crime.
One solution that could help is spreading awareness and educating people on what trafficking is and is not. We will lower the chances of being trafficked if we are able to know what it is and what their tactics are. Traffickers use all sorts of tactics to draw people. A lot of these ideas are quite simple but can be very effective. In the article “Shedding a Light on Human Trafficking: Ways to Spread Awareness” in the Soroptimist Blog website, it says “Educate Your Community: Organize or participate in awareness campaigns, workshops, or online events to spread information about human trafficking.” The government needs to get communities to spread information and awareness to all people so we can help protect them.
Another solution is using technology to our advantage. We can use technology to enhance prevention, prosecution efforts, and the biggest is detection. In the article “Technology and human trafficking: Fighting the good fight” Thomson Reuters states, “However, AI also can be used as a force for good. It can help track the locations of victims and abusers through the unique lens identifiers in cell phones. Researchers at MIT have developed machine learning algorithms that analyze to determine whether online commercial sex ads might be connected to human traffickers.” Technology can be a very big tool in fighting against human trafficking. Being able to detect victims and abusers can help us save many people and hopefully make a big dent in solving human trafficking.
One last solution is working together through collaboration. The government should also get way more involved in fixing this and possibly getting the military to help. The military has good experience and technology to help. As a society, leaders like mayors, Prime Ministers, and even some popular celebrities need to come together to stand against human trafficking and work to put an end to it. They could do this with assemblies and fundraisers to spread awareness. We need to come up with new ideas and plans until human trafficking is fully exterminated. Collaboration is what made our world what it is today. All the success and good things are because of working together. Collaborating with one another can make the process of dealing with human trafficking much easier and faster.
As the famous quote reads, “Teamwork makes the dream work,” so through collaboration we can hopefully make the dream of ending human trafficking into a reality. Let’s begin to make an effort in trying to stop human trafficking and take down this global crime.
– by Nash Fautin (10th) Piute High School
Feature image courtesy of Abbie Call, The Byway.
Read more from Piute teens in Beyond Perfect by Riyo Winckel.