Sex trafficking prevention event highlights online/person threats to children | Local News

NORTH MANKATO — Jane Vader says many people in the region don't think child exploitation/sex trafficking happens here because they don't see sex workers on the streets.

“A lot of it is happening online. Kids are groomed and then exploited,” said Vader, a regional navigator for the Minnesota Department of Health's Safe Harbor Program.

She said kids might be sold for in-person sex meetups or for online sexual exploitation by pimps. Or, after being manipulated, they may start selling themselves.

She said some area youth have said on surveys that they have sold sex for money, food or drugs.

“It's very hard to track it down,” she said of online exploitation. “If one site is shut down, more go up. There are thousands of them,” she said Tuesday at South Central College during a sex trafficking prevention training program, which was hosted by Lutheran Social Service. The event drew a couple of hundred people.

Elizabeth Harstad, community impact director for the Greater Mankato Area United Way, which provided support for the event, said that because of work by Lutheran Social Service and others in recent years, people are more aware sex trafficking and exploitation is happening everywhere.

“This training has high attendance, so I think people have higher awareness of what's going on now.”

Jess Dewar, a social work student at SCC, said she came to the event to learn more.

“I think it's great education for anyone and especially if you're going into social work.”

She is finishing her second year at SCC, after which she plans to finish her degree at Minnesota State University with an eye on going into child welfare work.

Dewar said she thinks the online exploitation of juveniles is growing. “I think it keeps getting worse, especially with COVID when everyone was isolated.”

Vader said that while it's very difficult for law enforcement to track down and prosecute online exploitation of juveniles, giving girls and boys the prevention training they need can open their eyes to red flags.

She uses a training program developed by Love146, a group that fights exploitation and helps victims.

Love146 (love146.org) was founded in 2002 by a group that went on an exploratory trip to Southeast Asia to see how they could help combat child trafficking. Investigators took several co-founders into a brothel where they witnessed young girls being sold for sex. The girls were given numbers of identification pinned to their dresses. One girl, with No. 146 pinned to her, stood out to the group because of her piercing gaze.

The Love 146 “Not a Number” training program is aimed at kids 12-18 and taught in schools, treatment centers and elsewhere in the region.

“We talk about red flags in relationships,” Vader said. “Emotional, physical and sexual abuse. We discuss tactics pimps use to groom people — one of the most common is they're your boyfriend at first and they shower you with gifts and attention and slowly manipulate.”

The training also talks about what kids share on their phones. “I tell them if you have a nude photo even of yourself on your phone and you're under 18, you are in possession of child pornography and that's a felony,” she said.

“We just talk about safety and planning and the vulnerabilities we all have and most important to seek out help and talk to someone when you see red flags.”

While the “Not a Number” training is geared toward juveniles, Tuesday's session was aimed at showing parents, caregivers, social workers, teachers and anyone else who works with kids how to detect warning signs that a child may be in danger of exploitation or has been sexually exploited.

Harstad said the local United Way has become a bigger and bigger supporter of Lutheran Social Service's programs for training and helping victims or those at risk, many whom they come into contact with at their REACH Youth Resource Center in Mankato.

“Lutheran Social Service was really on the forefront on making people aware of the problem,” Harstad said.