Could you recognize the signs of child sex trafficking if they were right in front of you on the highway? Through the Rollin' 18 Podcast, I, Walter Gatlin, amplify the critical conversation on this hidden horror, especially within the trucking community. Every turn of the wheel and stop at a rest area presents an opportunity to save a life. Truckers are in a unique position to spot these injustices, and May 8th's episode will empower you to do just that. We dissect misconceptions, explain the grooming process by traffickers, and provide insights into the subtle signs of a child in distress. It's an episode that could very well turn everyday drivers into unsung heroes.
The road is long, and so is the reach of child sex traffickers. Our discussion takes a deep look into the tactics of abuse and exploitation, as witnessed on our nation's highways. With heartbreaking stories from the Truckers Against Trafficking initiative, listeners will confront the grim reality of these crimes and learn how to take actionable steps toward intervention. This is not just another podcast episode; it's a call to action for every trucker to become vigilant guardians of the vulnerable. Training your eyes and ears could lead to the rescue of victims and the dismantling of trafficking networks. So, buckle up and prepare for a journey into awareness and advocacy, because when it comes to protecting our children, every driver matters.
Could you recognize the signs of child sex trafficking if they were right in front of you on the highway? Through the Rollin' 18 Podcast, I, Walter Gatlin, amplify the critical conversation on this hidden horror, especially within the trucking community. Every turn of the wheel and stop at a rest area presents an opportunity to save a life. Truckers are in a unique position to spot these injustices, and May 8th's episode will empower you to do just that. We dissect misconceptions, explain the grooming process by traffickers, and provide insights into the subtle signs of a child in distress. It's an episode that could very well turn everyday drivers into unsung heroes.
The road is long, and so is the reach of child sex traffickers. Our discussion takes a deep look into the tactics of abuse and exploitation, as witnessed on our nation's highways. With heartbreaking stories from the Truckers Against Trafficking initiative, listeners will confront the grim reality of these crimes and learn how to take actionable steps toward intervention. This is not just another podcast episode; it's a call to action for every trucker to become vigilant guardians of the vulnerable. Training your eyes and ears could lead to the rescue of victims and the dismantling of trafficking networks. So, buckle up and prepare for a journey into awareness and advocacy, because when it comes to protecting our children, every driver matters.
Text me anytime with news, suggestions, and stories at (641) 990-5641. God bless, be safe, and keep it between the lines drivers.
Speaker 1:
hello drivers and welcome to Rollin' 18 Podcast. I appreciate you folks downloading my podcast listening to them. We try and make them as exciting and as realistic as possible. We want pertinent information to get out to you. Now today's topic, today's episode, is going to be extremely somber, but it has to be said because child sex trafficking is human trafficking of a child for sexual exploitation.
Speaker 1:
Now, I know the vast majority of you people have children out there that drive truck. You worry about your family at home, you worry about your children. We don't need any of this happening to us. But you know what? There's an estimated 250,000 children per year that are victims of sex trafficking. Most older children are trafficked while still going to school and living at home.
Speaker 1:
Now, the common misconception is that trafficking is the shackling and caging of older teen girls and women, forced through slavery. Slavery can be a form of trafficking. Historically it was the primary way that it was occurring. Now, with the increase of the sexualization of our preteens and teens, children often do not know they are victims, especially initially, Often gradually groomed by an older adult a man or a woman can do grooming. Often an older man will entice through promises of affection. This groomer is often a pimp in disguise and will later be the enforcer of the child's victimization. A woman can also be a groomer, which provides a hesitant young girl a false sense of safety. Rumor, which provides a hesitant young girl a false sense of safety. These women sometimes are called scouts and are often used by pimps to help lure in victims Drivers.
Speaker 1:
Child sex trafficking can involve children at any age. Trafficked children young children are more easily hidden and often are not seen or known by the public. A parent or family member is often trafficking them, as described above in this letter that I'm reading you. I encourage you to click on the links below and read about this stuff, Take the test, Learn how to spot trafficking, Trafficked and older teens are usually still engaging in society. I want you to listen to this clip from a Truckers Against Trafficking video.
Speaker 3:
It is very important that we learn my son and I were driving through Oklahoma City had the radio on and a guy comes on the radio hey, anybody want any underage girls.
Speaker 4:
This one. She didn't even look 13, 14 years old. She had no shoes on, she had a little mini skirt on.
Speaker 5:
She couldn't have been more than 14, 15 years old.
Speaker 1:
She probably looked in her 14, 15 years old. I really couldn't tell of her age, but she was very young and I know good and well a 14 year old, 15 year old, is not doing this on her own accord.
Speaker 5:
I remember looking into the eyes of some of these young girls. They were not willing participants in this at all.
Speaker 1:
So you know there's some kind of team effort in putting them out there. You have to wonder who's behind them. They have a pimp or whatever you want to call them traffickers, slaves, slave drivers, bottom up.
Speaker 2:
Sex trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery. It's when traffickers are using forced fraud or coercion to compel an individual to engage in commercial sex. It also involves anyone who's under the age of 18 is considered a victim of sex trafficking, regardless of the use of forced fraud or coercion, and this is an issue that affects all populations of victims men, women, children, foreign nationals and US citizens and it's really important that we understand that.
Speaker 5:
When most people think of the problem of child prostitution and sexual exploitation of children, they think of it as being a problem for foreign countries, for third world nations, and doesn't exist here in the US, and that's just not true.
Speaker 2:
People do not realize how big of a problem this is. In the United States it is extremely pervasive. It's happening in every single state.
Speaker 5:
The youngest child that we've recovered is nine. The average age is 13 to 14, possibly 15 years old if they get involved with prostitution.
Speaker 6:
Nobody wakes up and says, gosh, I'd really like to sell myself on the streets today. That is something that is being directed by the victimizer, by the trafficker, and these kids find themselves in a situation they cannot literally cannot, get out of.
Speaker 5:
If you have adult prostitution going on in your area, you have child prostitution going on in your area and it happens in a number of different venues.
Speaker 2:
And traffickers are not only exploiting the victims, but they're also exploiting these locations.
Speaker 4:
Here we are. You know, I'm 15 years old, my cousin is 14, and we're here at a truck stop. You know being forced to work it. You know being forced to go from truck to truck asking, you know if the guy would like to have sex with us. You know, and we're young girls, terrified out of our minds.
Speaker 5:
When the girls don't want to work, they're beaten. In extreme cases we've seen them drugged, addicted to heroin and things of that nature. It's a brainwashing that begins in a dependency that the pimps try to put on the girls so that they cannot live without them and that this is all that there can amount to and do.
Speaker 4:
From the very beginning. They drilled it into my head, they drilled it into her head that you know, if we try to act up, something really bad was going to happen. He threw me into the dining room table, busted me up pretty good, but, chrissy, he dragged up the stairs by her hair, threw her down the stairs and did it again like three more times. I didn't want to end up dead. I didn't want her dead and it be my fault, you know. I mean, it's like they had us completely wrapped, completely controlled, you know to where we were brainwashed, to where we were like okay, we have to do this or else something bad could happen. I mean, that's what they did. They just played us off each other and it worked.
Speaker 5:
I'm hard-pressed when I hear people say that, well, some do it willingly and want to do it willingly. I don't think anyone would really want to be beaten and raped on a daily basis, and beaten in the most extreme ways. Violence goes hand-in in hand with these type of cases and it's used to break down the girls, it's used to discipline the girls, it's used to gain complete control over them. So I don't think there's any real willingness of your victims, especially your child victims.
Speaker 6:
This is old-fashioned greed and where you can only sell a drug one time, you can sell a girl or a boy, or a man or a woman over and over and over again.
Speaker 4:
I was scared, unbelievably scared.
Speaker 5:
The trucking industry is in a unique position because they actually will be in locations that pimps will bring in their victims to be prostituted out. Pimps are very transient. They move around a lot. So do your girls. Your victims are being moved constantly, whether it's through planes or cars that they'll just drive, or bus tickets, or through trucks, any way that they can get to their money. That's how they're going to get there.
Speaker 3:
Truckers Against Trafficking is a grassroots organization. It comes alongside the trucking industry, recognizing that they're the eyes and ears of our nation's highways. They're in places that most people aren't and that they can recognize potential victims of human trafficking more than the rest of us, and so we equip them with tools that they can recognize, identify potential human trafficking victims and then a number to call, the national hotline number 1-888-373-7888, so that when they see human trafficking situations they can report those and hopefully get the victims recovered and perpetrators arrested.
Speaker 2:
The partnership between the Hotline and Truckers Against Trafficking has been really exciting. As soon as this campaign launched, we saw a significant increase in calls about trafficking cases. Now you're talking about a really highly trained group of individuals that are seeing trafficking. They know where to report it. They're reporting it right away. They're often seeing it while it's happening. Report it. They're reporting it right away. They're often seeing it while it's happening, and so it's even an earlier intervention and action point than a lot of the other cases that we're getting. And as a result, we have seen countless investigations. We've seen countless victims who've been recovered by law enforcement. So this is just. It's so important that this population knows what to recognize, knows who to call and feels comfortable doing that.
Speaker 3:
So signs to look for. The most important one is if you ever see a minor selling commercial sex. By federal definition, that is a child that is a victim of human trafficking. There is no such thing as a child prostitute. But it's not just minors who are being victimized here. We're also talking about adults who are victims of the sex trade.
Speaker 5:
So where your truckers can help out at their rest stops, they know who's coming in. You see a car pull in or a navigator pulling in. Why is a navigator pulling in with 10 girls in it and one guy behind the wheel? And all of a sudden you've got a bunch of young girls walking out in revealing or lingerie clothing.
Speaker 3:
So if you're in a parked location and you happen to see lights that are flashing, perhaps signaling that somebody is saying I'm an available buyer, that should be a red flag. Perhaps signaling that somebody is saying I'm an available buyer, that should be a red flag. If you happen to hear CB chatter about commercial company or somebody needing to make a quota, or somebody referencing their daddy or that boyfriend figure in their life, or if you're that local driver who is loading at a business front and you happen to see that unaccompanied minor or that minor who looks fearful or potentially is under the control of somebody else, what about branding? Do you see some tattoos claiming ownership over this person? This is a potential sign that you are interacting with a human trafficking victim.
Speaker 3:
We've had cases come back from drivers already who are having conversations with people and asking questions like are you traveling by yourself? We've had cases come back from drivers already who are having conversations with people and asking questions like are you traveling by yourself? And if they're not, who are they traveling with? When's the last time they've seen their family? Do they get to keep any of the money? These are important questions because they're going to help you determine whether or not. This person has the freedom to walk out the door or not, so traffickers are continuing to exploit businesses for criminal gain, and they don't care where it is, whether it's that major sporting event or a big convention that's coming to town, or in a bus terminal, or it could be a casino. Wherever it is, they're going to go where they can make money.
Speaker 2:
Everything from hotels and motels, commercial front brothels to residential brothels, to street-based prostitution, to truck stops.
Speaker 3:
The more you look, the more you'll find. So what should you do in these situations? Well, first and foremost, make the call. We need you. We need the person who has identified the tip to make the call. We need you. We need the person who has identified the tip to first make the call. Call the hotline 888-373-7888.
Speaker 2:
This is a 24-7 national hotline for victims and survivors of human trafficking and the anti-trafficking field.
Speaker 5:
It's always details, details. Details is what helps us. If you can simple things that you can note what's the vehicle, the color of the vehicle, the make of the vehicle, description of any occupants the girls, how many, race, possible age, if you think it may may not be. If you can get a license plate, state what the plate is, that's fantastic. If you can get a description of, state what the plate is, that's fantastic. You can get a description of who's driving it, who's in control of it.
Speaker 2:
If you call our hotline, you can remain completely confidential. Confidentiality and anonymity are very important to our callers and we take that very seriously. It's okay to be wrong. We want you to call whether you're sure or not.
Speaker 3:
And if you are in a location that has a general manager, go in then and tell the general manager they need to know what's going on on their property, wherever you are wherever you're parked.
Speaker 5:
You know it's getting involved. That much we're not saying go out there and grab the girls and try and drive away with them. No, don't try and rescue them on your own. Every one of these kids that are recovered and saved, every one of these guys that we arrest, that's preventing hundreds, if not thousands, of kids from being raped and abducted Drivers, you have children and you know how scared they would be if somebody else had them.
Speaker 1:
But not all children are forced into trafficking. Instead, they're persuaded, bribed, tricked or coerced. Do you hear me? You may have teenagers living at home coming home every day after school, being trafficked while they're away from the house and you not even know it. But you can know by the changes in everything that you know your child better than anyone and they might not understand that it's wrong or that it's abuse and that it's happening, especially to start with, and they might be afraid to tell someone they do not know they are being groomed or trafficked. They often do not realize how deep of a problem they are in until trapped and threatened and feel they have no other options.
Speaker 1:
Ladies and gentlemen, drivers, this is real. Go to the links below this podcast, click on them, learn how to identify exploitation and abuse and how to identify exploitation. Whether they're kidnapped or not, it makes no difference. I'm Walter Gatlin with Roland 18. We'll see you next time. Thank you for listening to Roland 18 Podcast. Visit our website at wwwroland18podcastcom. Remember we have a new episode every Monday, wednesday and Friday. Be safe out there, drivers. We love all of you.