WEBVTT

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And it's about the one of the
most horrible things happening in the world today

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is the sexual exploitation of children.
May the darkest, deepest recesses of hell

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be reserved for those in that particular
line of work. And I think so

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much of that is happening now because
of cross border crossings of children. Many

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times the person being exploited must pay
with body or with labor in some sense

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or another, and it is disgusting. And I had thought that ninety nine

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point nine nine percent of us understand
this, But there's a little bit of

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a pushback happening about maybe this is
not real, maybe it's a conspiracy theory,

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God knows what. But to Haley
McNamara is the vice president of the

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National Center Sexual Exploitation. They've been
doing this work for about the last sixty

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years. Hailey McNamara, welcome,
I think for the first time to the

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Bill Cunningham Show. And Haley,
First of all, what impact has this

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movie head on the awareness of individuals
that are being sexually exploited to the tune

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literally of millions around the world.
But has this movie been an impetus or

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has it always been there? You
know, this issue unfortunately has existed probably

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since the dawn of time. But
it definitely is sparking interest and awareness,

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which is always a really good thing. And I'm heartened by the number of

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people who are seeing this movie and
then saying they want to learn more and

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they want to do something about it. Is the cross border situation, not

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just in America but really all over
the world, especially in Europe and elsewhere.

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Is that an impetus for more children
being sexually abused because of what's happening

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on our southern border. Yes,
unfortunately, you know, sex traffickers and

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abusers of any kind will always target
a vulnerable population, and so we see

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that this happens, you know,
internationally at border crossings, but it also

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happens domestically in America as well,
often online grooming of children, and so

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yeah, so it definitely happens across
borders, but it also happens even within

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our own communities. Sometimes even children
that go to school and sleep in their

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own beds at night and their parents
don't realize that they're still being sexually exploited.

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It's in the suburbs. Can you
explain, first of all, give

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us a definition of sex traffick and
then I want to talk about in the

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suburbs. If you're in Austin,
Texas, Cincinnati, Ohio's Chicago, it

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could be happening next door to and
your next department, next house. But

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what is sex trafficking? So,
sex trafficking is any kind of commercialized sex

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act that's induced by force or fraud
or coercion. People often think about force,

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maybe the movie Taken someone being kidnapped
and held in chains. Unfortunately,

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that can happen and does happen.
But one of the primary ways in America

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that sex trafficking is in force is
through psychological coercion, whether with children or

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adults. This can be grooming,
building a relationship, building trust, and

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slowly escalating abuse until it gets to
a point of sex trafficking. So yeah,

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So, like I said, unfortunately, this happens all across America,

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in small rural communities and in large
cities as well. Very often it's online

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grooming on places like Instagram or even
video games that are child centric like Roadblocks

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and other places, and so it's
something that everyone definitely needs to be aware

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of and engaged on. Haley mc
mary, Let's take us through a typical

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circumstance all of them are outrageous.
Let's say there's a mother and two little

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girls, or a mother and a
boy and a girl making their way from

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El Salvador and they work through Mexico. How does the grooming, how does

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the process, How does the selling
of those children begin? So all of

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sex trafficking, all of the money
comes into this because of people who are

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willing to purchase someone for sex.
So that's the market that the sex traffickers

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are using. So they'll find someone
for vulnerability. So in the case of

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a border, it's might be someone
who's trying to cross and needs assistance and

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then they're told, you know that
this is that by allowing people to buy

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purchase them is a way that they'll
get save passage, or they might have

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a debt that is incurred and they're
told this is a way to work off

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their debt, or you know,
domestically, this might be a person who

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believes that they're in a romantic relationship
with the trafficker who says that, you

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know, by allowing someone to buy
them is a way to make money for

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them to maybe run away or what
have you. Of course, this is

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also such a big problem for homeless
use as well, So there's always kind

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of an extortion based on a vulnerability. But I think it's really important that

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we recognize that it's the sex buyers
who really are as a root cause of

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all sex trafficking. You know,
if people didn't buy sex, the sex

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trafficking would disappear overnight. And as
far as the long term impact, if

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you're a seven, eight, nine, ten year old girl or a boy,

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it happens to both genders, and
you find yourself trapped in this world,

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you look toward your mother or your
father for protection and for guidance.

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And when that wall of trust is
broken down because the mother or the father

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or the person you're with has said
you go with that man over there and

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do what he tells you to do, how does it? How does a

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child process that? How does a
child look at that and say, a

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child doesn't even know I can get
out of that. But what impact does

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that have on the child's life immediately? Yeah, the trauma is really I

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mean almost unmeasurable. So of course, you know, trust, the ability

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to trust is greatly damage. Of
course, there's physical damage and trauma and

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also psychological trauma. You know,
severe mental health impacts have been noted in

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survivors of sex trafficking, you know, leading to struggling sometimes lifelong with depression

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or substance abuse issues as well,
which is why you know, really donating

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to or supporting volunteering with exit services
and recovery services, mental health programs for

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survivors is so key because yes,
it's just an untold amount of trauma as

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we sit here now, do you
have some number as the number of children

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in the United States of America being
sexually trafficked at this point? Are we

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talking thousands, hundreds of thousands or
more. I would say at least hundreds

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of thousands. You know, the
numbers on these things aren't really difficult because

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this is a crime that happens in
the shadows, and most of sex trafficking

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doesn't get reported. You know,
sometimes we think that every sex trafficking victim

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would identify themselves as such, but
typically they are, you know, in

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psychological chains and don't even recognize that
they're being exploited while it's happening. So

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it's it's very difficult to get a
strong number. But we do know that

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the majority, large percentage of youth
online around a third or a fourth do

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experience some kind of sexual overtone from
adults online, whether that's sexualized comment,

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a direct message trying to initiate a
relationship. Obviously, not all of those

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are onboarding to sex trafficking, but
we do see that there's a large amount

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of grooming and potential abuse that contacting
children online and for some that could escalate

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to sex trafficking. Is what we've
seen in Sound of Freedom, the number

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one movie of this summer is that. Is that a real depiction of what

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occurs. Yeah, Unfortunately, it's
true that there are, you know,

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around the world, brothels and massage
parlors and strip clubs where miners are sexually

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exploited. I would say that in
America that does happen. Absolutely it does.

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But also, like I had said, a lot of it is facilitated

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online, and even recording of child
sexual abuse being uploaded to mainstream pornography sites

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and social media is a real epidemic
right now. So I would say it

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looks somewhat different in scale on internationally
versus domestically, but the issue is very

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much still the same and is really
real. If you're a mother, a

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father, if you're an adult,
many times are antennants are not up on

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this kind of an issue. I
know airlines and flight attendants are watching for

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this kind of stuff, but this
is happening in suburbs, It's happening next

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door, It's happening constantly. What
are some of the cues? Are the

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keys that someone who wants to help
can actually observe and see definitely, So

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I would say do some research on
the signs of sex trafficking. This could

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look a lot of different ways depending
on your context. And they're our national

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hotlines that you can report any suspected
signs of sex trafficking too, but especially

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even for within your own community among
children, especially if you see real changes

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in behavior, maybe a kid suddenly
acting out, a kid who's maybe scared

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to go to sleep, or maybe
regressing things like wedding the bed or there's

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a number of different signs you can
look for in children that you know in

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your own life, and even just
crushing your own gut. If something seems

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off, it's good to ask questions
and if there's a concern, to report

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it or contact additional supports to assess
the situation. And it's a really important

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thing to do. It happens also
I've done topics on this before, where

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a teenage boy or girl gets into
a situation with a trafficker that does not

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know it's a trafficker. When that's
going on and pictures are taken, are

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shared, and then extortion takes place. So, if you live in a

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fine suberb community and you have a
vulnerable child, a boy or a girl,

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explain the process of how traffickers get
into the minds of children and then

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turn them for profit. Absolutely,
So, unfortunately, you know, every

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child online is vulnerable to these things. I think people will often assume,

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even thinking of their own family as
well, my child comes from a stable

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and loving family, they will be
fine. This is an issue for other

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people. But unfortunately, with the
Internet, every child is vulnerable. So

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and a predator might reach out initiate
a relationship. They might even be known

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to the victim, or claim to
go to their school, claim to be

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a friend of a friend. So
in the child's mind, they don't think

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to tell their parents that they're talking
to a stranger online. They think they're

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talking to someone that they know,
and then and then there really is a

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process of gaining that child's trust and
very often, like you said, it

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will escalate to asking for sexual images, and then those images can be used

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to extort either for the creation of
more images, sometimes more extreme, or

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to even meet in real life for
sexual abuse or sex trafficking. And this

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kind of dynamic doesn't even only happen
to children. It happens to adults as

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well. And I'm sure your listeners
are familiar with the terms like revenge photography

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or the non consensual sharing of explicit
images, which is often used to extort

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or keep someone in an abusive relationship
as well. So if you or someone

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that you know has dealt with this, if they're a minor, I would

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recommend going to the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children, and they have

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an entire program that helps removed images
of children online and to get you connected

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with law enforcements. So that's the
National Center on Missing and Exploited Children.

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And if you're an adult who's experienced
your images being shared online, I would

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recommend the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative,
and they also have a lot of persons

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for how to get images removed and
how to involve law enforcement is needed.

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Haley mcmarrion in the United States of
America, I think ninety nine point nine

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percent of us consider this to be
a representation of absolute evil. But there

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are some movements of groups who contend
that a child, even a teenager,

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has the right to determine to have
sex with an adult. And we did

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that topic about ten years ago and
I cut off in the middle. I

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said, that's it. We're not
going to do that anymore. And isn't

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there a movement or an idea that
if you're a child, but that I

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mean seven, eight, nine,
ten years old, or a teenager sixteen

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or seventeen, you should have the
right to have sex with an adult.

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Yeah, Unfortunately, there is a
real normalization of that concept that's happening,

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and so it's really important for us
all to be vocal and strong about recognizing

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that that is child sexual abuse,
and especially if there is the commercialized element.

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You know, under federal law,
any kind of commercialized sex act involving

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a minor is by definition sex trafficking, even if that minor quote unquote agreed

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to it. Right, So it's
really important for us to know the laws

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on these matters and to speak out
against normalization of child sexual abuse. Well,

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in this hit movie, of course, the star Jim Cavezel plays the

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part of a government employee who becomes
enraged at what he sees observing. In

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certain parts of the world, this
is acceptable. For example, in Asia,

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Africa, India, it is not
that unusual for moms and dads to

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sell their children. Am I correct
about then? Yeah, And unfortunately that's

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happening in America as well, of
adults even from theimes, selling their children

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or allowing sexual abuse to happen to
their children. So this is, you

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know, this is a worldwide epidemic, and it's something that's a really dark

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topic. People often feel like there's
nothing that they can do, but there

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really is so much that can be
done. So of course, you know,

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we've talked about investing in aftercare services, volunteering, knowing the signs yourself

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and being such an important part.
But we also have a campaign called the

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Dirty dozen list, or we named
twelve mainstream companies that contribute to sexual exploitation,

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and many of those are online platforms
that contribute to sex trafficking, such

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as Instagram, roadblocks, Twitter and
others that people don't really realize there's grooming

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happening. There's facilitation of advertisements for
sex trafficking, happening there, and if

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you go to dirty dozen list dot
com you can take action in really tangible

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ways. You can email the executives
at these companies, and we've seen progress

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happen. TikTok, for example,
has made it so that adult strangers cannot

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direct message miners anymore on their platform. This is so common sense, and

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there's much more progress that needs to
happen. But I would be I would

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want to encourage people that while this
is it's quite a dark issue, and

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it is an epidemic around the world
and within America as well, but there

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are steps that we can take to
try to prevent some of this harm from

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happening. And handling mcnamary, You've
been at this, your group has for

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about sixty years. But I have
a sense things are getting worse, not

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getting better. Is that fair?
I think that that's true, especially with

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the rise of the Internet. You
know, it's just made anyone who has

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an inclination to abuse another person have
easy access to vulnerable people. So I

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think that's why we really focus on
kind of mass scale prevention is what we

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want to enact. We will always
need exit services for people who've been victimized,

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but if we can prevent a number
of people, especially children, for

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being contacted it by exploiters in the
first place. That can just prevent so

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much untold trauma. So that's a
large part of what our organizations are working

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to do, both with corporate policy, legislation and also litigation on behalf of

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survivors. I'm looking at the headline
of USA today the newspaper. It says

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why Sound of Freedom, Jim Caviezel's
controversial child sex trafficking film is a hit,

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And I don't think it's controversial.
I would hope we're divided politically among

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so many areas of life, but
I would hope that the exploitation of the

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most innocent among us is such an
issue that it's not controversial. It must

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be stopped. Those who are involved
in it must be stopped, and men

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and some women mainly it's men involved
in this trade have got to stop buying

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children once again. Dirty dozenlist dot
com is out of sight and what's another

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website. If someone suspects somehow the
child being exploited for sexual purposes, I

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would go to the National Human Trafficking
Hotline, and there's a number you can

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text for a call and they also
have a website. All right, Hailey

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McNamara, Vice President, National Center
of Sexual Exportation of Children, thank you

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for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. I'm glad this movie's out. I

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would encourage everyone to see this movie. It's one of those things you have

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to understand what's happening, and this
all around is constantly we must act as

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one. And Hailey McNamara, once
again, thank you for coming on the

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Bill Cunningham Show, and good luck
on all your ventures. Thank you,

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Hailey, thank you. All right, let's continue if the line becomes available.

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Five one, three, seven,
four, nine, seven thousand.

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00:17:42.720 --> 00:17:48.680
Bill Cunningham News Next at your home
of the Reds News Radio seven hundred wlw

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00:17:48.839 --> 00:17:51.440
I Major League Picture Hunter Green.
For your next new car, go to

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Jake Sweeney Chevrolet Fine New Roads and
get up to sixty two fifty off Silver

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Audo crew Cap fifteen hundred