POSTED: 7:05 am EDT November 5, 2010
UPDATED: 7:39 am EDT November 5, 2010
UPDATED: 7:39 am EDT November 5, 2010
[Trafficki ng Monitor: Click on URL at end to view interview.]
BOSTON -- Sexually exploited children are being bought and sold for sex, online and on the streets, in Massachusetts; but experts say human trafficking is hard to prosecute and even harder to track.
Newscenter 5's Bianca Delagarza talked to one woman who escaped what's called "the life."
"I've been beaten a lot of times. I've been raped multiple times," said Tonee Hobson, who went from being a Dorchester runaway to a sexually-exploited child, just 14 years old when she was sold for sex by her pimp. "After awhile, you kind of get immune to it."
Now 20, the nightmare still haunts her.
"You just stand on the corner. If a car comes by it would flash the headlights twice, and then you would know they wanted your services," she said.
Audry Porter's story is similar to Hobson's. At 16, pimps, prostitution, then stripping and drug addiction. Now, she's a mentor.
"We're talking about the buying and selling of kids," said Lisa Goldblatt-Grace, who together with Porter co-founded the "My Life, My Choice," project, fighting to end the commercial sex trade business that is destroying children's lives in Massachusetts and beyond.
They said the Internet only makes it more dangerous.
"Through all the social network sites, they're able to recruit the girl in the back woods of Maine," said Porter.
Experts said the same underground routes used to run drugs and guns in the U.S., are being used to traffic children, sold for sex. A data base launched by the Suffolk County District Attorney's office found 300 child victims in that county alone.
"We need harsher, clearer, stricter state penalties against both the pimps and the johns. It is not OK to sell girls in our community," said Goldblatt-Grace.
Advocates want a state Safe Harbor law preventing exploited children from facing prostitution charges. Connecticut and New York already have such a law. Also, Massachusetts is one of just five states with no anti-human trafficking law. One bill was filed but has been stalled in committee.
"People who would break the law are always going to go where it's easier to get away with it," said Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley.
Coakley said she hopes Congress will take action, holding web sites that advertise sex for sale accountable.
"There's not a lot of fear that people will get caught. That provides absolutely zero deterrence. They are immune from federal or state liability," Coakley said.
Group Works To End Human Sex Trafficking - News Story - WCVB Boston
Source: WCVB Boston
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