Law enforcement and various nonprofit groups are banding together to fight the trafficking of children during the Super Bowl.
TraffickFree will carry out its S.O.A.P. project during the Super Bowl. Volunteers will distribute thousands of bars of soap with the National Human Trafficking Hotline number to area motels and educate motel owners and managers on human trafficking.
Nine children responded when the idea was used during the last Super Bowl.
Local and state law enforcement met at Cowboys Stadium on Tuesday to learn how to spot children stuck in the sex trade and remove them.
According to the FBI, 100,000 children are trafficked in the United States.
Officials said that while making arrests is important, their first objective will be to rescue victims from the sex trade.
"It's unlike prostitution where you have willing participants, and we want to identify victims, and if we can identify them, it's a great deal for society in a whole," said Dexter Jones, of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, research shows that most victims of commercial sexual exploitation tend to be runaways or "thrown away" youth who live on the streets. Others are abducted or recruited into prostitution through their parents.
About 55 percent of girls living on the streets become involved in commercial sex activity, according to the Department of Justice. Of those, about 20 percent are trafficked nationally by organized crime networks.
Girls first become victims of prostitution at the average age of 12 to 14, according to the Department of Justice. Boys and transgender youth become victims of prostitution at the average age of 11 to 13.
NBC DFW's Lita Beck contributed to this report.
First Published: Dec 28, 2010 5:20 PM CST
SOAP Project Aims to Rescue Kids Caught in Sex Trafficking | NBC Dallas-Fort Worth
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