The Truth About Human Trafficking in America: Jaco Booyens

"By the time a child gets trafficked, society has failed that child. We need to do a lot better at recognizing the vulnerabilities in children and shoring up those vulnerabilities before the predator exploits them….The average predator in America invests nine months in a victim before they strike [i.e] ask the potential victim to self-expose or physically meet in person. Nine months.

The average predator at any given time profiles and engages with 32 potential victims at the same time…At any given moment in America, there are three quarters of one million - 750,000 - active predators online, right now as we speak.

…You're talking about millions of American children being profiled as we speak, in everyday life, and they don't know what the wolf looks like. They don't know how the wolf talks. Where would he show up? They're told that it looks like kidnapping, or you would self-evidently see it when it happens. They don't know the wolf is in their DMs.

He's the one sending them emojis. He's a coach, a pastor perhaps, an elected official, a maintenance man. The average buyer of sex with children in America is a father of two, married, earning north of $100,000 a year. That profile is a staggering profile."

Jaco Booyens is founder of JBM, an anti-trafficking organization.