Rebekah is a view it us teenage woman with low esteem. She’s been raped. She’s lost friends. She does not be friends with her moms and dads.
Therefore, at age 16, she moves away from her parents’ house and begins drugs that are doing. At age 17 and cash that is needing she begins working at a strip club. After that, she fulfills a man that is handsome promises her a location to reside and a lot of love.
He’s got a home that is 5,000-square-foot. He’s secretaries whom answer his phone.
“He made me feel truly special, and desired, and loved – which is the things I missed,” she claims.
Quickly, however, Rebekah is swept up within the underground realm of intercourse trafficking. She actually is forced into prostitution.
The movie Blind Eyes Opened – in theaters for example evening just, Jan. 23 – tells the story of Rebekah yet others like her with what happens to be dubbed A christian documentary that is“first-of-its-kind.” The movie interviews police officials, lawmakers, trafficking experts and ministry leaders since it reveals a dark underground industry – intercourse trafficking – that is closer to your town than you may think.
It’s one of the better films regarding the one and subject of the very most gripping, too.
Listed here are three things you’ll comprehend:
picture courtesy: Fathom
It is Taking Place in your town
The movie takes us to many towns – including Tampa, Atlanta and Nashville – where intercourse trafficking is typical.
“It’s in almost every solitary community,” a specialist about the subject says.
Although individual trafficking can include forced work or involuntary servitude, the movie centers around the most used type of trafficking within the U.S.: intercourse trafficking.
“Most people think about it as a overseas issue. However the reality is we now have a significant, major problem right right here in the usa inside of y our very very own borders – with your very own young ones,” the film’s professional producer, Geoffrey Rogers, told Crosswalk. “We would calculate over 100,000 kids in the usa are increasingly being trafficked for intercourse every day that is single in our personal nation.”
The movie includes interviews with people who had been caught within the internet of intercourse trafficking but escaped.
One girl had been trafficked at age 12. Many felt they’d no option, and few had been raised in a loving, intact household. Many victims, in reality, had been sexually abused as young ones. One woman into the film had been trafficked by her dad.
Traffickers find their victims on social networking but additionally in general public places like malls. In other cases, traffickers discover their victims within the sex that is commercial, whether in strip groups or prostitution rings.
picture courtesy: Fathom
Many victims of intercourse trafficking are girls, although 10-15 per cent are guys. It’s estimated this one woman can net her employer between $200,000 and $300,000 each year.
The normal sex trafficking target found myself in the device involving the many years of 12 and 14. Some are runaways. Other people spent my youth into the system that is foster.
“Around 60 % of young ones which can be trafficked in America emerge from the care that is foster,” Rogers told Crosswalk. “These are U.S.-born children, and they are being trafficked by U.S. residents being bought by U.S. residents. The foster care system could be the primary feeder.”
Traffickers are seeking girls with insecurity.
“Because she actually is been growing up in a host where she did not get the best loving environment, she does not actually even know just exactly what real love is. She falls because of this man, mind over heels. And then he will groom her for six to nine months. And following a period that is certain of, he will flip a switch and state, ‘OK, now you work with me personally.’”
At that time, a number of the girls are suffering from a bond that is emotional on trauma (Stockholm syndrome) or they’re hooked on drugs – and so they don’t wish to hightail it.
Photo courtesy: Fathom
It’s Driven by the Porn Industry
Probably the most popular porn sites within the U.S. accumulated 28 billion visits this past year. A lot of women into the videos had been victims of intercourse trafficking.
This implies, Rogers said, that porn users are feeding the intercourse trafficking industry without also once you understand it.
“We identify pornography since the No. 1 fueling element to intercourse trafficking in the us,” Rogers said.
It’s estimated that “over 50 % of ladies tangled up in intercourse trafficking” may also be forced into pornography, he stated.
A whole lot worse, several of those porn addicts “then desire to start to actualize whatever they’ve been visualizing,” he said.
Blind Eyes Opened is just a sobering must-see for Christians who would like to understand the truth about intercourse trafficking within the U.S. – and who wish to help fight it. It is not for kids, however for older members of the family, it sheds light on a topic that too frequently is swept under America’s rugs that are social.
Michael Foust is really a freelance author. Check out their weblog, MichaelFoust.com.
picture courtesy: Fathom
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of news and faith for two decades. Their tales have actually starred in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, The Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto celebrity and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.