Human trafficking victims are forced into sex slavery—at the average age of 13—in a number of ways. In some cases, girls are promised jobs in foreign countries, smuggled over borders, and then told that they have a “smuggling debt” to pay. In other cases, young runaways get picked up by pimps who promise to house them. Some also report willfully modeling or “porn-acting” only to be swept up into sex trafficking. Others still are recruitedby “broken-in girls” who are promised a profit or freedom for getting their traffickers more “talent.”

Regardless of their origins, virtually all sex trafficking survivors tell the same horror story of physical, mental, and emotional abuse. An astounding 99.1% report physical health problems such as malnutrition and memory loss due to forced drug abuse, beatings, and poor living conditions (see section three of thisAnnals of Health Law study).

Read the article “Porn’s Dirty Little Secret” on juicyecumenism.com.