Redlight Children
Tonight I went to a lecture/presentation on campus (I go to Sarah Lawrence) for a campaign called Redlight Children. I'm not gonna lie, I went on assignment to photograph for the campus newspaper. I didn't even plan on staying for the whole thing. When the presentation began, however, I realized there was NO way I was leaving until it was over.
To give you an idea what I was in for, here's the slogan from the information cards handed out to us: Imagine you've been bought, sold, emotionally abused, and raped. Now imagine you're a four-year-old.
It's a serious issue, and it's everywhere. People think, "Oh, it's not in my neighborhood," and they're right, it's not. It's in their living rooms, it's on their computers. Child sexploitation is everywhere, southeast Asia, Brazil, New York City. Every city.
Guy Jacobson began this campaign against child sexploitation. He doesn't know many children. He has no nieces or nephews and his youngest brother is 36. But this affects everyone, everyone sees kids, everyone WAS a kid. There are BABIES being raped. (How fucked up is that? Babies. In diapers. Babies.) He talked to us about his experiences undercover in brothels, and filming several movies that Priority Films put out (one is coming out in September). He also discussed what has to happen in order for things to get better and what we can do to help. His theory was that "supply" won't go away until "demand" goes away, so rescuing children from these brothels will only result in more children being kidnapped. What we have to do is bring down the demand. This can happen if laws are changed (or made, in cases where they don't exist, i.e. soliciting minors for pornography via chatrooms) to discourage sexual predators.
He talked about so much and I want to write it all down, but here's the website: www.redlightchildren.org
Please go and enter your name, email, and zip code, and letters will be sent to the representative in your area on behalf of the campaign. The letters outline EXACTLY what the campaign wants them to do, not just what the campaign is about and that child sexploitation needs to be stopped. Representatives have to consider an issue (and act on it) once they receive SIX letters about an issue. Six. That's not a lot.
The campaign offers internships year round. You can contact them on the website. A lot of Sarah Lawrence students have interned there, and I'm considering it for my fall semester next year. Guy told us at the end of the presentation (when he was talking about internships), "I don't want you to make my coffee. I don't have time for you to make my coffee. You're going to be working."
fucked up.
I signed up. I guess they don't have petitions yet, but I'll participate when they are.
Your post reminded me of a documentary I saw last year about sex trafficking in Eastern Europe... women lured to faraway places on promise of jobs but then forced to work in brothels or outright kidnaped, sometimes kept in debt slavery sometimes in total slavery. It's incredible the horrors people go through (are going through).
===========
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." ~Bob Dylan
might have been priority
That sounds like it might have been put out by Priority Films, Guy's film company. They've made three films so far. One's got Ron Livingston in it and one's a documentary called The Virgin Harvest.
Ali
"And we hold these truths to be self-evident: #1 George W. Bush is not president. #2 America is not a true democracy. #3 The media is not fooling me." -Ani DiFranco
also:
Thanks for signing up.
Ali
"And we hold these truths to be self-evident: #1 George W. Bush is not president. #2 America is not a true democracy. #3 The media is not fooling me." -Ani DiFranco
asdf
Thank YOU for posting this. I didn't know the situation was so bad. I mean, I've heard about the stuff before and I knew it was out there but it never occurred to me that literal babies were being victimized... incredible. The kind of thing that makes me want to hang out in front of a brothel with an AK 47.
==========
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." ~Bob Dylan
Yeah, I had no idea the
Yeah, I had no idea the situation was so bad before the presentation. The fact that I didn't even go to the presentation because I was curious/enraged about the topic fueled my need to blog about it. I was kind of mad at myself for being ignorant/apathetic, I guess. I'm glad I went though, and really glad I stayed. We heard some incredible (horrible) stories. If you have the oppurtunity to hear Guy talk, or a chance to see one of their films (Holly and The Virgin Harvest are two) you should definitely do it. Something Guy urged us to do is go see their third film coming out in September (the name is on their website...) and if we like it, bring all our friends and go see it again. If we don't, bring all our enemies and go see it again. If we feel neutral about it, bring everybody and go see it again. The first step is awareness.
Ali
"And we hold these truths to be self-evident: #1 George W. Bush is not president. #2 America is not a true democracy. #3 The media is not fooling me." -Ani DiFranco
thats awful
i hate that. its fucking wrong. people are sick in the head. geez. out of all the shit going on in this world, children are seriously getting a lot of it and theres not a damn thing they can do about it. with the sex traffiking, invisible children, hunger.. rips my heart wide open.
i work closely with kids - i'm a babysitter for quite a few families and while the pay is amazing, i don't do it for that. i love kids and think they all have such amazing potential in this world. i do it to see the fresh innocence of young children, their wanting to be happy, have fun, and be kind to others (well for the most part). theres something unique about young children and its heartwrenching to me to think that someone can take that innocence away and destroy it.
children are our future. we need them. they'll continue what our generation is starting. we cannot be destroying their innocence and their dignity with all this shit.
it must be stopped.
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us."
-Tricia **
unbelievable
wow - it is mind boggling to even think that people would do this: children? kids? murder is one thing - you kill the person, he's dead, that's it... but taking away a person's life from the beginning, taking away the child's dignity and then they begin to think that it's what life is all about... it's unfathomable. thanks for posting this ali.
salaam, shalom, paz, pais, pace, pax, fred, friede, eiphnh, mir, peace - liz
this just bothers me so
this just bothers me so much. honestly, it makes me angry enough to kill. i think one of the things that will really help is to increase awareness--make it clear to people that this is going on right now, in their world. make it clear that it's their doctor, their kids teacher, the guy checking out their groceries--that it's regular every day men that keep this industry alive. and ANYONE caught engaging in this kind of thing (whether frequenting the brothel or a website, or owning pictures, or whatever) should be punished to the full extent of the law. And that extent needs to be heightened...these poor children are worse than killed. The punishment for engaging in ANY WAY should be worse than punishment for murder.
~Delia
the thing is though
A lot of them are being killed. Kid in brothels? AIDs? Yeah. A lot.
Ali
"And we hold these truths to be self-evident: #1 George W. Bush is not president. #2 America is not a true democracy. #3 The media is not fooling me." -Ani DiFranco
ugh.
sick people are disgusting.
salaam, shalom, paz, pais, pace, pax, fred, friede, eiphnh, mir, peace - liz
i frontpaged this
1) because it's a damn good post
2) because James is MIA
3) because it's a damn good post
===========
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." ~Bob Dylan
thanks!
I saw it on the front page and kinda freaked out a little. Thanks a lot.
Ali
"And we hold these truths to be self-evident: #1 George W. Bush is not president. #2 America is not a true democracy. #3 The media is not fooling me." -Ani DiFranco
Wow.
Thank you so much for posting this. I'm new to this site, and this is very much an eye opener for me.
I just wish that there was more of an idea of what we could do to help. Knowing that this is going on in the world, and not being able to full on stop it ASAP is scary. But I guess for now, the least we can all do is spread the word, right?
Thanks again for posting this.
hey all
anyone interestd should definitely check out maiti nepal too...its fighting this same issue, with linked facebook groups. go to:
http://www.friendsofmaitinepal.org/
~Delia
also, delirium, please join
also, delirium, please join "feminists unite" on here if you haven't...and cross-post this there!~Delia
ditto
i was just about to write this exact post, almost word for word, seeing as how we were sitting right beside eachother during the presentation.
but EVERYONE, go to www.redlightchildren.org and participateit takes less than 30 seconds, all you have to do is put in your name, email, and zip code and a letter will be sent to your local representative. the letter outlines a plan for action to end this Hollocaust instead of just saying that something needs to be done. once said representative recieves 6 letters, they HAVE to do something. so if that is all you can contribute, its a hell of a lot better than nothing.there are also great internship oppurtunities as ali said, so if your interested check it out. www.redlightchildren.org
do it!
right now! n/t
Ali
"And we hold these truths to be self-evident: #1 George W. Bush is not president. #2 America is not a true democracy. #3 The media is not fooling me." -Ani DiFranco
Post new comment