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(WATCH) Child sex trafficking in America

Dated: May 16, 2021 by Staff 16 Comments

      

The following is a transcript of a report from "Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson." Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.

With kids spending more time at home and on the internet during the Covid-19 shutdowns, something unexpected happened. Authorities say sex trafficking that begins onlineโ€” doubled. And with that, thereโ€™s been an uptick in reports of children sold for sex by their own parents and relatives. Today, we take a frank look at a dark American scandal stretching from the poorest neighborhoods to the rich and famous.

September 2020, international controversy over a Netflix film called โ€œCuties.โ€

Critics questioned whether Cuties drew awareness to the problem of sexual exploitation of children, or sexually exploited the 11-year old actors.

The controversy amplified the discussion about abuse and trafficking of children in the U.S.

A recent operation led by authorities in San Joaquin, California, resulted in 57 arrests of men and women caught in a child-trafficking-sex-predator sting

Chief Inspector Floriano Whitwell heads up Sex Offender Investigations for the U.S. Marshals Service.

Sharyl Attkisson: What do we mean when we talk about a child being trafficked?

Floriano Whitwell: It's trading or selling a child to perform sexual acts for monetary gain or services.

The numbers are staggering. According to the FBI, in 2019 and 2020, 786,742 children were reported missing in the U.S. Most are considered โ€œendangered runaways.โ€

Last year, U.S. Marshals led a rescue operation in Atlanta where they are aware that several kids end up trafficked, not always by large, organized rings, but by people they know and trust.

Sharyl Attkisson: Do parents sometimes traffic or sell their own children?

Floriano Whitwell: It absolutely exists.

Sharyl: How young are some of the cases?

Floriano Whitwell: The youngest children we've recovered were as young as seven years old.

Inspector Whitwell says the real story is that itโ€™s happening to so many American kids, but isnโ€™t getting more attention.

Floriano Whitwell: I personally was extremely concerned by the lack of spotlight, the lack of resources, and just simply the lack of children being recovered across our country, knowing now how big of an epidemic it was. And so I decided to make that my focus.

Which is one reason why you may have heard about a series of rescues by the U.S. Marshals Service.

In Georgia, โ€œOperation Not Forgottenโ€ recovered 26 children and 27 were found in Virginia in โ€œOperation Find Our Children.โ€

Beyond the U.S. Marshals operations in Georgia and Virginia, five kids were rescued in Oklahoma's โ€œOperation Triple Beamโ€ with 262 arrests, more than 30 arrests in operations โ€œBoo Datโ€ and โ€œSummer Rescueโ€ in New Orleans. Further operations in Iowa, Ohio, Indianapolis, Pennsylvania and Tennessee resulted in the safe return of more than 200 children and doesnโ€™t count all the rescues by other law enforcement.

Floriano Whitwell: Last year we recovered 387 missing children, and that was the most we've ever recovered, almost 100 more than the previous year. But I would also emphasize that in my opinion, we're barely scratching the surface.

Which takes us back to the Cuties controversy.

Some consider child exploitation and trafficking to be Hollywoodโ€™s elephant in the roomโ€” long the subject of rumors and rambling accusations.

Actor Issac Kappy, who had a bit part in the Marvel Studioโ€™s film โ€œThor,โ€ posted a series of explosive allegations online. โ€œIf Iโ€™m lying, sue me,โ€ he said in August of 2018. โ€œA lot of showbiz parents will knowingly give their kids to be abused because theyโ€™ll be like โ€˜oh weโ€™ll get your kids roles and moneyโ€™ and they take the money and then they just sell their kids.โ€

Nine months after that video, police say Kappy committed suicide by โ€œforcing himself off a bridgeโ€ in Arizona onto an interstate.

Beyond the conspiracies, thereโ€™s hard evidence of horrifying sexual exploitation of children by those in the entertainment industry.

In Great Britain, the monstrous case of Jimmy Savile, one of the BBCโ€™s biggest stars. After he died in 2011, criminal investigations found heโ€™d allegedly victimized up to a thousand children as young as age two. One recently spoke of being trafficked by her own mother, at age eight, to be drugged and raped by Savile.

Independent film producer John Paul Rice says child abuse in Hollywood is also very real.

John Paul Rice: There was a legitimate film that I had been asked to audition for by a director. And when I told my manager that his immediate response is, โ€œOh, he wants to F*** you,โ€ like, no hesitation whatsoever.

Sharyl Attkisson: You thought you were getting an audition because

John Paul Rice: Because of sex, it was expected. And it was, it was, you know, that this is the world.

Former child actor Corey Feldman recently spoke out, saying he was preyed on by men in the industry. And he said his friend, Corey Haim, was raped on a movie set at age 11. Haim died in 2010 after years of drug addiction.

After movie producer Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to prison for sexual assault and rape last year, Rice says he thought more actors might step up to expose child abuse. But they didnโ€™t.

Sharyl Attkisson: Why do you think it is that people can't or won't address that more directly? 7:31

John Paul Rice: Fear. Theyโ€™re afraid of losing work. Their entire livelihood is tied into making a product for an industry that does this to children.

It may be no surprise that Weinstein connects to Jeffrey Epstein, the child predator tied to the rich and famous.

Epstein was invited to major red carpet events even after his 2008 conviction.

In 2019, he was arrested again for sex trafficking children before reportedly committing suicide in prison.

John Paul Rice: Once the human trafficking and the Epstein and the Maxwell and the Weinstein came out more and more questions were raised more and more questions were asked. And then the silence of Hollywood is what told them that it was really, really bad.

In the end, the recent case against Epstein links back to the U.S. Marshals.

Sharyl Attkisson: A tip to the Marshal Service turned into the FBI case, is that accurate?

Floriano Whitwell: That is correct. Several years before Epstein was arrested by the FBI, our investigators from the Sex Offender Investigations Branch received information that Epstein was, with great frequency, seen at a tarmac in Florida with young girls. Our investigators began this investigation and also worked with the FBI, providing what was uncovered in our investigation to the FBI. And that's the FBI initiated their criminal investigation, and obviously followed through which culminated in his arrest.

Rice has decided to express his concerns through a film he produced called "A Childโ€™s Voice,โ€ depicting a child trafficking ring.

As for Cuties, the backlash turned out to be temporary. Maรฏmouna Doucourรฉ, the director, defended her movie and won an award at the Sundance Film Festival.

In an interview accompanying Cuties on Netflix, Doucourรฉ said, โ€œWe must all together figure out what is best for our children. As a director, as an artist, I do my part with this film.โ€

Sharyl Attkisson: The people who made the film โ€œCuties" say that the whole purpose of that film is to draw attention to the exploitation of children, not to do anything harmful.

John Paul Rice: This is a human issue. This is a child issue. And Hollywood calling this art? You've sexualized children. You market it as a product, a film, you're going to normalize pedophilia. And that's, that's essentially what this all means is that it's going to become more normal that we see this.

Sharyl (on-camera): Authorities say children being trafficked across our southern border with Mexico is a growing concern.

http://fullmeasure.news/news/cover-story/sex-trafficking-05-13-2021


      
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Matthew Hanson says

    May 17, 2021 at 11:24 am

    Thank you for this article. I am determined to share it, but I am waiting at least a couple of days for my contacts to absorb the stories about the Covid19 and Covid19 vaccines lies. I will donate here, now.

    Reply
    • Christine says

      June 8, 2021 at 3:11 pm

      anywhere mainstream reporting covid19 vaccine lies?

      Reply
  2. Anita says

    June 2, 2021 at 11:24 am

    Simply put, it's a disgusting subject in which people do not want to think about. I feel sick just reading about it. Thank you for all your work. Keep scratching the surface... deeply.

    Reply
  3. Elo says

    September 14, 2021 at 4:18 pm

    And we eorry about Afghan girls ???

    Reply
  4. Crystal says

    February 6, 2022 at 4:38 pm

    Itโ€™s very concerning to say the least knowing that none of the news channels, Fox included, would never talk about child trafficking, even any of the COVID shot lies. If none of the news channels are going to talk about it, then I believe itโ€™s our responsibility to step up and actually talk about itโ€”and, one major thing is we need to monitor (as parents/guardians) what our minors (children who are under 18 years of age) are doing online, and who they are talking to. Even when they go on YouTube, because internet child protection laws/internet protection for children will not stop predators from preying on children, and thatโ€™s why I miss the old YouTube (the days when it was just introduced to the world), and when I was going to school as a middle school student, they had YouTube blocked. I donโ€™t even think YouTube even should be for kids.

    Reply

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