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Friday, Jul. 30, 2021

Is there evidence that posters advertising jobs for teenagers are actually sex trafficking schemes?

Christiana Dillard, Lead Stories

no

According to representatives for anti-sex trafficking organizations, such posters are not known to be tied to sex trafficking, although they have been linked to labor schemes.

A picture of one poster purportedly seeking "teens for after school job" has appeared on social media periodically since 2016, usually with a warning from the person posting that the job pitch is a ruse by sex traffickers.

But a spokesperson for Polaris, a nonprofit organization fighting against sex and labor trafficking, told Lead Stories that the organization has not seen the use of posters as a recruitment tool for sex traffickers.

Likewise, Richard Aronson, director of communications at Shared Hope International, a survivor-focused, sex trafficking prevention organization, told Lead Stories: "Sex traffickers do not usually advertise this way. They are much more discreet and use long-term tactics to coerce kids into sexual exploitation."

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