Kong 1

Olivia R. Kong
Mr. Jason King
English 1 Honors
7 November 2016

Human Trafficking
Thousands of women, men, and young children become victims of human trafficking
every day. Human Trafficking is the illegal movement of people being forced into labor or
commercial sex exploitation. Human trafficking is often referred to as modern day slavery and
takes basic human rights away from individuals all around the world. Trafficking is usually
divided into three populations; children under the age of 18 which are used for commercial sex,
adults who have been induced into commercial sex, or both adult and children who are induced
to perform commercial sex, labor and service through force, fraud, or coercion (Home). The
average age of a child sexually exploited is as young as 11(Press). Not only do these heinous
experiences cause brain damage and mental illnesses to the victim, it affects their relationship
with other people in society and even inflicts problems amongst their own family.
Human Trafficking is a major problem in our society and dehumanizes an individual,
which is similar to saying theyre an object rather than an actual human being. Human trafficking
is one of the top most profitable and illegal businesses behind trading desirable narcotics and
dangerous weapons. Human trafficking isnt viewed as a major ubiquitous problem like it should
be. It strips someone of their humanity and is essentially subjecting them into slavery, which is
usually harsh forced labor. If human trafficking isnt decreasing or taken care of, the future for
our nation will result in mass despondency. Fear will be inflicted amongst many communities to

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which a vast amount of people would be incapable of handling, resulting into an increasing rate
of suicide, mental illnesses, and trauma.
Another perspective on the issue is that although human trafficking is immoral and
gruesome per se, there are some cases as to why human trafficking is beneficial to the families
that sell the children in hopes of a more stable and financial life. The inconsiderate parent(s) that
give up their children almost always receive a grand amount of money, which encourages one of
the process of the entire procedure - even though they know its wrong. A much different
perspective encourages the decrease of human trafficking and its chance to cease, in hopes of
creating a better generation for the children that have been affected by the brutal crisis. Many of
the children who go through human trafficking are scarred and marked with the barbaric
tragedies theyve gone through and are discouraged and frightened to seek help.
The media has made a substantial influence in our society today focusing on the
entertaining aspects of the world rather than serious ones such as human trafficking. It is filled
with memes, latest gossip/news, first world problems such as not having wifi, and little to no
attempts of understanding human trafficking. Thousands of media users dont realize that human
trafficking is an international issue and think that the problem is only relevant in an specific
area(Lum). Human trafficking doesnt receive any attention because it's been a problem for so
long, that society has managed to push aside and put forth other irrelevant things. Another flaw
about our media is that people with an enormous amount of followings/followers dont speak out
when needed. They do not address the issue which is another factor to why nothing is happening
to help eliminate the increasing rate of human trafficking.

Work cited
Media

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Lum, Siria Gaste. "How the Media Reports on Human Trafficking." How the Media Reports on
Human Trafficking. UNODC, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2016.

Age
"Home." Child Trafficking Statistics. Children of Hope, 19 Mar. 2016. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.

Foreigners
Press, Rod Mcguirk Associated. "US to Resettle Australia's Refugees Languishing on Islands."
ABC News. ABC News Network, 12 Nov. 2016. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.