Suburbs not immune to sex trafficking

If you think human trafficking is a problem only in Third World countries and not here in the U.S., think again. The average age for girls to enter the commercial sex trade is just 12 to 14 years old, while for boys it is from 11 to 13.

Runaways are prime targets for sex trafficking as perpetrators take advantage of the lonely, frightened, and desperate by offering financial help.

It has become easier to buy and sell women and children for sex thanks to the Internet. A third of Internet downloads are said to involve pornography.

Recently Elizabeth Yore, who was Oprah's former attorney, addressed the Woman's Republican Club of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff about the little-known sexual exploitation of women and children in Lake County and Chicagoland, which is much like modern slavery hiding in plain sight.

Examples were presented of sexual trafficking in Lake Forest and Lake Bluff. She said an estimated 16,000 to 25,000 women and girls are involved in commercial sex annually in Chicago's metropolitan area. Most of them enter before age 18. While in Chicago huge numbers walk the streets, in the suburbs, sex trafficking is more underground and can be found on classified ad websites and social media sites.

Here in Lake County, Sheriff Mark Curran and State's Attorney Mike Nerheim are diligently working to combat sex trafficking, sometimes on their own time. Feel free to contact them.

Also contact Sens. Kirk and Durbin and your U.S. Representative, and demand that they change the Communications Decency, which protects Internet providers from liability for material posted to their sits by third parties.

As long as society wants porn, it will flourish. If people stop viewing it, it will disappear.

Nancy J. Thorner

Lake Bluff