Many people do drugs when they feel overwhelmed with life, sad, or want to run away from pain or stress. Read more...

The number of 12 year-olds active on social networks continues to increase. According to a new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, in 2009 73% of teens ages 12-17 subscribed to an online social networking site and only 82% percent of teens 14-17 admitted to using those sites more than younger kids. However, these numbers might vary with the fact that older teens are more likely to admit they use social network sites.

The study also points out that teens who come from low-income families that earn less than $30,000, are more likely to log on to social networking sites daily than those who come from  wealthier families.

“As of September 2009, 47% of online adults used a social networking website, compared with the 73% of teens who did so at a comparable point in time. The percentage of adults who use online social networks has grown from 8% of internet users in February 2005 to 16% in August 2006 to 37% in November 2008. On a typical day in 2009, just over one-quarter (27%) of adult internet users visited a social networking site.” via Pew Internet and American Life Project

Girls and victim advocates describe photo studios in Oakland where girls pose in sets that look like bedrooms. Studios provide lingerie, wigs and makeup. For an extra fee, some studios will upload the X-rated photos and post online ads on behalf of the pimp. By posting the ads on sites based in other cities, pimps line up customers across the country and send the trafficked youth on "sex tours."

Recently, Youth Radio sat down with Hip Hop historian Davey D to discuss the relationship between rap music and pimp culture. Davey D lives in the Bay Area, where he produces the nationally syndicated program Hard Knock Radio and manages the site Daveyd.com.

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In Oakland and around the country, underage girls are trafficked on city streets and through websites like MyRedbook.com, Backpage.com, Erosguide.com, and many more. It was on one of these sites that Youth Radio found a 24-year-old online escort who agreed to be interviewed anonymously. She says she posts her ads regularly, and that in the three months since Craigslist's adult services section was shut down, her business has remained steady, using a variety of other sites. She says she makes as much as $800 a day. Read more...

The FBI estimates that a mid-level trafficker can make more than $500,000 dollars a year by marketing just four girls.  

In our second part of Trafficked, Youth Radio finds that what used to be a local activity has gone global and more violent. With so much money being made through trafficking, police say long standing networks of gangs and drug dealers are starting to cross over because they see sex trafficking as an easier game. The potential prison sentences are much lower and the game is less dangerous if you are a pimp or a trafficker.

In our first installment of Trafficked, Darlene and Brittney tell their stories of being trafficked. Both were put on the streets of Oakland at 15 years old. Darlene and Brittney say that hindsight and help from community organizations have given them a different perspective in the year they've been out of the life of a trafficked teenager. For one thing, they no longer feel trapped -- whether out of necessity, fear, or both -- by the men who trafficked them. And they now see more opportunities for themselves. Back then, said Brittney, "I felt I wasn't a victim."

Trafficked: A Youth Radio Investigation

By Youth Radio's Investigative Unit

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Trafficked: A Youth Radio Investigation

By Denise Tejada and Youth Radio's Investigative Unit

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DNA, (Demi and Ashton Foundation), answers some of the most common questions about sex trafficking:
 

What is sex trafficking?

A subset of human trafficking, in which individuals are enslaved specifically for forced sexual labor

Is prostitution a form of sex trafficking?