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Prostituion: Super Bowl’s silent secret

The Super Bowl is amongst one of the largest sporting events and one of the most celebrated by football fans across the country. It is a great day in sports.

It is also known as the single largest human trafficking incident in the United States.

With thousands of game-goers traveling into a single city, large events like the Super Bowl have become ideal settings for the trafficking of underage prostitutes and child sex rings.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott told a USA Today reporter that underage prostitution incidents have increased during previous Super Bowls.

He said according to the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking, tens of thousands of children and adult women were brought to Miami for prostitution at last year’s Super Bowl.

Abbott’s office is working closely with the FBI to bring in extra agents from Austin and other cities in order to monitor and combat trafficking during Super Bowl XLV in Arlington, TX.

I find it terribly depressing that a national event which is looked forward to by millions of fans is the same event where thousands of children are sexually exploited.

It wasn’t until I read an article online this past week that I was informed this human rights issue was the underbelly of such a large and publicized event.

The amount of articles about I found online and in newspapers about various Super Bowl festivities and the amount of revenue the NFL is generating on one game buried the few articles stating concerns about sex trafficking at Sunday’s big game.

It just doesn’t seem right to me. Why haven’t I heard about this before?

For this reason I feel like sex trafficking, of all ages, is an issue that is simply swept under the rug. Sure, people don’t want to read about depressing sex trafficking statistics all the time. I admit that I myself would like to stay in denial sometimes. But when it comes to sexual rights being violated in the heat of one of the largest sporting events in the country, I think that is something everyone should know about.

Finding a solution to any problem starts with creating awareness. If ticket holders of Super Bowl XLV aren’t aware that sex trafficking is taking place in the hotel they have reservations at, how would they know to report something suspicious?

Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, told USA Today 100,000 to 300,000 American children are exploited in sex trade each year; some children as young as five or six years old.

At five and six years old you don’t know what is right from wrong, and I am sure many are unaware of the sexual abuse they are experiencing is not normal.

For the sake of the children and the women forced into sexual slavery, I sure hope the FBI and Texas task force keep a close eye on the travelers coming into Arlington, TX this weekend and that justice is served.

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