Your children are at risk of trafficking. That was the message of Ms. Claudia Lawrence, community mobilization director for the Federal Way Coalition Against Trafficking (FWCAT) to the city of Federal Way Diversity Commission. Community members must get past thoughts about shipping containers full of people headed to sweatshops or an elaborate ruse to abduct travelers to sell to billionaires on some “dark” website. The smartphone is now a weapon of mass destruction. It destroys lives by letting pimps lure and exploit children and vulnerable adults for money from a global clientele of sick people in a digital world away from police and the seedy street corners of the past.

The pimp is no comedic figure in a cavalier hat and mink overcoat. They are dangerous sociopathic predators who lure and exploit people as commodities and discard victims like trash. This is far beyond “boys will be boys” and in fact that view limits the danger that cuts across all gender identities and preferences — every demographic. It may start with an embarrassing image taken by a friend that gets into the wrong hands or a false friend who targets the innocent, the naïve and trusting or the lonely; the depressed, those with low self-esteem or those who are impulsive.

Out of fear of shame or physical violence, the extortion begins and escalates quickly. Unless the child feels safe getting help from adults without being berated or condemned, they will likely continue to comply with the pimp’s demands until tragically the child sees no escape, but drug abuse, running away or self-harm.

The FWCAT provides education, victim support and police cooperation to prosecute trafficking. The FWCAT “Break the Chains of Human Trafficking 5-Kilometer Walk/Run” on May 18 is their key fund raising event and deserves corporate and community-wide support. It is held at The Commons and begins at 9:30 a.m.

Hiroshi Eto

Federal Way