"The fastest-growing group of human trafficking victims in Orange County is children. A report scheduled to be released today from the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force suggests that the average age of people coerced into sex work or other types of forced labor over the past three years has fallen, and that half of all trafficking victims locally now are younger than 18."
"Though hard data is scant, many experts believe that selling people for sex or as laborers is as profitable for human traffickers as the retail drug trade is for narcotics dealers. Experts offered a variety of factors everything from unsupervised use of the Internet to inflation and generally worsening economic conditions for lower-income families to ever-improving data collection as reasons why younger people increasingly are being exploited."
Half of all human trafficking victims in Orange County are younger than 18. Data collected in 2023 and ’24 show the youngest victim was 6 and the average age of victimized minors was 14, meaning a significant segment was 13 or younger. A 2021–22 dataset found about 36% of local trafficking victims were children, indicating a recent increase. Traffickers increasingly target younger victims because they yield higher profits, and trafficking can be as lucrative as the retail drug trade. Contributing factors include unsupervised internet use, inflation, worsening economic conditions for lower-income families, and improved victim data collection.
Read at www.ocregister.com
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