BAKERSFIELD, California — The Kern County Board of Supervisors declared January as Human Trafficking Awareness Month during a Board of Supervisor meeting held on Tuesday. The initiative is aimed at fostering education and awareness to combat the alarming rise of human trafficking, a form of modern-day slavery characterized by the forced buying, selling, and transportation of individuals for exploitation in terms of sex or labor.
The impact of human trafficking is far-reaching, affecting lives, families, and communities, and Kern County is not exempt from its consequences. The United States Department of State identifies forced labor and sex trafficking as the two primary forms of this heinous crime.
Throughout January, the Department of Human Services, in collaboration with the Kern Coalition Against Human Trafficking (KCAHT) and Kern County Probation, will spearhead various awareness events to shed light on this pressing issue.
Read more: Signs of Sex Trafficking Operations in California Neighborhoods
Dr. Angela Look from Kern County’s Department of Human Services underscored the role of social media in both facilitating predators and revealing potential warning signs. According to Dr. Look, terms such as “going on the blade”, may indicate involvement in trafficking. She explained, “If they talk about being in the game or the life, that is the world of sex trafficking.” Dr. Look emphasized the importance of paying attention to the terminology used, the individuals they associate with, and signs of grooming and control.
“There’s a variety of different terminology that is used and indicative of the lifestyle“, said Dr. Look. “So if you hear those kinds of terms, that’s another thing you can pay attention to, who they’re associating with. They may never have been involved in any of this, but then we know that they end up starting to get involved with older people or people who start to kind of groom them and control them. So there are just a lot of different signs. We see a lot of the tattooing and the branding, though too, and sometimes you even see it in stages.“
The community is urged to participate in these events and stay vigilant in recognizing signs of human trafficking to contribute to the effort to eradicate this grave violation of human rights.
