My Dangerous Loverboy » The Need

Internal trafficking

Sophie-Host — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:44:09 +0000

Internal trafficking is a growing, but ignored or misunderstood crime in the UK, Canada, Holland, France, Australia, the USA and beyond. Few of us realise that some of the most vulnerable members of our own communities are being sexually exploited and trafficked from one city to another. But it is happening all around us, right here, right now

It is important to understand the sexual exploitation and movement of young people around UK cities as Internal Trafficking because we all understand that sex trafficking is a crime. It makes it much clearer that young, sexually trafficked girls are the victims of a crime. It helps to change perceptions of these girls amongst the public, social workers and police who have often seen them as young prostitutes. It is also easier for the police to prosecute perpetrators under specific sex trafficking offences.

A Global Problem

Sophie-Host — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:25:31 +0000

“Virtually every city and small town in Canada has been affected or used as a place for child trafficking, every city has its own kiddy circuit in some way or another.” Susan Straga – Canadian National Coalition of Experiential Women

The Internal Trafficking of girls and young women into the sex industry is not just a problem that is confined to the UK. In Canada, internal trafficking is a problem that particularly affects women and children from Aboriginal (also called First Nation) communities. The victims often come from Northern Aboriginal reserves in British Columbia, the Prairies, and Québec but youth runaways or otherwise isolated poor women from anywhere in Canada are vulnerable to trafficking.

The difficult socio-economic situation of Aboriginal people finds reflection in the fact that a majority of people trafficked within Canada are Aboriginal women and children. Children constitute the most vulnerable population and they are also the most difficult to reach to educate them about how to recognise the danger signs and where to turn to for help.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has made a conservative estimate that between 1,500 and 2,200 people are trafficked from Canada into the US each year. Although most victims are thought to be women between the ages of 20 and 40, many victims are under 18, with some as young as 7 years old in cases involving Aboriginal youth.

X Platform

Sophie-Host — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:58:44 +0000

In order to interact with our target audience the ‘My Dangerous Loverboy’ project has to be X platform. The website will weave together story threads from documentary to animation to music to web drama creating a rich fabric of narrative tales dealing with issues of sex, trust betrayal and love. We aim to create content that will engage and challenge our teenage audience wherever they are consuming media.

Free Jade

To that end we are keen to experiment with developing simultaneous online / offline events. For example, we’re exploring the idea that the interactive lo fi teen web thriller runs alongside a real life ‘Free Jade’ campaign where teenage girls can design T-shirts, badges, posters, compose music or whatever they choose. Both the drama and campaign will culminate in a day long online event linked to an offline pop concert where Jade will be symbolically freed.

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