Human traffickers use social media to target children

Human traffickers often use social media to choose their victims.

“There is a high demand to purchase young people for sex and they’re finding every mean because the payoff is so high,” said Nanette Ward, founding member of the Central Missouri Stop Human Trafficking Coalition.

Charges filed this week against Renee Collins on suspicion of sex trafficking a disabled girl out of a Columbia motel have brought the issue to light in Boone County. A Rocheport man, William Thomas Jr., was charged with raping the girl.

Human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, surpassing gun trafficking.

“That affects every state in our country and every country in the world,” Ward said. “We should be alarmed, we should be concerned, we should be paying attention.”

Ward said traffickers take advantage of the vulnerability of children and use social media to turn young people into victims. They often misrepresent themselves in their profiles, she said.

“Someone that looks like a cute 16-year-old and is really some 60-year-old living in another state,” Ward said.

Many human traffickers are younger individuals and feign romantic affection for the victim, Ward said.

“It could be a 20-year-old,” she said. “What 16-year-old wouldn’t like the attention of a cool 20-year-old guy?”

Ward said she wants people to recognize the blame the buyers have in human trafficking and purchasing children for sex.

“And we have to shine a spotlight on that. Who in this community is watching this news coverage and realizing they purchases this very person,” she said.

Collins and Thomas had an initial court appearance Thursday afternoon before Judge Michael Bradley at the Boone County Courthouse. Each is in the Boone County Jail on $200,000 cash-only bond.