COBB COUNTY, Ga. - As thousands of fans descend on Atlanta for Major League Baseball's All-Star Game at Truist Park next week, advocates are warning that the event could also bring a surge in sex trafficking -- especially involving children.
What they're saying:
The national advocacy group Rights4Girls is leading a targeted billboard campaign in the Atlanta area, including one placed prominently on South Cobb Parkway, less than a mile from the stadium. The effort aims to deter sex buyers and raise awareness of the trafficking risks associated with large-scale sporting events.
"One of the messages from the billboard campaign is: sex buying is a serious error," said Yasmin Vafa, executive director of Rights4Girls. "We really want to shine a spotlight on the issue of sex trafficking and sex tourism that can accompany these large-scale events and to really discourage the demand that fuels the sex trafficking."
Local perspective:
Naeshia McDowell, director of strategic partnerships for the Children's Advocacy Centers of Georgia, says traffickers are known to capitalize on events like the All-Star Game by tailoring their activities around them.
"They're actually putting on themes around different events like the MLB All-Star Weekend," McDowell said. "We have a network of over 50 child advocacy centers throughout the state of Georgia that provide services and support to victims of child abuse, including victims of child sex trafficking."
Advocates say many of the victims lured into trafficking are vulnerable children -- often from foster care, or marginalized by gender, immigration status, or disability.
"If there is a child that does not have consistent adult supervision or this child doesn't have access to their basic needs, such as food and shelter," McDowell said. "Those children are at particular risk of being exploited and trafficked."
"Young children who are oftentimes from the foster care system are, you know, children who are really marginalized," Vafa added. "Many of these children are victims of child abuse and neglect, of incest."
And in some cases, they may be children from within the very communities that fans are visiting.
"These are people that go to the same grocery stores. Their children go to the same schools. They're in our community," McDowell said.
What's next:
Both McDowell and Vafa emphasized that the most effective way to prevent trafficking is to reduce the demand by discouraging people from buying sex.
"It's really important for people to realize this is a key way of reducing violence, reducing exploitation in all of our communities, and reducing the harm to our young women and girls," Vafa said.
Authorities urge the public to stay vigilant throughout All-Star Week. If someone sees a child in a potentially unsafe or suspicious situation, they are asked to report it immediately to law enforcement.
Big picture view:
State law defines two types of trafficking: labor servitude and sexual servitude. Offenders can face 10 to 20 years in prison and fines up to $100,000. If the victim is under 18 or has a developmental disability, the sentence increases dramatically to 25 years to life, and still carries the fine cap.
Under Georgia law, prosecutors are not required to prove force, coercion, or fraud in cases involving minors in commercial sexual activity. The statute specifies that "if the victim is a minor under the age of 18, force, coercion and deception are not required" Similarly, a defendant cannot use ignorance of the victim's age or belief about it as a legal defense.
Georgia also empowers courts to collect additional penalties and assessments from those convicted of keeping brothels, pimping, pandering or trafficking. Funds go toward the Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Children program.
In 2015, the legislature passed laws mandating convicted traffickers to register as sex offenders and contribute to the "New Safe Harbor" fund, which supports victim services including mental health treatment, education, job training and legal aid.
In addition, Georgia's Security and Immigration Compliance Act designates human trafficking as a felony punishable by 1-20 years or 10-20 years if the victim is under 18.
State Attorney General Chris Carr's office operates a Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit and maintains a 24-hour hotline at (866) 363‑4842 for reporting suspected trafficking.