Colloquia

After watching the colloquium “Sex Trafficking,” I felt as though the presentation was not only informative, but also powerful on many different levels. The 2 speakers talked about many varying topics, from human rights and how they overlap to a video presentation displaying how actions directly affect children. However, perhaps the most powerful aspect of the colloquia occurred early on in the presentation. The first speaker listed a series of troubling facts and figures surrounding the sex trafficking industry. “The traffic of humans is the second most lucrative crime in the world. Approximately 80% of people trafficked are female, of these, half are girls, minors. 1.2 million children are estimated to be trafficked around the world every year… Two children are trafficked for sex exploitation or slavery every minute.”

These lines from Dr. Brian Stiltner were extremely eye-opening for me. While sex trafficking is undoubtedly a crime, I was completely unaware of how common an occurrence sexual slavery is in this day and age. What was even more troubling was the number of children who are sucked up into this system. The sex trafficking industry seeks to gain profit at the expense of innocent children. Hearing these statistics and picturing the faces of the children affected stirred up a lot of emotions. This colloquium touched on a lot of good points surrounding human rights and slavery. However, this presentation really showed me just how valuable freedom is and how easily, and how commonly, it can get taken away.