Ed Smart speaks to parents about sex trafficking

Ed Smart, Elizabeth Smart’s father, was in Ammon Saturday . He was speaking to kids and parents at Sand Creek Middle School about sex trafficking.

Operation Underground Railroad is a group of agents who pose as child sex traffickers. They “buy” children in an effort to rescue them from sex rings and capture the men who abuse them.

When children are rescued from the sex ring the most difficult part is returning to normal life. OUR said children have forgotten how to dream.

Ed Smart, OUR program director rehab and prevention, said, “The importance of the kids being able to find their future again, their dreams and their hopes, that’s what we’re working towards.”

OUR works to rescue them.

“Many, many reasons why they get into this situation, but getting out is not easy,” Ed Smart said.

Many feel that this isn’t a problem for the Gem State.

Matt Smith, of Prosperity Project, said, “In the last two years there has been about a half a dozen cases just in Southeast Idaho that get identified in the paper. The reality of it, it’s a very hidden epidemic, these people don’t get publicized.”

Child Protection Service representatives say pornography is the starting point of this abuse.

“They said 100 percent it’s the piece that those that are viewing pornography finally step off and try to act out,” Ed Smart said. “That’s what’s driving the whole issue of trafficking.”
“The pimps out there use it, they use it to desensitize the kids to make them feel like what they’re having to go through is normal and not as traumatic as it really is.”

Pornography that is available at our fingertips.

“A lot of abuse happens because of that, and this abuse happens right here in our homes,” Ed Smart said.

They say the solution begins with children.

“Talk about it first, we need to really work with kids and teach them how to protect themselves,” Smith said.

“I have a little saying and it’s ‘Be Prepared, not scared,'” Ed Smart said. “Scream, kick, do something.”

OUR is working with The Prosperity Project to raise funds. It costs $25,000 to continue their program each year. They ask that you please talk with your children. Teach them how to get out of problem situations; they shouldn’t have to think about it, it should be instinct.

For more information, visit OURrescue.org.