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MURRAY — A new report show America's legal system is failing children who are sexually exploited for money and that includes Utah.
The problem mainly involves the weak laws which the report states don't do enough to protect victims and adequately punish perpetrators.
Backyard Broadcast is a youth driven anti-child sex trafficking group in Utah. And one student at Cottonwood High School is actively working to create awareness.
16-year-old Madi Palmer talks to roughly five of her peers a day about her black dress.
"They say I know that slavery happens in the world, but they think southeast Asia and Africa, but not America," Palmer said.
Palmer has worn the dress for almost 30 days now to bring awareness to child sexual exploitation happening around the country, including Utah.
"It's the second largest organized crime in America, but 95 percent of the population doesn't know what's going on," she said.
Shared Hope International, a national group working to bring more awareness to child sexual exploitation, gave Utah a "D" grade in several categories.
- Punishing Child Sex Trafficking Victims Nationally, victims are defined as under age 18 and not able to consent. In Utah, victims are considered under age 14. - Punishing Demand for sex with children Utah laws do not add special penalties when perpetrators pay to have sex with children or view child porn. - Punishing Traffickers Utah laws require perpetrators to register as sex offenders. However, when parents are involved in trafficking their kids, they're not forced to give up parental rights. - Protection for Utah Trafficking Victims Utah also scored low for inadequate protection of child sex trafficking victims. Utah laws require police to jail juvenile victims. "The younger they are, the easier they are to manipulate and control," said Backyard Broadcast founder, Stephanie Larsen. "And this is all about control."
Stephanie Larsen works with child victims in Utah. She warns parents that trafficking usually starts with an older manipulative boyfriend. But also kidnappings.
"Somebody sets up a fake shop, and they say 'Hey, we have this amazing modeling agency and I think you'll be really great,'" Larsen said. "This couldn't happen to us to anyone, but it really can happen to any of us."
Anti-child sex traffick advocates are working to put more pressure on Utah lawmakers to change Utah's weak laws.
