How Gangs Are Using Social Media To Exploit Young People
March 15, 2018
Hosted by Opal Singleton
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Episode Description
It’s easy to believe that because we don’t see a mob of gang members in our neighborhoods that our kids will not be exposed to gangs. Did you know that gangs have I.T. guys, webmasters and social media experts? Today we will explore how gangs and cartels are maximizing technologies to access, groom, recruit and exploit our young people. Social media allows gangs to form cliques. They have dispersed management so as not to be obvious to the public. They use Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and other apps and sites to meet young girls to groom them into sex trafficking. They use social media for money laundering, buying and selling of drugs, guns and commercial sex, and to announce hit lists. And yes, they use social media to lure in sex buyers in order to blackmail, beat and, in some instances, murder them.
EXPLOITED: Crimes Against Humanity
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This program is designed to educate first responders, civic leaders, social workers, education professionals, faith based leaders and parents about how predators access, groom, recruit and exploit victims into prostitution and sextortion. We analyze real cases from the perspective of Law Enforcement, the victim, and the perpetrator. We look at hard core trafficking cases and how law enforcement is able to intervene. We examine cases of child pornography and the Dark Web. We examine how predators use apps, chatrooms, games and the latest technologies. We discuss the impact of gangs and cartels on human exploitation. We also look at trends in global human trafficking. Our goal is to build a global interactive community of individuals empowered to eradicate human exploitation.
Opal Singleton
Opal Singleton is a global human trafficking and child pornography expert. She has trained tens of thousands of first responders, government and civic leaders, faith based leaders and education administrators about how predators groom and recruit innocent victims into prostitution and exploitation. Opal works with the Riverside County (CA) Anti Human Trafficking Task Force through a Department of Justice grant. Opal sits with parents of missing kids and assists teens in trouble through social media. Opal is the President and CEO of Million Kids, a non-profit organization dedicated to eradicating child sex trafficking. She has authored a book “Seduced: The Grooming of America’s Teenagers” to educate parents and grandparents and educators about how predators use apps, chatrooms, online video gaming and social media to exploit young people. Opal is on the Board of Rapha House serving human trafficking victims in Cambodia, Thailand and Haiti. She is an Instructor for the USC Sol Price Institute for Safe Communities training law enforcement administrators and is an Instructor for the Los Angeles Fire Training Academy. Opal retired in 2000 after a lifelong career in international marketing having accrued nearly three million frequent flyer miles. Opal is passionate about protecting families and youth from predators and is dedicated to providing an in-depth global interactive internet training program to educate leaders around the world to stop human exploitation and trafficking.
