#parent | #kids | #minorsextrafficking | Child trafficking ‘happening in your backyard’ — Windsor activist

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“People think this is happening really far away, but it’s happening in your backyard,” Prince told the Star in a pre-rally interview.

A huge hunting ground for pedophiles

She doesn’t have specific figures for Canada, but Prince said that, just across the border, the United States is one of the globe’s Top 3 destinations for human traffickers and one of the top markets for child porn and other criminal products stemming from child exploitation.

Online gaming, she said, where young people spend so much time entertaining themselves at a time when schools are shut and playgrounds closed, represents “a huge hunting ground for pedophiles.”

“Child pornography, sex trafficking and human trafficking — they’re all related,” said Prince, who urges parents to closely monitor and supervise their children’s screen time. When her two oldest children had to switch to distant learning after COVID-19 shut down schools in March, she said she made a point of being present during their online screen time at home.

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Windsor’s Rise Up For Children rally was one of five such events across Canada, with participants asked to wear blue to represent children and yellow to represent the non-profit Operation Underground Railroad organization. When Prince saw that no demonstration had been planned for Windsor, she stepped up to organize such an event for the first time.

“It’s such a heavy topic, but I am very concerned — I felt I had to do something,” she said.

Speakers scheduled for Thursday’s demonstration that started at Dieppe Park included an officer with the Windsor Police Service involved in human trafficking investigations.

dschmidt@postmedia.com

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