Which Modelling Agency to go for?

Internet and Teen Modeling - Welcome to the world of Human Trafficking.

I support an organization that tries to educate kids, parents and grandparents about human trafficking.

There are several ways that you can get on the fast track to being a victim of human trafficking and teen modeling/talent agency is one of these. On any given day there are men and women at shopping malls and online trolling to recruit kids to become models. It all seems very innocent and flattering. The line may be "how pretty you are" or how "you could be a model and afford lots of nice clothes". They may give you a business card, web address to sign up on or they may look you up on Facebook later and try to strike up a friendship. They might buy you expensive gifts. The whole end goal of this is to groom you towards what they really have in mind which is prostitution and you becoming another income earner for them. One perpetrator was asked how he recruited girls using the modeling ploy and his answer was pretty chilling. He explained it something like this, “I just tell them how beautiful they are and if they are embarrassed and look down I know I’ve got them”.

Going to parties where you don’t know the participants, going to job interviews where it is hard to track down the actual employer name, answering freebie ads for jobs or things for sale are all ways you can get kidnapped into this evil world and end up drugged or beaten, all your ID taken and put in the back of a truck headed for who know where. The prime age range is 12-22. You will be expected to have sex 20-40 times per day and beaten if you don’t perform well enough. You might be traded like cattle to other pimps. You may wake up and find that you have been drugged and tattooed with your pimp’s name on the inside of your mouth or elsewhere. You are now their property to sell or use anyway they want. Your life expectancy as a trafficked person is about 5-7 years. You may end up in jail with a criminal record while your pimp walks away free.

One of the immediate goals that they have is to get you pregnant as quickly as possible. Then they will use that baby to threaten you and make you stay with them and do the things they tell you to do. The boys and girls who have been pulled into the world of being trafficked will tell you it is beyond the worst of what you can possibly imagine. There was a recent Southern Cal TV interview with a girl who had been kidnapped and ended up in Mexico. She explained how she had ended up there as a prostitute and was asked why she did not flee. She explained that all her ID had been taken away from her and she knew that if she tried to flee she would just be made to disappear as that had happened to others. Going to the police was not an option as her "owners" had friends in the Mexican police department. She already knew her fate. She would likely die young of disease or from suicide.

Another ploy is to take innocent photos of you under the guise of modeling and then photoshop your head onto the bodies of others. You can find yourself in pornographic pictures on the Internet. No amount of explaining that you did not do anything wrong will get you off the hook with your parents, friends and boyfriend.

There is no way that I can caution you strongly enough that many times these businesses are fronts for horrible situations and some of the teens that get involved find themselves unable to leave and raped, exploited, transported out of the country, traded and treated like animals.

Go get a real job in a grocery store or in fast food.

Occasionally when I post this info there is someone who chimes in that this is nonsense. I respectfully have to disagree. All you need to do is read the newspapers. (see links below) The problem these days is there are recruiters (pimps) of all ages and both genders who are encouraging girls and boys to get involved in modeling for the wrong purposes. When someone says that this is just a joke they are either uninformed (very possible - I was once) or they are a pimp and have something to gain by looking for more kids to groom. Whenever you hear someone make fun of normal jobs and claim how much money they make this should always raise red flags in your mind. Be smart and be safe - run away from this idea.

http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law...

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhoo...

http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/rive...

http://articles.hbindependent.com/2012-10-22/opini...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-l-travis/dr-ph...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/oct/3/sex...

http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2012/10/02/col...

http://voices.yahoo.com/signs-show-business-scam-k...

http://teenadvice.about.com/od/adviceexpert/a/newm...

http://www.modelmanagement.com/modeling-advice/leg...