3 Things about Sex Trafficking You'll Learn in Blind Eyes Opened

Rebekah is an American teenage girl with low esteem. She’s been raped. She’s lost friends. She doesn’t get along with her parents. 

So, at age 16, she moves out of her parents’ home and starts doing drugs. At age 17 and needing cash, she starts working at a strip club. From there, she meets a handsome man who promises her a place to live and plenty of love. 

He has a 5,000-square-foot home. He has secretaries who answer his phone. 

“He made me feel special, and wanted, and loved – which is what I missed,” she says.

Soon, though, Rebekah is caught up in the underground world of sex trafficking. She is forced into prostitution. 

The film Blind Eyes Opened – in theaters for one night only, Jan. 23 – tells the story of Rebekah and others like her in what has been dubbed a “first-of-its-kind Christian documentary.” The film interviews law enforcement officials, lawmakers, trafficking experts and ministry leaders as it exposes a dark underground industry – sex trafficking – that is closer to your city than you might think.

It’s one of the best films on the subject and one of the most gripping, too.

Here are three things you’ll learn:

Photo courtesy: Fathom

1. It’s Happening in your Area

The film takes us to several cities – including Tampa, Atlanta and Nashville – where sex trafficking is common. 

“It’s in every single community,” an expert on the subject says. 

Although human trafficking can involve forced labor or involuntary servitude, the film focuses on the most popular form of trafficking in the U.S.: sex trafficking. 

“Most people think of it as an overseas problem. But the reality is we have a major, major issue here in America inside of our own borders – with our own kids,” the film’s executive producer, Geoffrey Rogers, told Crosswalk. “We would estimate over 100,000 kids in America are being trafficked for sex every single day here in our own country.”

The film includes interviews with those who were caught in the web of sex trafficking but escaped.

One girl was trafficked at age 12. Most felt they had no choice, and few were raised in a loving, intact family. Most victims, in fact, were sexually abused as children. One girl in the film was trafficked by her father.

Traffickers find their victims on social media but also in public places like malls. Other times, traffickers discover their victims in the commercial sex industry, whether in strip clubs or prostitution rings.

Photo courtesy: Fathom

2. It Involves Teens Who Have No Hope

Most victims of sex trafficking are girls, although 10-15 percent are boys. It’s estimated that one girl can net her boss between $200,000 and $300,000 per year. 

The average sex trafficking victim got into the system between the ages of 12 and 14. Some are runaways. Others grew up in the foster system.

“Around 60 percent of kids that are trafficked in America come out of the foster care system,” Rogers told Crosswalk. “These are U.S.-born kids, and they're being trafficked by U.S. citizens and being purchased by U.S. citizens. The foster care system is the main feeder.”

Traffickers are looking for girls with low self-esteem.

“Because she's been growing up in an environment where she didn't have the best loving environment, she doesn't really even understand what true love is. She falls for this guy, head over heels. And he will groom her for six to nine months. And after a certain period of time, he'll flip a switch and say, ‘OK, now you work for me.’”

By then, many of the girls have developed an emotional bond based on trauma (Stockholm syndrome) or they’re addicted to drugs – and they don’t want to run away.

Photo courtesy: Fathom

3. It’s Driven by the Porn Industry

One of the most popular porn websites in the U.S. amassed 28 billion visits last year. Many women in the videos were victims of sex trafficking. 

This means, Rogers said, that porn users are feeding the sex trafficking industry without even knowing it. 

“We identify pornography as the No. 1 fueling factor to sex trafficking in America,” Rogers said.

It’s estimated that “over half of women involved in sex trafficking” are also forced into pornography, he said.

Even worse, some of these porn addicts “then want to begin to actualize what they've been visualizing,” he said.

Blind Eyes Opened is a sobering must-see for Christians who want to know the truth about sex trafficking in the U.S. – and who want to help fight it. It’s not for children, but for older family members, it sheds light on a subject that too often is swept under America’s social rugs. 

Learn more at BlindEyesOpened.com

Michael Foust is a freelance writer. Visit his blog, MichaelFoust.com.

Photo courtesy: Fathom

Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.