{"id":183570,"date":"2026-05-04T16:17:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T16:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/183570\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T16:17:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T16:17:17","slug":"what-parents-should-know-about-online-trafficking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/183570\/","title":{"rendered":"What parents should know about online trafficking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 As the region prepares to host major national and international events, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.audacy.com\/kywnewsradio\/news\/local\/philadelphia-summer-events-fifa-250th-mlb-all-star\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">FIFA World Cup and celebrations for America\u2019s 250th anniversary<\/a>, anti-human trafficking advocates are warning parents to watch out for human trafficking predators who may be luring kids online. <\/p>\n<p>Officials say the latest tactic targets children through social media.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s much more sophisticated in the sense that it is emotionally and psychologically abusive,\u201d said Sarah Gibbons, executive director of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.familysupportline.org\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Family Support Line<\/a> in Delaware County, which helps prevent child sex abuse and treat survivors. \u201cSo these kids do get money, they do get goods, they get all kinds of things.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of the kids \u2026 don\u2019t see themselves as victims, and they\u2019re very resistant to getting help because they think they are consenting to this lifestyle,\u201d she continued. \u201cWhat a lot of people don\u2019t realize is any child that is having sex with any kind of exchange of goods or money is considered being trafficked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While many who are preyed upon have tough lives, Gibbons said they can be any kid or teenager from any background. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe people who are like the Romeos, the people who may appear as the boyfriend, but actually they\u2019re the ones that are pulling them into recruiting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>If children have new and expensive gifts, rides or cars, or even paid beauty treatments, those are all warning signs, she said. They may also be very possessive of their phone. <\/p>\n<p>Gibbons said traffickers may be using Philadelphia\u2019s big summer events to lure new victims, using job opportunities as bait.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMake sure that these are legit businesses and these are not people that are trying to lure your kids and recruit your kids into sex work or labor trafficking,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>If you suspect trafficking or aren\u2019t sure, call the state\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pa.gov\/agencies\/dhs\/resources\/keep-kids-safe\/report-child-abuse\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">ChildLine at 1-800-932-0313<\/a>, or use the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.safe2saypa.org\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Safe2Say app<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Listen to the full conversation with Gibbons about what parents can do to protect their children in the player below:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 As the region prepares to host major national and international events, including the FIFA&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[810,69,71,70,14493],"class_list":["post-183570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-human-trafficking","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-trafficking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}