Sound of Freedom: Global Obstacles to Fight Sex Trafficking of Children

By | July 27, 2023

NEW YORK, July 28 (C-Fam) The greatest obstacle to protecting women and children from sex-traffickers may be the governments that protect pornography and prostitution.

The unexpected blockbuster movie “Sound of Freedom” has generated over $100 million at the U.S. box office putting a spotlight on sex trafficking of children.  But what is the international community doing to fight sex trafficking and what are some of the obstacles to ending child sex trafficking?

The UN General Assembly has not been idle when it comes to debating and adopting treaties and resolutions against trafficking.

There are two binding international treaties against sex-trafficking, the “Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons” and the “Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography,” ratified by nearly every country on earth.

The General Assembly commissioned the UN system to fight trafficking in a “Global Plan of Action” against trafficking beginning in 2010, and Western countries donate millions in aid bilaterally. The U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, alone has provided over $370 million to fight human trafficking in nearly 90 countries since 2000. Dozens of events are held at UN headquarters every year to address trafficking, sometimes referred to as “modern slavery.”

Despite this whirlwind of international attention, it is widely acknowledged that sex-trafficking continues to grow in frequency and brutality, especially toward children.

Growing evidence points to legal prostitution and pornography as factors that contribute to this rise. Evidence shows that prostitution and pornography increase sex trafficking, sexual deviancy, and contribute to child sex trafficking.

While many traditional countries would gladly clamp down on prostitution and go after the pornography industry, Western countries resist efforts to cast pornography and prostitution in a negative light.

Indeed, Western countries are at the forefront of promoting unfettered sexual freedom, including legal prostitution and pornography, and have not been willing to acknowledge the role these play in sex-trafficking.

The international treaty against trafficking, for example, only addresses “the exploitation of the prostitution of others” and not the purchase and sale of sex as inherently degrading and criminal. In recent years, Western countries and UN agencies have teamed up to promote legal prostitution as necessary to combat HIV/AIDS and have even characterized “sex work” as a form of female empowerment, drawing criticism from anti-trafficking groups everywhere.

Similarly, with pornography, there is an extant 1923 treaty against obscene material, that pre-dates the United Nations, which has languished for 100 years with only a handful of ratifications.

Instead of fighting pornography, Western countries accept it as a form of art or entertainment, or as material that is protected by freedom of expression. They have even encouraged UN agencies to promote pornography use for children as normal and healthy. This is a change from only thirty years ago when a landmark UN conference on women’s issues in Beijing unapologetically condemned pornography for objectifying women.

It should be pointed out that most pornography produced and consumed in the United States is prosecutable under federal law. Prosecutors under both Republican and Democratic administration have shown no interest in following the law.

Despite these discouraging trends, there are signs in many societies that Western predilection for unfettered sexual autonomy may not last forever. There is a growing grassroots international movement against pornography and prostitution, drawing attention not only to how these contribute to sex trafficking, but how they harm individuals, families, and society.

Last Fall, the General Assembly, referred to the need to punish and counter “demand” for sex in a political declaration against trafficking for the first time. While this is far from condemning pornography or prostitution per se, it may be the beginning of addressing the root causes that fuel sex-trafficking.

Sound of Freedom is a thriller based on the true story of Tim Ballard, the founder of Operation Underground Railroad, a non-profit dedicated to helping free victims of child sex trafficking. According to some estimates, child sex trafficking is $150 billion industry. The U.S. is the largest market for child sex trafficking according to the makers of the film

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