The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), in collaboration with more than twenty-five supporting organizations, is conducting a nation-wide social media awareness campaign to #TackleDemand for sex trafficking at the Super Bowl and beyond.
“Why is sex trafficking at the Super Bowl a problem? Because some of the men who travel to Houston this weekend will buy sex,” said Dawn Hawkins, Executive Director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. “We often like to think that sex trafficking is perpetuated by the traffickers, but the reality is that it’s the demand—the sex buyer—that keeps the market going. Men who buy sex can be easily lost in a crowd. They can be judges, business owners, neighbors, colleagues, or sports enthusiasts. Often those in their lives have no idea that they occasionally, or regularly, buy sex.”
“That is why the #TackleDemand awareness campaign is so vital, because you never know if someone you talk to or someone who’s friends with you in Facebook might be considering buying sex. It’s important to send the message that all sex buying perpetuates the marketplace for sex trafficking, and that typically sex buyers are unable or unwilling to recognize if a person is sexually trafficked. Moreover, any form of payment for sex in itself constitutes an act of sexual coercion, whether it takes place in connection with the Super Bowl, a NASCAR race, a bachelor’s party, or for no special occasion at all.”
The public is encouraged to participate in the #TackleDemand campaign by visiting our website endsexualexploitation.org/tackledemand to learn the latest research and to share social media graphics. They can also schedule a social media post for the evening of the Super Bowl that sends the message: “Real sports fans don’t buy sex.”
Partner organizations include: A Call to Men, Brushfires Foundation, Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, Coalition to Abolish Human Trafficking in the Inland Northwest, Demand Abolition, Elijah Rising, Exodus Cry
, Freedom 7 Human Trafficking Task Force, Global Center for Women & Justice from Vanguard University, Global Centurion, Illinois Family Institute, In Our Backyard, International Athletes’ Abolition Mission, Kalamazoo Anti-Human Trafficking Coalition, Legal Momentum, Museum of Modern Day Slavery, Nexus, One in Four, Prayer for Freedom, Porn Know, Shared Hope International, Texas Advocates United for Sexual Health, U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking, United Against Human Trafficking, VCU United, Wichita State University Center for Combating Human Trafficking, and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
