Girls as young as 12 are being exploited for sex in Portland, Ore., according to an NBC investigation.
Teri Williams used to be one of them. “You're a prisoner," she told NBC's Portland affiliate KGW. "No one is going to let you go. You are the pimp’s meal ticket.”
Authorities say there are hundreds of girls still stuck on the streets of Portland. Human-trafficking investigators and government researchers estimate the average pimp in the U.S. can make more than $200,000 a year off one young girl.
Across the country, 17 people were arrested in Louisiana last week in an Internet child-pornography sting that police said involved sexual abuse of children as young as 3.
The men were arrested in seven parishes in the Alexandria, Lake Charles and Lafayette areas, The Associated Press reported. Attorney General Buddy Caldwell said he expects more arrests.
Daniel Weiss, senior analyst for media and sexuality at Focus on the Family Action, said the horror of child sexual exploitation is growing worse.
"We cannot expect a change until the culture as a whole puts an end to the mass marketing of pornography," he said. "If we continue to allow pornographers to put out the message that humans are nothing more than sexual commodities, we cannot act surprised when children are abused, consumed and molested for someone’s sexual gratification.
"Law enforcement officials must begin prosecuting the entire range of illegal pornography.”
— Jennifer Mesko
