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John,
It almost seems impossible, but no. True story:
Our Shared Hope staffer, Kelly, went online posing as a 15-year-old girl.
She downloaded some apps popular with teens and created a profile for herself, as a high school freshman, hoping to learn directly from teens using the apps.
What she found shocked her. Within minutes, her inboxes were flooded with messages from middle-aged men
Over the next few weeks, she interacted with dozens of pedophiles, predators, and sex traffickers. The details are too disturbing to tell you. But all of these men had the same goal: to groom and sexually exploit a child. Not via a classified website or the “dark Web” — but apps popular with teens.
This is the reality our children live in today.
And this is why Shared Hope’s online safety resources are so critically important: a wide array of free, downloadable resources designed to help parents navigate these tough yet crucial subjects with the kids they love, as well as resources for the kids themselves.
Thank you for standing with Shared Hope to protect our children from online sex traffickers. I’m grateful you’re in this fight with us.
Linda Smith
Founder and President |
Model used to protect the girls we serve.