In the United States, one in every 100 children is involved in sexually exploitive activities. Most runaways and homeless young people are who are surviving through participation in the sex industry were originally fleeting from homes where they were being sexually abused. Thus, a vicious cycle is created. Exploited at home, and then on the streets.

Strangers do not commit most sexual crimes against under-aged individuals. Instead, it is parents, uncles, or next-door neighbors who molest our children. These facts regarding child exploitation are taken from a study titled “The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico,” by Richard J. Estes, PhD, and Neil Alan Weiner, PhD, from the University of Pennsylvania, Center for the Study of Youth Policy.

The three-year investigation, which was commissioned by the US Government, calls for urgent measures to be taken to tackle the issue. It was published one day before “9/11,” a day that has ever since symbolized the devastation of international terrorism. And yet we can see from the study that terrorism is already alive and well in the homes of abused and exploited children.

Every day, a child is exploited. Every day, we tell ourselves, “It’s not that bad,” when the reality is, childhood sexual exploitation has become an epidemic. As a nation, we have so glorified sexual images that we have almost become blind to the reality behind the symbols. These images teach our children to place great value and emphasis on their sexuality.

I know this is true. I am a sexual abuse survivor. If I did not tell the truth about what happened in my lifetime as a result of my own experiences as an exploited child, it would be as if I too was looking the other way.

Silence and secrecy perpetuate the crime. When we tell our stories, we create change that ripples around the globe. In the process of healing from being both an incest survivor and a prostituted woman, I re-claim my sexual identity when I tell the truth about how I became split from myself. How the wounded little girl went underground and how I developed into the “bad girl” to protect her.

If no one tells the truth, the exploitation will become the norm. Then whoever is exploited will be blamed for what happened to them. They were available for the victimization, showed no resistance, therefore they must have wanted it, and so it’s their own fault.

I was blamed for my own victimization by being labeled a bad girl. I was defiant, and so I decided that if society viewed me as bad, then I might as well be a good “bad girl.” I shoved my addiction to the sex industry underground, and later it resurfaced as a sex and love addiction. The only way out of the maze is to tell you the truth. I am lifting the veil. This is the journey I took to become whole and reclaim my womanhood. Please tell me your truth. Take the hand of another survivor and together we will help to heal the world.

If you would like to tell your truth email it to me at Survivors Network thesilverbraidatl@yahoo.com

"It is my belief that until we recognize the connections between childhood sexual abuse, porn, prostitution, and trafficking, we will not be able to break through the escalation of sex crimes." Anne Bissell/Author/Activist