WEST FORK, Ark. — Thursday night, Watkins Family Health & Counseling put on an expert panel discussion at Unity Covenant Church in West Fork to bring awareness about sex trafficking.
"We are educating the West Fork and surrounding communities on what is human sex trafficking, the impact of trafficking in Northwest Arkansas, and how to identify it, report it, and treat it," Dr. Charla Watkins said. "There's a lot of trafficking that goes on between Northwest Arkansas and Memphis. And anytime that you have like the interstate, and you have drugs and weapons, you have sex trafficking."
Watkins says it's something people are starting to have more conversations about as awareness is growing.
"Because people are speaking up more, it's being reported a little bit more," Dr. Watkins said. "We're educating healthcare providers; we're educating social workers. And it's being talked about more in schools and universities."
The panel gave insight to people on how to protect themselves and children from being human trafficked and how to report issues.
"It looks a lot like online grooming, where the predators are always coming up with apps and ways to pull children in online and through their phones," Watkins said.
"The average age that a child is brought into sex trafficking is ages 12 to 14," Watkins added. "They need to be monitoring what their children are doing on their phone. They need to have safety checks on their phones."
The topic is important especially in rural communities like West Fork said Andi Wise, who's a victim advocate.
"I think that it's so easy for any of us to get this mentality of 'this can't happen to me,'" Wise said. "It's just as important for small communities to get this kind of presentation and education just like the larger communities because they're a part of this."
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