The fight against human trafficking continues to gain increasing amounts of attention as time passes. January also happens to be National Human Trafficking Awareness Month or National Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

During this time, many individuals, government agencies, and others are speaking out about human trafficking. Some states have passed laws mandating that workers in key sectors receive training to make them most equipped to recognize and report suspected human trafficking cases.

Now, the US Department of Defense is one of the latest sources to speak out about human trafficking.

The Defense Department on human trafficking

Exactly three weeks ago on Thursday, January 5, the Defense Department documented human trafficking as the use of coercion, fraud, or force as a means of getting someone to carry out commercial services, labor, and/or sex.

In addition to calling this out, the federal agency reaffirmed its commitment to fighting human trafficking.

https://twitter.com/OURrescue/status/1617583157296988161

Rightfully acknowledging human trafficking as a "crime against humanity," the Defense Department also stressed the adverse impacts of human trafficking, both domestically and internationally.

The Department of Defense is furthermore encouraging people to take steps to educate themselves about human trafficking. This can be as simple as visiting DOD Combating Trafficking in Persons online to learn more information.

Warnings about sextortion

The Defense Department wants Americans to be fully aware of sextortion and the threats it poses to society.

The FBI notes that sextortion occurs when someone is manipulated into sending explicit images of themselves, then later blackmailed after sending these images. In many cases, predators pretend to be romantic interests of the people they are targeting in order to obtain compromising photos of them.

Parents especially should know about the growing trend of children being targeted by perpetrators of sextortion.

In some of the most tragic cases, minors have taken their own lives after predators manipulated them into sending compromising images and then began blackmailing them.

Human trafficking and sextortion can also go hand in hand with one another.

Anyone who wishes to report what they believe to be human trafficking can contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline via phone at 1 (888) 373-7888 or by text at 233733.