Approximately 350,000 children are trafficked across international borders each year, according to US State Department data from 2005.1 Due to the datedness of these statistics, the numbers may well be even higher today. Unfortunately, this population, though greatly affected by sexual violence, is not often spoken about.
Youth trafficking is the illegal movement of children, typically for the purposes of forced labor or sexual exploitation. These children are recruited, transported, hidden, and then forced into different forms of exploitation. The types of sexual exploitation range, but many children experience pornographic pictures being taken of them, being forced to perform sexual acts on adults, and more. The reasons behind children getting swept up in the horrors of trafficking are complex, but most are rooted in financial burdens of the family, political unrest in their home country, discrimination and rejection based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and multiple other complex social factors. Media’s depiction of child trafficking limits the public’s understanding of what trafficking looks like, and where it occurs. The United States has significant rates of child trafficking within its borders, creating a revenue of approximately $99 billion a year. 2
The new movie Sound of Freedom by Alejandro Gómez Monteverde came to theaters on July 4th, reeling in members of both of the country’s polarized political parties. To the layperson (like me) watching this film with the intent of seeing an arguably well-done thriller promoting the public’s knowledge of child trafficking, it seems like a success. The film is based on the true story of a Homeland Security agent who is exhausted by catching online pedophiles and traffickers, and wants to do more impactful work of saving the children impacted. He embarks on a mission to find a missing boy from Honduras, whose sister is also trafficked into a child exploitation ring in Colombia. The film depicts the recruiting tactics of the traffickers, the various buyers of the “services,” and some moments of explicit mistreatment of the children. The moments of abuse are chilling and difficult to watch, and potentially unnecessary to show so explicitly. The majority of said moments are made known through inferences of the viewer, which seems to be a little more tasteful and still as impactful to the audience. Most of the individuals being trafficked in the film are young children, which is inconsistent with the reality of most trafficked youth being adolescents.
Due to the nature of a thriller film, most of the film was dramatizations of an adventurous, international rescue mission. We know that these missions are unrealistic, especially when a single off-duty agent is trying to find one particular trafficked girl. The film is painting a picture of trafficking solutions that don’t exist today. It takes months or years to find missing children, and it definitely takes a lot more than one agent to be this successful. The randomization of who is targeted in this film for trafficking is also doing a disservice to the very real survivors of child trafficking.
We don’t know much about any of the children in the film, which arguably takes the focus away from the children and puts the emphasis on the agent who is represented as a “hero”. Where are these children from? What conditions led them to this situation? Without any of this information, viewers have a very limited view of what a trafficked youth looks like, and goes through before their trafficking. This limited information will inevitably impact the ability of the United States public and lawmakers’ to attest to children and their families in courtrooms, propose change through policies, and allocate funds for the elimination of human trafficking. Although there is bravery and necessity in the jobs of law enforcement agents, they are not the only ones to end child trafficking in both our country and internationally.
So, who are the children being affected by trafficking endeavors? Any kind of youth can be preyed upon and exploited, And human trafficking does not discriminate, however, certain populations of youth are more likely to be trafficked. For example, it is known that LGBTQ children and adolescents are most often targeted based on their increased likelihood of being unhoused,without familial support. None of these doubly vulnerable populations are being considered in The Sound of Freedom.
There have been concerning reports about the “hero” of this film, Tom Ballard, and the non-profit organization he founded called Operation Underground Railroad, otherwise known as OUR. The organization allegedly works intensely on locating and rescuing “literally thousands of victims.”3 Yet social work organizations and law enforcement agencies across the US were unfamiliar with OUR, and had many questions about what this organization actually does. OUR claims privacy requirements hold them back from disclosing the specifics of the work they do to help children, and due to its non-profit status, the organization is run mostly based on donations. Millions of dollars are being donated to this organization with hopes of making an impactful difference in those thousands of kids’ lives, but it is unclear what work the organization really does. Claims of the organization being responsible for the escape of specific children have been proven wrong by court testimonies, and law enforcement documents.
The organization, and particularly, its founder Tom Ballard, has sensationalized human trafficking, creating false claims about various cases to make them seem more intense, and arguably aligned with alt-right political rhetoric. For example, there was a case of a 14 year old girl in Mexico who was courted by a young man for two years, and eventually traveled to the US in search of more profitable work. Once in the US, the girl was forced to engage in prostitution due to her trafficker’s control over her legal status and threats he made. Tom Ballard has publicly announced his organization’s involvement in her case, stating that she was “kidnapped” in Mexico and “groomed” for 2 years to work in prostitution in the US. This dramatization of the truth makes it even harder to understand the complexities of trafficking. The fact that the girl was courted and led to believe she was in a romantic relationship with her trafficker complicates the case and also allows people to be more aware of the less explicit beginnings of trafficking. I can only guess that her family did not worry about her relationship with the young man and instead was happy for the opportunities that she might be able to find in the US with this person. Without recognizing various tactics of traffickers as warning signs, it is less likely to prevent these horrifying realities for young people. Additionally, the fact that Tom Ballard wrote about this case stating that his organization was “taking care of” the girl after her return in preparation for the court proceedings is not plausible. Social workers do not reference clients as people that they are “taking care of.” This is extremely paternalistic and dismissive of the survivor’s own resilience and ability to act on her own accord.
Not coincidentally, the leading actor in the film, Jim Caviezel, has done his own fair share of spreading false information about this social issue. Caviezel has been known to be a promoter of the Q-Anon conspiracy theory, especially the unearthly claim that a group of elites is kidnapping and killing children to create a substance called adrenochrome.4 This substance is not real, and the focus on such false claims detracts from the real sources of trafficking at hand. In a bout of homophobia and transphobia, Q Anon and other alt right politicians and organizations also promote the idea that liberals and LGBTQ individuals are pedophiles or pedophile enablers.5 They claim to be preventing sexual “grooming” through legislation like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Instead, all they are doing is downplaying the severity of child sexual abuse, sex trafficking, and sexual violence in general. With this actor being the face of this film, the film is explicitly disseminating propaganda of such alt-right political views and agendas on social issues more broadly. The truth is what brings upon justice, and the sensationalization of the Sound of Freedom does a disservice to the real and devastating experiences of so many young people and their chances of freedom and justice.
As of July 20, the movie has made $100 million in total ticket sales at the box office.6 That’s $15 million more than the Office of Justice Programs finances for victim service programs for survivors of trafficking.7 I am curious how much of the money made on this film is going to be distributed to the children they are attempting to depict.
There are a lot of things that would have allowed this film to be as impactful as it needed to be. Instead of focusing on the heroism in the film, the children and their real stories should have been at the center of the camera. The tireless work and dedication of social workers, nurses, and other direct service providers should have been included and emphasized. There should have been a mention of the real impact that policies, education, and preventative measures can have on eliminating trafficking in the US. A range of experiences and identities of children could have shown viewers the complexities of this social issue and those who end up trafficking and being trafficked. Without the whole picture of any issue, there really cannot be the type of change we need to eliminate such horrific realities.
1 https://www.ncjrs.gov/ovc_archives/ncvrw/2005/pg5l.html
2 https://www.savedinamerica.org/stats
3 https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7a3qw/a-famed-anti-sex-trafficking-group-has-a-problem-with-the-truth
4 https://www.npr.org/2023/07/19/1188405402/qanon-supporters-are-promoting-sound-of-freedom-heres-why
5 https://www.vox.com/culture/23025505/leftist-groomers-homophobia-satanic-panic-explained
6 https://www.forbes.com/sites/anafaguy/2023/07/20/sound-of-freedom-hits-100-million-at-box-office-despite-scrutiny
7 https://ovc.ojp.gov/program/human-trafficking/grants-funding
Julia Kopala
My name is Julia, and I am currently working in Boston as a special education teacher. I joined Survivors to Superheroes because I am a survivor myself who did not have any support or resources to understand the gravity of the situation I was in. I want my writing to empower and validate the diversity of experiences and identities that survivors hold, amplifying the idea that healing is possible. Outside of the organization, I find joy in hiking, reading, and mentoring students!
