Georgia campaign targets child sex buyers

Georgians can expect to see a new campaign of public service announcements aimed at making people stop before they commit a child sex crime.

The “unmasked” campaign, introduced Tuesday by state Attorney General Sam Olens at the state Capitol, targets would-be buyers and lets them know that law enforcement is putting a high priority on stopping child sex trafficking.

“We view this effort that you’re hearing about today as a crucial step in that process, a crucial step to putting more folks in jail who need to be in jail for trafficking our children,” Olens said.

The new posters and videos of masked and unmasked men won’t be the first visuals that Olens has helped publish in the state to make people think twice before committing a child sex crime. In bars, transit stations and other public places, posters of neon signs reading “Georgia’s not buying it” direct people to a website about the initiative.

Fighting sex trafficking — going after both buyers and sellers — has been a high-profile issue for Olens over the past several years. He, the GBI, nonprofits and lawmakers are jointly working on the crackdown.

“When I was first elected, one could be convicted of trafficking and serve a year,” Olens said. “Now if one is convicted of trafficking, they have to serve a minimum of 10 years. And if it involves a minor with coercion or deception, its a minimum of 20 years.”

Cheryl DeLuca-Johnson, president and CEO of Street Grace, a nonprofit founded to end domestic minor sex trafficking, said legislators and law enforcement are important because they make the laws and arrest the crooks.

But making the public, corporations, faith-based groups, the media and others aware of the problem is important, too, she said.

“We need the community to step forward and say they want to be part of the (initiative) that unmasks those that buy, those who have been anonymous all this time,” DeLuca-Johnson said.

GBI Director Vernon Keenan said his office’s child sex trafficking unit has rescued more than 50 children since it was established three years ago.

He said more education of the public and of law enforcement leads to more victims being identified and helped.

Olens said he has some more ideas for next year’s legislative session.

“I’d like to have some change where any trafficker, buyer or seller, it would require jail time. We have some judges that are giving 100 percent probated time ... on the buyer side,” he said.

“But let’s face it, if you buy a 12-year-old girl for sex, (you) need to be spending years in jail, just like the seller needs to be spending years in jail,” Olens said.

This story was originally published April 26, 2016 at 12:36 PM with the headline "Georgia campaign targets child sex buyers."