Attorney General targets Sex Trafficking in Georgia

PERRY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Georgia Attorney General, Sam Olens told a group of business and civic leaders he is diligently working to get rid of sex trafficking in Georgia.

Olens told the Perry Rotary Club that sex trafficking is nothing more than “modern day slavery.”

“It is way to prevalent in our state,” said Olens “We need to educate the public and educated law enforcement to frankly do a better job seeing the problem, knowing the problem and attacking the problem.”

The average age of entry for victims to become involved in sex trafficking is between 12 and 14-years-old.

Georgia has a sex trafficking campaign of public service announcements along with placing various signs across the state addressing the issue. 

One of the signs states “She needed the money.” The campaign is to warn people that there are no excuses for them to participate in the crime.

Olens is shifting his focus to the people *buying young girls and boys, and not just on the ones selling them.

“Historically a free pass was given to the purchaser, and you’d have the trafficker spend years in jail,” added Olens. “But, we need to have a deterrent to that, we need to tell the purchaser that what they’re doing is just as bad as the people who are selling our children. We need to send a message that the purchaser need to spend years in jail too.”