Duncan

By Dr. Jim Duncan

The quick answer to the question, “Is human trafficking a problem in Rowan County?” is yes. Let’s cover some recent and not so recent laws regarding human trafficking to bring us all up to date.

We have some relatively new laws and older ones regarding human trafficking that must be examined and put into effect in our county.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) 2000 launched our country forward to increase our recognition and gave us the ammunition to combat human trafficking.

The TVPA defines human trafficking as both sex trafficking and forced labor. Sex trafficking involves the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining of a person for commercial sex acts using force, fraud or coercion. Forced labor involves the same actions, but for the purpose of involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery-like practices.

More recently, our N.C. legislation passed, Senate Bill 199 (SB 199), also known as the SAFE Child Act, 115c-81 and House Bill 971.

Senate Bill 199 (SB 199), also known as the SAFE Child Act, requires North Carolina schools to implement a child sexual abuse and sex trafficking training program for school personnel working with students in grades K-12. This training must be completed every two years, beginning with the 2020-21 school year. The goal of this training is to equip staff with the knowledge to recognize, respond to, and prevent child sexual abuse and sex trafficking.

The trafficking of children is a harsh reality in North Carolina and throughout the United States. An estimated 100,000 children are traded for sex in the U.S. each year.

Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Justice estimates that over 250,000 children ages 10-17 are exploited through commercial sex in the United States annually. For girls, the average entry age is between 12-14, and for boys, the entry age is 11-13.

This statistical analysis was provided by Quauhtli Olivieri Herrera, a public policy graduate student at Duke University, with focuses on national security and human trafficking.

Through NC General Statute 115C-81, the State of North Carolina mandates that schools include student instruction on sexual trafficking prevention and awareness as part of the health and safety education program.

We must protect our children at all costs by bringing the awareness, prevention and reporting of human trafficking before they become prey to the perpetrators. Project Light Rowan is currently the only full time anti-human trafficking agency in Rowan County where awareness, prevention and reporting regarding human trafficking is our main mission.

Thank you to the Rowan Salisbury School District for our joint ongoing planning to implement all of the provisions of SB199 and 115-C 81. We must act quickly.

We must expand this training to all of our schools; public schools, charter schools and home schools. Project Light stands ready to provide whatever assistance necessary to ensure we are reaching all of our children. This must be a priority in our county.

Human Trafficking is in every zip code. North Carolina is in the top 10 of our 50 states and Charlotte is the No. 1 city in North Carolina in human trafficking.

House Bill 971, which was enacted in 2024, mandates human trafficking awareness training for employees and contractors of lodging establishments and vacation rentals. This requirement goes into effect on July 1.

Also, in North Carolina, businesses, including restaurants, are required to display a human trafficking awareness sign created by the NC Human Trafficking Commission. This signage must prominently and conspicuously, contain The National Human Trafficking Resource Hotline information.

1-888-373-7888

Text BE FREE

Folks, we all need to get on board and display posters all around our county. Where can you get the posters, you ask? Come to Project Light’s office at the Rowan Community Center. Project Light is a non-profit agency on the NC Human Trafficking list of anti- human trafficking agencies. We are also closely associated with the Blue Campaign and Homeland Security.

We have the posters that need to be displayed, but we need your help in visiting our great merchants and asking if you can place one in their place of business.

In April 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bipartisan, bicameral “Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes On Websites and Networks Act,” or the TAKE IT DOWN Act (H.R.633, S.146), by a vote of 409-2.

A press release from the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation reads, “The TAKE IT DOWN Act criminalizes the publication of non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII), including Al-generated NCIl, and requires social media and similar websites to remove such content within 48 hours of notice from a victim.”

We have the backing and support of our National and State and County legislatures to get this awareness out to the public. Please, let’s not wait any longer. Our children deserve the right to be safe from the disasters of trafficking.

In summary, we can’t turn our eyes away and stay uninvolved in striving to make Rowan County a safe place with no human trafficking.

If we come together, we can give our youth and others a safe place to grow up and be free from the horrors of sex and labor trafficking.

Protect Light Rowan is here to continue to bring the awareness, prevention and reporting of human trafficking. Let’s make a difference together.

Dr. Jim Duncan is the founder and president of Project Light Rowan.