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It was an honor to sit down with, and learn from, Lina Nealon this week on The Balanced Voice. In this “balanced conversation”, Lina and Rania discuss the role of large corporations like Netflix, Amazon, Google, etc. in the fight against human trafficking. As the Director of Corporate and Strategic Initiatives at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, Lina gives a unique perspective on how social media, e-commerce, and the internet as a whole play an integral role in an increased demand for sexual exploitation.
Lina outlines the “dirty dozen” initiative, an annual list of companies and organizations released by the National Center on Exploitation “to name and shame the mainstream players in America that perpetuate sexual exploitation.” This list also provides practical ways for everyday community members to get involved in the fight against human trafficking by using their voice in culture. Lina offers valuable insight into the world of sex trafficking through outlining eye-opening statistics, providing practical trafficking scenarios, and ends by offering many “real solutions” for parents.
In this episode Lina urges listeners to support the "Earn it Act" that would establish a National Commission on Online Child Sexual Exploitation Prevention and to call your state representative to let them know how you feel about Child Sexual Exploitation. To find out who your representative is, click here!
About Lina Nealon:
Lina Nealon is the Director of Corporate and Strategic Initiatives at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation where she leads advocacy efforts and grassroots campaigns to hold corporations accountable for facilitating and profiting from sexual exploitation and abuse. Ms. Nealon served as the Founding Director of Demand Abolition, the first national program targeting the demand that drives the commercial sex industry. She designed Cities Empowered Against Sexual Exploitation (CEASE): a collaboration between twelve major US cities disrupting sex-buying in their communities. She is a founding co-chair of the World Without Exploitation coalition, served as the Massachusetts Interagency Anti-Trafficking Taskforce Demand Committee co-chair, and was a founding member of Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Working Group on Modern Slavery. Lina has drafted federal, state, and local policies and legislation, advised elected officials and policymakers, and is often asked to provide expert commentary to media outlets. Ms. Nealon has also held several professional and volunteer roles promoting women and girls’ leadership. Lina and her husband are raising four young children in Durham, North Carolina.
Follow the National Center on Sexual Exploitation to see more of Lina’s work in action:
Website: www.endsexualexploitaiton.org
Twitter: @ncose
Instagram: @endexploitation
Resources
Lina graciously offered a series of “real solutions” for parents who are trying their hardest to protect their children from victimization in the current age of the internet. Please see her list of vetted resources below:
1. Protect Young Minds: This entire website is a wealth of resources for parents and educators on how to talk to their kids about pornography. The founders book, Good Pictures, Bad Pictures is fantastic and they just came out with a curriculum for 4th - 6th graders as well.
2. Talk Today, Safer Tomorrow: This two-page flyer on talking to your kids about pornography gives age appropriate conversations to have with your student.
3. World Without Exploitation. Lina created this speaker series to cover a variety of topics related to sexual exploitation (pornography, the dangers of legalizing or fully decriminalizing the sex trade, sexualization of women and girls of color, etc). You can view previous videos and sign up for the series this Fall!
4. Demand Abolition's report on "Who Buys Sex." This is a representative sample of sex buyers in the US, why and how they buy people for sex, and what would stop them.
5. For parents who are curious about the Netflix documentary, Cuties, that has gained a lot of media attention, Lina recommends this article about why the documentary is so problematic.
6. A new documentary Lina highly recommends (instead of Cuties!) about growing up with social media: Childhood 2.0. This documentary features two trusted organizations Bark and Protect Young Eyes. (The Balanced Voice will have Titania Jordan from this documentary on the podcast later this season!)
7. Bark’s guide on How to Set up Chromebook Parental Controls.
8. Lina’s recent blog post about child online safety.
You can tune into Lina’s episode here, and make sure you never miss The Balanced Voice by subscribing through your favorite podcast platform.
Thank you for following along with The Balanced Voice. The views expressed in each episode are those of the podcast guest and do not necessarily represent the views of The Balanced Voice or Crime Stoppers of Houston.