Tami Brown Rodriguez on Untrafficked: How to Protect Your Family and Spot Trafficking

0:00 · Both

Show open from Church on the Rock. Zach records this one over the internet with Tami Brown Rodriguez of Untrafficked.

1:39 · Zach

Trafficking of kids and young adults is a real thing. It is not fun. If you have a kid that listens with you, I want you to be aware. It is not too graphic, but I probably wouldn’t let my daughter listen. The points on what to talk to your kids about will be in there. God gave us children. It’s our job to protect them. This is not an enjoy-type show. This is pay attention. Make a mental note of untrafficked.org.

3:19 · Zach

Hello and welcome to The Zach Rateliff Show. I’m Zach, and this is Tami Brown Rodriguez.

3:26 · Tami

I’m amazing. How are you?

3:37 · Zach

You’re with untrafficked.org. I sat in on a presentation you did last Thursday night. I thought I already knew what was going on in the trafficking world, and my mind was blown wide open.

4:06 · Tami

That’s not the first time I’ve heard that. We think of the white van with the creepy guy kidnapping our children. What’s happening is right under our nose, on our phones. Kids are at home in their bedrooms, and predators are actively working on our kids.

4:38 · Zach

I was raised: don’t talk to strangers, don’t get in cars, be wary of the ice cream man. Not people pretending they’re little girls to make your little girl their friend so they can trick them into going to the mall.

4:57 · Tami

It’s so hard with these devices. It’s so hard with online gaming. If we start thinking about this as digital safety and personal safety, maybe people will be more open to hearing it instead of only talking about it as sex trafficking.

6:29 · Tami

It generally starts with a relationship. A text. An innocent game online. My niece was trafficked for 15 years here in the United States. How it started was a teacher showed kindness, gave her attention, gave her compliments, and from there it went from zero to sixty very quickly. We want to teach kids what a healthy relationship looks like — that way when it isn’t healthy, they identify it right away.

7:58 · Tami

Untrafficked has been around about six and a half years. I joined as CEO last November. We do three things. First, we guard the innocent — situational training so people understand what trafficking is, how to spot it, and how to report it. Second, we hunt the hidden. There’s a tip line at untrafficked.org. Our analysts look into it. Often that turns into a police case. We walk with the family and with law enforcement.

9:37 · Tami

My niece went missing and nobody would help. We want to protect and work with the family and retrieve the victim if need be. We’ve been able to help well over 2,200 cases in six years and put over 700 bad guys away.

10:35 · Tami

Third — once we recover the victim, we help get them services. A safe house. Counseling. Whatever they need to help the healing.

11:13 · Tami

We thought the most important day of our life would be when we found her alive. That’s really where the work has just begun. This is a lifelong healing process. When you’ve been through that kind of trauma, everything changes — the relationship with your children, your family, your community. We can’t forget that part.

12:53 · Tami

I personally believe children should not have access to social media until after they’re 16. Australia passed a law. The UK did the same. If your children must be on social media, take those phones away at night so they’re not in a dark room all night long. Number two: Bark. B-A-R-K. Put it on their phones and electronics so they don’t get to sites they shouldn’t have.

15:05 · Tami

We had a case recently where a young woman was groomed through the Bible app. Mom and dad saw communication and thought their kids were studying the Bible. It was an older man. When she turned 18, she moved in with him across state lines.

17:01 · Zach

This isn’t only just for young girls.

17:03 · Tami

Statistically, young boys are now at equal risk. It used to be one out of four girls. Now it’s one out of four boys as well. With boys, what’s happening is sextortion — a relationship over text, a boundary crossed, then a threat. They don’t even have to send a picture. Predators can take a face off social media, create an AI image, and weaponize it.

18:00 · Zach

As my daughter’s grown up, her mom and I have told her her whole life: if anyone tells you to lie to mom and dad, don’t. No one is going to hurt us if you tell us. We will always come get you. You won’t get in trouble for being honest with us. We’ll evaluate whatever happens after. Just tell us.

18:52 · Tami

That is so smart. That’s exactly what we train families to do. If you have an exit plan in advance, it changes everything.

19:20 · Zach

It’s easy to think, my child’s in third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade — this isn’t an issue yet. I just don’t believe that’s true.

20:22 · Tami

New research shows the age children see their first pornographic image is the age they were given a device. Six, seven, eight. One image changes the chemical makeup of a child’s brain. If kids are on a phone or an iPad, put the tools on that device so that does not happen.

22:12 · Tami

We can’t arrest our way out of this. We can’t legislate our way out. We can’t rescue our way out. The only way out is to return the heart of man back to God, because we are an evil, fallen world.

23:48 · Tami

It takes only eight minutes for a predator to create a relationship with a child online.

24:50 · Zach

As a single dad, guess who stays the night at my house? No one. They can hang out and mom can come get them. Ain’t nobody staying.

25:18 · Tami

In the heat of the issue we need to say the same words: It’s okay. I’m not mad. You’re not responsible. It’s not your fault. I love you. You’re safe. We can deal with everything else after.

26:22 · Tami

If there’s a crime, call 911. I don’t care where you are. If you get that check in your spirit and you know something isn’t right, that’s where Untrafficked comes in. Time, place, a picture, a license plate — as much as you can. Go to untrafficked.org, put it in the tip line, and we will reach back out. Be a good witness. We have training on that.

27:40 · Zach

Call it intuition, call it the Holy Spirit — that’s a real thing. We’ve all answered it or ignored it.

28:17 · Tami

I’ve had situations that haunt me to this day. I knew something wasn’t right, but I didn’t want to be that crazy lady. I regret it. How many times was my niece seen at a restaurant or a gas station and somebody noticed and didn’t feel right calling the police? Use Untrafficked as the vetting process. We do the heavy lifting. Last week we sent a package to the FBI.

29:50 · Tami

I had to get a PI license to find her, because we didn’t have law enforcement partners helping us. Everything I learned in order to find somebody — now we’ve got resources to do that.

31:24 · Zach

The Bible says to leave the 99 for the one. I take that very seriously. I was the one, and we didn’t have those resources. By the grace of God there is hope and help.

32:30 · Tami

If you do nothing else, go to the website and download the parent guide. It’s free. It talks about the apps and how to start these conversations. We also need your prayers. We train churches, businesses, and schools. Sign up for the newsletter. We do policy work. Next session we’ve got bills to support victims and increase penalties for perpetrators.

33:40 · Zach

We’ve got a new state representative coming in after November. Chris Spencer is the Republican nominee. If you don’t have the connection, I’d love to make it happen.

35:00 · Tami

One in four kids. That’s 25 percent. This is an epidemic. Up to 47 percent of exploitation and trafficking is done by a known person. We call that familiar. Training changes the entire narrative. Go to untrafficked.org. For five dollars you can put this education in front of a child. We’ve got a pipeline of more than 5,000 children coded homeless in the school system. Decide how many kids you want to help.

36:40 · Zach

Tami, thank you so much for being here. I hope this touched your heart in such a way that you at least know, and you’re going to be better equipped. I hope God blesses each and every one of you.

37:20 · Tami

My pleasure. Thank you so much.