A new ad campaign called ‘Georgia's Not Buying It,’ featuring Atlanta sports stars, will soon be hitting the airwaves around Georgia warning anyone who might consider paying to have sex with a minor.
The public service announcement is a public private partnership between the state and child advocacy groups, and includes Tim Hudson of the Braves, Harry Douglas of the Falcons, and Devin Harris with the Hawks.
“Sex trafficking is, in fact, modern day slavery in which children are bought and sold for sex,” says Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens.
He says it is not just pimps who are to blame for the child sex trafficking trade, but those who purchase sex too.
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District, Sally Yates, says her office prosecuted 15 such cases over the past two years.
“In addition to prosecuting trafficking cases, we need to do everything we can to try to stop it from happening to begin with,” she says.
GBI Director Vernon Keenon says special attention is also now being paid to big events such the NCAA Final Four in Atlanta next month.
“We’ll be working with the FBI and other federal agencies to detect what’s happening and make arrests,” he says.
Keenon says while there’s no way of knowing the extent of the crime, Georgia is one of the most aggressive states in the area of combating child sex trafficking.
For more information you can go GAnotbuyingit.org.