WASHINGTON — The Super Bowl is a “sex-trafficking magnet,” a congressman leading the fight against such exploitation warned at a House hearing Monday.
“Sadly, but almost certainly, [traffickers] are bringing with them sexually exploited trafficking victims, many of them from abroad, in an attempt to cash in on the Super Bowl crowd,” said Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on global human rights.
He convened the hearing to spotlight the scourge of sex-trafficking in the shadow of the Super Bowl and the massive effort by government and advocacy groups to root it out.
Experts at the hearing said thousands of prostitutes will descend on New York and New Jersey for the big game, noting that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimated that 10,000 women and girls were trafficked at the 2010 Super Bowl in Miami.
“This must not happen again,” said Smith.
Lawmakers said that the sex trade flourishes with help from online ads and social media.
Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) said online ads allow people to “order an underage girl to their hotel room as easily as they were ordering a delivery pizza.”