Child Sex Trafficking is a Big Problem in the Bay Area. How Can We Stop It?

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Last month’s Super Bowl in Santa Clara drew thousands of visitors to the Bay Area, including some looking to pay for sex. Police set up an operation to stop sex trafficking and found 10 victims who were minors as young as 12 years old. The incident was one of many spotlighting the ongoing problem of child sex trafficking throughout the Bay Area. Survivors and advocates say more needs to be done to protect kids from exploitation, from building awareness to providing resources like therapy and housing. We talk about the prevalence of this crime, efforts to stop it, and the organizations helping survivors. Guests: Sharan Dhanoa, director, South Bay Coalition to End Human Trafficking Josh Singleton, lieutenant and commander, Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office Human Trafficking Task Force Aisha Mays, CEO and Founder, Dream Youth Clinics: a nonprofit that provides free health services to young people and survivors of sex trafficking Elizabeth Quiroz, co-founder, Redemption House Bay Area: a nonprofit that assists survivors of human trafficking; Quiroz survived child sex trafficking Viviana Nance, youth leader, Dream Youth Clinics: a nonprofit that provides free health services to young people and survivors of sex trafficking Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	My name is Sherlock Holmes.
0:02.0	It's an unusual name.
0:03.0	Introducing Young Sherlock, a new Guy Ritchie series.
0:07.0	What game are we playing today?
0:09.0	Discover the origins.
0:10.0	It's cleaving. Those days are surely behind me.
0:12.0	Of crime's most iconic mind.
0:14.0	There has been a break-in.
0:17.0	Astoned. You should be a detective.
0:19.0	Starring Hero finds Tiffin, Donald Finn and Colin Firth.
0:22.5	If you start wearing a hat like that, I will no longer be friends with you.
0:25.9	Young Sherlock, new original series. Watch now only on Prime Video.
0:31.4	From KQED.
0:34.1	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. It's probably going to be a very difficult show.
0:39.9	The topic is hard. The solutions are difficult.
0:43.5	Harm done to young people is almost impossible to stomach.
0:47.1	But that's why we can't look away at this particular time.
0:50.2	We know that sex trafficking, including of children, is happening every day across the Bay Area
0:55.7	and the country from the Caribbean Islands to International Boulevard in Oakland. We're going to
1:01.5	hear about the law enforcement efforts to slow the practice. We're going to hear about
1:05.4	nonprofits trying to offer alternative life paths. And we're going to hear about the resilience
1:09.9	of survivors, too.
	...

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