Don’t fall into the trap

During the press conference of the Government of Aruba, Prime Minister Evelyn Wever-Croes together with the Director of Coordinatie Centrum Mensenhandel Mensensmokkel Aruba (CMMA), Mrs. Jeanette Baars, elaborated on the topic of human trafficking. CMMA is very active in this and has already several times in press conferences elaborated on the topic to show the importance of this in our community. “Aruba is a country vulnerable to this kind of abuse and no citizen of our country wants this kind of thing to happen on our shores”, the Prime Minister said.

The emphasis of Thursday morning’s press conference is on the aspect of teaching our youth and the role of parents in this. Last week, CMMA launched a new aspect of the education package on human trafficking and smuggling. This campaign, “Don’t Fall For The Trap”, is very important for education, for our youth and parents because there are concerns about the digital safety of our youth who are very much online.

Our youth is a very vulnerable group, not only in Aruba, but worldwide, to the phenomenon of online human trafficking. The use of online media is increasing among our youth. Children and young people are recruited online through social media and online dating platforms where children and young people provide more information about themselves, including details of their location and where they live. Such information often falls into the hands of people with bad intentions.

There is also a growing trend of sexual abuse and other types of cyberbullying. Young people post photos and videos and these are sold and resold around the world. It is very important for us in Aruba to also pay close attention to this problem, to the risks and dangers of the internet.

We do not want to warn only our young people, but today I want to make a special appeal to all parents. As parents, we want the best for our children. We want to protect and defend them from all evils, the Prime Minister emphasized.

The Prime Minister emphasized that communication between parents and children, to achieve this, is very important. And this should also be true when it comes to online things like the internet, Whatsapp and other social media. It can be noted that many children feel very insecure and are too ashamed to talk about these things. For this reason, it is important for you, as a parent, to monitor and if you notice changes in your child’s behavior, talk to him to find out what could be happening to him, hoping he never becomes a victim of something like that. But I would appeal to parents to get together and put our heads together to protect our children.