Advocates recommend closely monitoring what your child or teen does online
DALLAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) – A 13-year-old girl is home with her family in Dallas after she was found locked in a shed more than a thousand miles away in Davidson County, North Carolina.
Jorge Camacho, 34, is accused of abducting her. He now faces several felony charges, including human trafficking and child rape.
The Davidson County Sheriff's Office says Camacho had been grooming the teen in conversations through a social media platform before driving down to Dallas to pick her up.
Advocates say what happened to this girl can happen in any community in North Texas.
"It's not the scary person who comes out from behind the tree, grabs you and runs away with you," said Chelsea Robertson with POETIC. "It's a relationship that they've formed with you, a trust relationship."
POETIC is an organization in Dallas that offers therapy and services to girls who have been victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking.
"There's an estimated 19,000 girls who are trafficked just in North Texas every year, and the average age is 13-years-old," Robertson said. "Teenagers want to be liked, they want to be known, they want to have special relationships – so they're at a particular age where they're very vulnerable to being taken advantage of."
According to Robertson, child predators and traffickers use social media to target young people and develop a relationship. They often manipulate them into sharing embarrassing or private photos, then use those to blackmail them into meeting in person.
"It's really important that you build a shame-free relationship with your child, so if they were to ever get into a situation, then they would be able to come to you and communicate that to you, as opposed to just getting deeper and deeper into the involvement based on shame," said Robertson.
She also recommends closely monitoring what your child or teen does online.
The Davidson County Sheriff says that kind of oversight is crucial to stopping crimes like this.
"That's how these things happen, not being supervised, and these kids are very sharp with these computers in their rooms," Sheriff Richie Simmons said. "So our message is going to be please help us out."
Camacho may face additional charges in this case and is currently being hold on bonds totaling $1.25 million.