Hasta La Creative!

With many families spending a lot more time at home, and online, and with societal pressures amassing, the threat of human trafficking is more urgent than ever. In the first month of the COVID-19 shutdown, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported a three-fold increase in reports of online exploitation and abuse, soaring from 300,000 reports to more than 1.1 million, with more than 70% of those reports coming from social media. This threat continues as children continue to stay home and attend school virtually.

Dedicated to their mission of ending the sexual exploitation of minors, Street Grace is meeting young people on the one platform where they are spending more and more of their time: TikTok. The nonprofit worked with longtime creative partner BBDO Atlanta to create the Help Locker – a TikTok account that directly calls out and debunks common myths about trafficking being spread.

Since its launch, the Help Locker account has amassed over 100k followers and 1.9 million total likes. Teens’ comments and reactions have been encouraging and have inspired the Help Locker to keep going strong. Each video conveys important, relevant information, but in the tone and style that has become popular on TikTok.