CANADIAN COMPANY PROMOTING RISKY ONLINE BEHAVIOUR and putting our teens in direct danger of sex trafficking!
Legally nothing can be done! Survivors and parents taking things into their own hands!
February 18th, 2021, Garage Clothing sent out an email marketing campaign to hundreds of thousands of teens with the tagline “SEND NUDES”.
Thousands of parents and advocates including Social Media Safety Guru, Paul Davis, across Canada took their concerns to social media and Ad Standards Canada; including, international award-winning social advocate, a survivor of sex trafficking and best-selling author, Timea E Nagy.
February 20th, 2021, Ms. Nagy and 10 other advocacy groups teamed up and sent a message to the executives at Garage Clothing, challenging them to take a one-hour, private educational seminar, in order to realize the harm that they are causing. The video received over 50,000 views and over 450 individuals commented on the company’s social media pages, but the directors of Garage Clothing did not respond.
March 16th, 2021, Quebec’s largest newspaper, La Presse, released an article about Ms. Nagy’s effort to confront the executives with her second video and public message. The article, written by Valerie Simard, explained to the public and the directors of Garage Clothing why this type of advertising can help sex traffickers and predators with the grooming process.
Cyber sexual crimes have increased 89% since the beginning of Covid-19, and 612% since 2016. Most cybersex crimes start with predators and traffickers asking teens to SEND NUDES.
Paul Davis, social media safety guru, joins Timea in the video, and makes a staggering statement regarding Garage Clothing’s irresponsible move.
The most shocking part of the public video occurs when Ms. Nagy directly addresses the female CEO, pointing out that the Garage Clothing bathing suit photos are actually more provocative than an average escort photo or a photo of a sex trafficked victim photographed by a pimp.
Quote from today’s article in La Presse regarding the matter:
What penalties do violators of the Code face? “We don’t impose a fine. There is no sanction as such. If, after analysis, the Standards Councils retain a complaint, the advertiser is asked to withdraw their advertising. The decision is also made public.” – Danielle Lefrançois, Director of Communications at Advertising Standards
The goal of the campaign is to hold the executives accountable and to implore them to educate themselves on how marketing can impact human trafficking, so that they will stop promoting risky, dangerous behaviours to our teenagers and stop sexualizing children for profit.
Ms. Nagy has already gathered support from over 35 organizations across Canada and the number is growing. The long-term plan is to create a national coalition and lobby the government to strengthen our laws, in order to hold corporations accountable for promoting risky behaviour in the future.
“In the meantime, we need help from the media and the public to keep the pressure on Garage Clothing to do the right thing.” – Timea Nagy
Article submitted
