A man has been arrested in connection with a missing teenager case in metro Atlanta. Norcross Police rescued the girl from a Gwinnett County hotel, where she was found with 31-year-old Eugene Days at Hometowne Studios in Norcross.
Days faces multiple sex crime charges, including child molestation, enticing a child, and rape. Authorities reported that the teen, though safe, was traumatized by her ordeal, according to 11 Alive.
Authorities suspect Days cultivated an online relationship with the girl, leading her to leave home; the investigation is ongoing.
Experts warn that online grooming and exploitation pose significant and increasing dangers to young people throughout metro Atlanta.
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Dr. Kelly Kinnish, who leads the National Center on Child Trafficking at Georgia State University, pointed out that predators specifically go after young people who are at risk.
“Then they find themselves in these situations that they hadn’t anticipated,” Kinnish said.
“There are people who are looking for these vulnerabilities and targeting these vulnerable youth,” she added.
Her colleagues’ recent research reveals the extent of the issue: over 3,000 runaway and homeless youth have been identified in the metro Atlanta area alone. A troubling four out of ten, and sometimes even more, of these young people experience exploitation.
“Someone they have trusted, that they thought they had a relationship with, but there’s dimensions of deception and manipulation in that relationship,” Kinnish said. “The online world, and new technology like artificial intelligence, makes deception even easier.”
Kinnish highlighted that stopping teenagers from using social media is no longer an option. Therefore, she advocates for open conversations and educating them on how to cultivate healthy relationships.
“I think that strategy, that we’re just going to keep youth off social media, is that ship (that) has sailed,” she pointed out.
“Parents are also having to kind of play catchup in the digital world. Parents have always struggled with navigating, respecting privacy and providing appropriate supervision and guidance. The online dimensions add an extra layer of complexity,” Kinnish explained.
Kinnish pointed out how important it is to get to the root of why young people leave home. She stressed that having resources for kids who’ve experienced trauma and offering family guidance are crucial for stopping exploitation.
“Decisions of how to know who to trust, how to establish safe relationships — these are embedded in daily life,” she said.
Educating teenagers on how to build trust and empowering parents to understand the digital landscape are crucial steps, especially as traffickers continue to innovate online, experts say.
Parents and guardians are encouraged to foster open communication with their children, monitor online activities, and teach them about healthy relationships.
The aim is to prevent exploitation before it occurs and offer support to young people who may already be vulnerable.
According to research from Hope For Justice, over five billion people worldwide own a mobile device, and more than 65% of the global population uses the Internet. In the U.S., nearly 90% of people go online at least occasionally, with 77% owning a smartphone. Among young people, this number is almost 100%.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reports that about 88% of the 9,800 child sex trafficking cases they receive each year involve online trafficking. Alarmingly, only 49% of minors and 54% of adults who experience online exploitation or sexual extortion talk about it with family or friends. Even fewer report it to authorities: just 18% of minors and 23% of adults report it to websites or apps, while only 13% of minors and 15% of adults contact the police. Many don’t disclose their experiences due to feelings of shame, fear of retaliation, or believing that reporting won’t help. Overall, one in three victims keeps their experience with sextortion to themselves.
Internet crimes against children surged by 99.95% in 2022 compared to 2019, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. Research indicates that online predators primarily target girls aged 12-14, exploiting their perceived vulnerability and susceptibility to influence from older males.
