MARSHALL — Be loving, caring and kind to each other, that was the advice that a speaker from St. Paul had to Southwest Minnesota State University students and community members Tuesday as one of the ways to help people who are hurting and combat a growing problem in today’s society.

Guest speaker Lori Paul from the organization Breaking Free gave a presentation, “The Dark Side of Sex Industry,” over the noon hour and again in the evening Tuesday.

She admitted there was no “lighter side” of the sex industry, but nevertheless told stories about the people she works with at Breaking Free, an organization the helps women escape prostitution and sexual exploitation. They also help end the demand, by helping men who have been caught purchasing women.

Paul said pornography is a big driver of the burgeoning sex trafficking industry.

“In 2012 the pornography industry was $12 billion and guess how much it had grown to in 2017?” she said. “It had increased to $97 billion in five years.”

She said it is easy to access on phones these days and provides a rush to the brain — dopamine, which is like heroin and cocaine and can become an addiction.

It used to be the typical buyer of a prostitute was a “40-year-old white guy, married with kids — no more. Now it’s an 18- or 19-year-old.”

Not anymore.

“Maybe a boy is bullied and goes online, sees porn and feels better,” she said. “They are hurting us through our phones. It’s an epidemic. It’s our brothers, sons, uncles, dads, spouses.”

The men who are caught say they buy prostitutes out of loneliness, but report that “they felt worse” or “I felt like I lost a piece of my soul.”

Paul said a lot of prostitution happens in Duluth when the ships come into port. The girls might have been told to come on a boat for a party.

The problem is getting so big “they are bringing them in from other countries and the women don’t want to be deported. Asian women in massage parlors are told “whatever you make will go back to your family.”

Another scenario that could happen to a young woman is her drink could be spiked at a party and she is “out for three days.” The perpetrator “shoots her back to life with Narcan.”

The LGTBQ community is another vulnerable population as well as Indigenous and African-American women. It’s often a result of racism and poverty, lack of opportunity.

“When they go missing, do you see their faces in the media?” she said. “No, it’s the blue-eyed girl. There is a lot of injustice happening.”

Paul said 83 percent of victims say they have been sexually abused or molested as children.

“So there is a broken heart somewhere along the line,” she said.

Going hand in hand with prostitution is drugs.

“They mask with substances to take away that pain,” she said. “What happens is your drug dealer is your trafficker.”

The drugs help disassociate yourself from what’s happening, she said.

“This is modern-day slavery — it’s about selling a human being,” Paul said. “Would you have sex with this person without money? No. Then it’s paid rape.”

Young men need to talk about their emotions and reach out to others. Girls need to be told, “you are incredible, you are strong,” she said.