Well, the city of Newark is gearing up to hold another marquee game this weekend for the Eastern regionals in the NCAA tournament.

And while March Madness brings a lot of entertainment and business for local shops, activists say there's also a dark underbelly to big sporting events, like an increase in demand for sex trafficking.

The nonprofit Rights4Girls launched a nationwide billboard campaign in all seven cities, hosting the tournament games, including at the Prudential Center, hoping to raise awareness about the issue and discourage people from fueling the illegal practice.

For more, I'm joined by Yasmin Vafa, the executive director of Rights4Girls.

So, first of all, thank you for coming on the show.

I think a lot of people will find this interesting because there's the glitz and the glamor of being the host city of such a major sporting event.

But your organization is really shining a light on something that folks are unaware of or quite frankly, often don't want to talk about.

What's the billboard campaign aiming to do?

So the billboard campaign is really seeking to shine a light on an aspect of the sex trade that is usually very invisible and that is the sex buyer.

When we talk about issues of sex trafficking, we often think about the sex trafficker and we readily think about the victim.

But we don't often talk about the role of the sex buyer.

And the reality is that every dollar that is generated in this multibillion dollar industry is really fueled by the sex buyer.

And the reality is that but for the demand that is created by the sex buyer, there would really be no incentive for traffickers to lure, coerce and manipulate vulnerable people into the sex trade.

Why is it, though, that sporting events in particular seem to be a hub for this?

Well, any time there are these large scale events that attract thousands of, you know, out-of-town spenders and individuals to any one big city, traffickers will seek to capitalize off the potential for increased demand for commercial sex.

And so we see that in the weeks and days leading up to the events that online sex ads will skyrocket for, you know, advertising individuals for sex.

We know from our work with sex trade survivors and even child sex trafficking victims that they are often brought to the host cities by their traffickers and exploiters in order to take advantage of the potential for increased demand.

And so, you know, oftentimes these events have a very, you know, sordid underbelly where exploitation can take place.

And so it's important for people to be aware of that reality, but also of the fact that, you know, trafficking happens all year round.

It's not just, you know, isolated to these big events.

What are some of the other examples of that, Yasmin?

I'm thinking about New Jersey several years ago now was a host to the Super Bowl.

Were there examples of this then as well that you can point to?

Absolutely.

The Super Bowl, you know, any type of large convention, we do know that the law enforcement and even federal law enforcement have seen instances where traffickers have been apprehended and even prosecuted for exploiting vulnerable people.

We know that in past instances there have been sex trafficking victims, even child victims who have been recovered.

In past instances, we have statistics on our website that folks can check out that during even one past Final Four weekend, we know that 47 men were arrested for attempting to solicit underage children for sex.

You know, 11 individuals were arrested for sex trafficking and over 20 victims of sex trafficking were recovered, including a child victim.

So that was just from one past final four weekend.

Yeah.

And of course, we just saw a couple of the billboards that were here in Newark that your organization has placed very quickly.

What can the public do?

Are there steps that we can take if we think we're seeing something that are well within, you know, legal rights?

Yeah, I mean, we always encourage folks to call the National Human Trafficking hotline if they think they're seeing suspected instances of sex trafficking.

But it's important to stay vigilant around these issues all year round.

And the goal of the billboard campaign is to really interrogate the harmless ness and of the act of sex buying in general.

You'll see the billboards are a play on some basketball themes, and they they say things like, It's madness to think that sex buying is a victimless crime or sex buying is foul or it's madness to think sex buyers are just shy guys who can't get dates.

And it's really to challenge misconceptions around sex buyers.

If folks go to our website, they can see a recent report that Rights for girls released called Buyers Unmasked, exposing the men who buy sex and solutions to end exploitation.

And where we dispel with many of these misconceptions around sex buyers as harmless individuals.

We know most men don't buy sex, but those who do often are acutely aware and indifferent to signs of violence, coercion, trafficking and desperation in the women and girls that they're purchasing.

And so it's important for the public to be aware not just around these big events, but again, traffickers won't disappear after the games are over and the confetti is wiped off the floor.

This is something that's happening in all of our communities all year round.

Yasmin Vafa is the co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit Rights4Girls.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.