I’ll admit it, I had the Bieber fever until now. I even once decorated my office door with the “Biebs” during a Christmas contest. I wasn’t the only one. Pop singer Justin Bieber is arguably the most influential 19-year-old on the planet. He has received over 57 million Facebook likes, held the number one most-viewed video on YouTube until June 2013, and maintained the “top-followed person on Twitter” title for nine consecutive months with 46 million followers. (That’s over seven million more followers than the sitting U.S. President!) No doubt, he plays an important role in influencing what trends the youth culture accepts. Too bad, the Biebs is embracing a “hell-industry” for teenage girls, the very teenie-bopper demographic that built his $130 million dollar empire.

Not many wanted to believe the horrifying rumors about the pop singer’s partying and prostitution antics. However, this is one sad instance where the gossip sites were found accurate after the teen star was photographed exiting an illegal Brazilian brothel. It’s time for Bieber to realize that his supposed “rock star” lifestyle is leading him to commit serious crimes against women.

Here’s a fact someone needs to tell Bieber (or his pet monkey): supporting brothels, prostitution, and pornography increases the demand for the sex trafficking of innocent young girls. According to the United States State Department’s June 2007 issue of its Trafficking in Persons Report, “Sex trafficking would not exist without the demand for commercial sex flourishing around the world.” The State Department’s findings went on to report:

Prostitution and related activities — including pimping and patronizing or maintaining brothels — encourage the growth of modern-day slavery by providing a façade behind which traffickers for sexual exploitation operate. Where prostitution is tolerated, there is a greater demand for human trafficking victims and nearly always an increase in the number of women and children trafficked into commercial sex slavery.

Celebrities like Justin Bieber need to realize that they are sending a clear message to young men that tells them it is okay to engage in prostitution so long as the “women choose this life.” But the reality is that no little girl thinks, “Gee, I want to be a prostitute when I grow up.”

Prostitution is a brutal industry, especially in Brazil, where poor beautiful young girls — many only 11-14 years old — are coerced, lied to, or violently forced or mentally manipulated into the sex business. According to research, most prostitutes are desperate to leave their profession but feel trapped.

If you look at the scared faces of the two, young Brazilian girls being sent to his hotel room after the Biebs patronized the illegal brothel for three hours. If these girls “choose this destruction to their body and souls” night after night, then why does the illegal brothel need heavy clad security? Why aren’t these girls allowed to drive themselves or get in a car without two male handlers? The answer is, their pimps and johns are afraid they won’t willingly come back or give the brothel owners the thousands of dollars they make every night. Their only interaction with a peer their age — 19-year-old Bieber — should be the innocent posters on their walls and rocking out to his teenie-bopper music. Instead, they are rented for his sexual “pleasure.” Afterward, they are disposed of (dropped back off at the brothel) and forgotten. But as Jeff Henke says, “You don’t just have sex with a body; you have sex with a soul.”

Justin Bieber needs to face the music for his despicable treatment of girls, especially those in developing countries. Think twice before buying anything associated with him, ‘cause let’s face it, where’d he get the money to pay for the prostitutes? He got it from us — one album, t-shirt, and poster at a time.

Our prayer is that Bieber — a professed Christian — will be convicted of this grave sin against his fellow human beings and becomes the kind of guy who earns our love, instead of being a celebrity playboy who wants to buy our bodies.

Today’s guest blogger is Cherie Short, Senior Director of External Coalitions and Director of VIP Member Relations for Concerned Women for America.