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Sex and the Super Bowl always go together, so we are told.

Super Bowls draw crowds of rowdy male sports fans looking for sex, desires met by sex traffickers who set up assembly lines of prostitutes in hotel rooms, goes the narrative.

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Fears that hordes of sex traffickers and their victims will descend on New Jersey ahead of the Feb. 2 game at MetLife stadium has prompted authorities to create a special task force to monitor online sex ads and to urge staff at hotels, hospitals, restaurants, nightclubs, as well as taxi and truck drivers, to be vigilant.

But such fears may not just be overblown, they may be a dangerous myth that distracts from the real fight against human trafficking, say activists and researchers.

All trafficking is not about sex

“This myth trivializes trafficking … and wastes needed resources that could be used to actually address trafficking,” said Julie Ham, author of a 2011 study on human trafficking and major sporting events for the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women.