Photo by A&E Television Networks, LLC, “I Was A Child Bride: The Untold Story” — Photo by A&E Television Networks, LLC, *“I Was A Child Bride: The Untold Story”*

By, Emily Montague

One of the United States’ most deeply held values is that of freedom. Freedom to live, freedom to dream, and freedom to forge a life of dignity and opportunity without fear. This is a beautiful ideal, and one worth pursuing––but for hundreds of thousands of underage girls, this ideal is under serious threat.

Child marriage is a serious problem in the USA, but most Americans have no awareness of the scale of this issue. Between 2010 and 2018, well over 300,000 underage girls were married. The majority were married to adult men, often with a significant age gap between them. In many cases the girls were forced or coerced into marriage with little say in the matter.

Girls who are married before maturity are significantly less likely to attain an education. Many (over 50%) drop out of school, and a significant portion of them become pregnant before they turn 18. They are more vulnerable to abuse, marital rape, and other crimes, and they experience higher levels of mental illness and trauma-related mental health crises. They are far more likely to experience poverty and financial abuse.

Globally, the statistics are even more abysmal. 12 million underage girls are married each year in countries as varied as the UK, Kenya, Indonesia, and China. In every corner of the world, young girls are coerced into unions with adult men who are more likely to rape, blackmail, abuse, and victimize them than boys of their own age, and these girls are forced to give up a world of potential in order to satisfy the patriarchal demands of their families, communities, and husbands-to-be.

But there’s reason to hope for a better future––and a second chance for countless girls and women who were once forced to accept a life they did not choose for themselves or their children. A major component of the global fight to end child marriage is the rise of our current digital era.

Technology can be a double edged sword, and in some cases it has contributed to the problem of trafficking, child pornography, and child marriage (the three are more related than you might think). Ultimately, however, dedicated organizations are using tools like social media, online data, messaging applications, and many more to reach vulnerable girls and stop their would-be victimizers from succeeding.

Once called “lost girls” by government agencies and global activist groups, the internet has given child brides a chance to be seen, heard, and listened to by those who might be able to help them escape their abusers. Organizations like Unchained At Last, Girls Not Brides, Survivors’ Corner, UNICEF, and more have used digital platforms to significantly advance their goal of ending child marriages and related abuse in the USA and beyond.

In a recent article, UNICEF stated that “the biggest barrier to ending child marriage in the U.S. is lack of awareness.” Despite facts to the contrary, “nearly half of Americans polled believe that child marriage is already illegal in the all U.S. states. The remaining respondents believed that the practice was legal in five or fewer states.”

In reality, laws against child marriage are spotty at best. Unchained At Last keeps an updated map and data chart tracking states’ progress toward legally ending child marriage within their borders, and relatively few states have actually passed bills that categorically stop this practice from happening.

Other organizations partner with major news platforms such as CBS, NBC, USN, and FOX to create video and article series that are then spread across major networks and social media pages––thus creating unprecedented awareness and understanding of the problem amongst huge networks that they would otherwise lack access to.

Many activist organizations use social media hashtags, campaigns, petitions, and pages to reach more people than ever before, and these tactics can create huge movements for change in the USA and beyond. Many of these movements are self-perpetuating once an organization gets them started.

Resources like these take an effective and direct approach to the awareness problem cited by UNICEF. In historically lax states, such as North Carolina, Louisiana, and Alabama, vast audiences are made aware of child marriage statistics and are then inspired to directly contact lawmakers and representatives who can enact change. Constituent pressure is the best way to make sure laws preventing child marriage are passed––and enforced. The internet makes this pressure more likely and easier to achieve than ever before.

Even when anti-child marriage bills are killed by opposition, backlash is now quicker and more extensive thanks to the rise of social media and instant news reporting. Survivors of child marriage and related abuse are able to connect through social media pages, and they can more readily access journalists who are eager to tell their stories to the world.

These firsthand stories and accounts are crucial to the fight to end child marriage in the USA and in other countries. Girls and women who have been through the horror of child marriage are able to show the reality of this practice in a visceral, deeply impactful way that statistics and data cannot.

Such stories also reveal patterns and risk factors that might otherwise remain hidden. According to one survivor, child marriage is cyclical in nature and tends to return to prey on the girls of certain families and communities across generations. “The cycle perpetuates across generations,” says Donna Pollard, who was victimized from age 14 on and married by 16, “and it causes survivors to carry with them such shame and such trauma."

Survivor stories are cross-cultural, impacting girls and, later, women from all backgrounds and walks of life. By sharing what went wrong and how abusers––who are often part of a community or network of men and sometimes women that aid one another in perpetrating the abuse––were able to achieve their aims, these brave survivors provide invaluable context for activists and well-wishers to use in their pursuit of change.

One of the central issues anti-child marriage proponents have faced is the legal status of marriage certificates, which supercede the rights and wellbeing of girls in most places. One survivor recounted her own lack of awareness on this issue, and her heartbreaking story is a cautionary tale for parents, community members, and lawmakers alike.

“I didn’t have any idea what a legal marriage certificate would mean,” recounts Sara Tasneem in a story that was later picked up by Time magazine and went viral. Sara is a young American woman who was married off at age 16 (against her will) to a stranger 13 years her senior. “I didn’t know that it would keep my mom from being able to help me prosecute him as a rapist.”

Many of these stories are hard to read. But they demonstrate little-known truths and harmful legal loopholes that result in truly horrible consequences for girls, some as young as 10 or 11. Sherry Johnson, who went on to help found SVon, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending child marriage in the US, was one of those young girls.

“I survived being raped at age 8 by the church bishop and then by my mom’s husband. When I was 9, I was raped again, this time by the deacon of the church. I got pregnant. At 9 I gave birth to my daughter at 10— alone,” she recounts. “And then when authorities investigated, I was forced to marry my rapist to cover up my own rape. So, instead of handcuffing him for what he did, they handcuffed me by putting me, an 11-year-old, in a wedding dress.”

This atrocious miscarriage of justice was possible because, at the time, “if you [were] pregnant or [had] a child, a judge in Florida [could] approve a marriage at any age to a man of any age.”

Thanks in part to her story and the stories of many others like her, this changed in 2018 when Florida passed new laws limiting the legal possibilities for child marriage to occur. The existing laws aren’t extensive enough, but they represent a major step toward a true end to child marriage in the state. This kind of change would not have been possible without online platforms and their ability to reach millions of people all over the country with stories like Sherry’s.

Most importantly, digital media allows people like you to get involved and fight to save hundreds of thousands of girls from forced, coerced, and underage marriages. You can sign petitions, contact lawmakers, donate to nonprofits, and spread awareness through social media and other platforms. All of these actions can have a profound impact on girls’ futures, and you can help them escape a life of victimization and cancelled potential.

In the digital age, child marriage’s days are numbered. We’re aware, we’re empowered, and we can––and will––make a difference.

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of The Fem Word organization. Any content provided by our authors are based on their opinions and are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual or anyone or anything.

The resource links are being provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not constitute an endorsement or an approval by the The Fem Word of any of the products, services, or opinions of the corporation or organization or individual. The Fem Word bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality, or content of the external site or for that of subsequent links. Contact the external site for answers to questions regarding its content. Any content provided by The Fem Word is not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual or anyone or anything.

Fighting Child Marriage In The Digital Age