We were lucky to catch up with Billy Joe Cain recently and have shared our conversation below.

Billy Joe, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Many people are empathically called to help end human trafficking after they learn of how it affected someone they know, or perhaps understand how it feels for themselves. I got involved myself after learning how easily children could become “groomed” into complicity by a threatening, controlling predator. It happened to my kids, right under my nose.

I found out my boss, whom I’d known for years and thought was my friend, was a sex predator, secretly communicating extremely inappropriately with our children and promising them expensive things. Grooming them. Luckily for us, our kids came to us immediately and we intervened.

But everyone isn’t that lucky.

After looking for an educational tool to teach us about grooming in a way that made sense to me, we settled on a couple of books and did the best we could to teach the kids, their friends, and our friends to be cautious of it.

Years later, working on virtual reality projects, I learned VR can generate empathy for others through immersive experiences. Something clicked in me… I could help people understand the grooming aspect of human trafficking, and hopefully provide that empathetic opportunity to learn how people are actually tricked into this happening to them by NO fault of their own. And it could deliver that training safely and at scale, with additional online materials provided for 100% understanding of what to look for and to do.

Most people couldn’t understand what I was talking about. So we sold our house and I went on a US-wide journey to learn about how to end trafficking through VR.

The result was TRAPPED: A VR Detective Story and an add-on online course.

They are the result of over a decade of human trafficking research and over three years of evolved VR user-experience testing. Its incredibly easy-to-use virtual interface requires no controllers at all, and the software runs on affordable Meta Quest headsets.

The user “chooses their path” through an interactive story told by a 14 year old girl, Lisa, who was groomed by a predator that found her online while she was broadcasting all her vulnerabilities on her social media. As you explore her environments, Lisa tells you about the world from her point of view, because she sees everything differently. Most people see a smartphone as a way to get back home, but she explains she can not ask for help because her “boyfriend” threatened to hurt her friends and she believes him from experience. This shift of perspective makes a huge impact on users.

A study from Carnegie Mellon University shows that students using interactive learning out-perform students only learning through instructional videos by a factor of six to one. Our VR experience is 100% interactive, so users can do anything they want, at any time, providing them the agency to learn at their own pace and interest level. Sometimes you need time to absorb something that was just said, especially if it’s a “heavy” topic, like human trafficking. This allows you the time to reflect upon what has just been revealed to you.

The story covers topics such as abuse, abandonment, pregnancy, STDs, divorce, poverty, homelessness, and other vulnerabilities, all of which are found on the human trafficking red flags lists on any website. But because you’re immersed in virtual reality, it makes it feel far more “close to home” than reading it on a piece of paper or watching a slideshow. Users experience and “remember” those red flags as if they were real, and they ask for and receive help when they need it. It is humbling to be with people who reach out for assistance because they “finally felt heard.”

Trainers receive Human Trafficking Essentials: Online Certificate Course logins, so they can answer general “Human Trafficking 101” questions about human trafficking prevention and be able to provide immediate access to additional resources. It takes 15 minutes to learn how to set up the VR headsets and reset them for users. Additionally, all users receive the online course: Human Trafficking Essentials: EXPRESS.

We believe in PREVENTucation. Prevention education is teaching people how to prevent trafficking from happening in the first place. You learn how to recognize vulnerabilities, acknowledge that you or someone you know may be at risk, and how to get help.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I joined the interactive industry making video games for SEGA Genesis and Super Nintendo in 1992. I’ve made products for fun and education for almost every new system or platform ever since.

For 7 years, I’ve been fighting human trafficking through prevention education. I’ve created interactive experiences, curated, edited, and posted thousands of blogs, written tons of articles, created online human trafficking courses, made connections with thousands of experts in the field, and have participated in many educational podcasts, panels, and interviews.

Along the way, I’ve learned a whole lot about the reality of human trafficking prevention education. I’ve taken over 200 classes (webinars, in-person training, online courses, videos, conference sessions, etc.) and have met people on all levels of this field, and I’ve learned some ugly truths.

Human trafficking is the second largest criminal activity on the planet, vanishingly few people are really doing anything to end it, and the people and multinational corporations that are benefiting from it are extremely powerful.

Worse, the people in positions to address human trafficking are, more often than not, poorly educated about it, if at all. Therefore, they aren’t doing anything to stop it.

Mind you, I’m not placing blame on any individual; I’m blaming the system. We can’t fix what we don’t admit is broken.

If that wasn’t enough, signs point to it becoming worse every year, and my advisors have provided me with evidence it is being made easier and easier for corporations and unscrupulous individuals to get away with at all levels.

For evidence, I present to you an extensive article from one of our advisors.
More Than Meets the Eye: The Immense Web of Human Trafficking and Its Vast Implications
https://pbjlearning.com/2022/10/27/more-than-meets-the-eye-the-immense-web-of-human-traffic
king-and-its-vast-implications/

The media cheers that people are getting “saved” in large FBI busts, when what is really happening is that children are being turned into criminals. There are rarely follow ups to show convictions or reports about anyone that received assistance to reintegrate into society.

Trafficking victims or survivors often have few or no possessions and / or have needs (red flags) that can make them more vulnerable. They might need medical and psychological assistance, job training or education, or just basics, including clothes, food, rent, and utilities.

Worldwide, the drive for rechargeable batteries is driving slavery on a catastrophic scale. Search for “Cobalt Red” online. It’s disheartening when you see the reality.

There are precious few resources available to do anything about this. There is a race to the bottom, worldwide, to find ever-cheaper labor. Our social safety net isn’t built to help at the scale that is required. Many people that escape eventually return to their trafficker. It’s heartbreaking to know what is really happening and that we know how to address this, and the right people are simply not taking action.*

I could go ON and ON. And if you were curious about this, I have hand-curated over 4500 articles on our Knowledge Vault (https://pbjlearning.com/human-trafficking-articles/) where you can read every excruciating detail.

I’m not “just complaining” about this. I’m actively building the best tools I can possibly create for the heroes working in this field, and hopefully others will be encouraged to join this battle.

In 2016, my wife and I sold our house and started our nonprofit, Radical Empathy Education Foundation. We built our first VR training tool in 2018 and were using it until – whoops – a worldwide pandemic! Then, in 2020, we started PBJ Learning, to provide safe, scalable online courses, together with my partner, Dr. David Deeds.

PBJ Learning now has a handful of amazing human trafficking prevention / response courses for people of all ages and careers. Our Texas Hospitality Industry Awareness TX HB 390 Course (https://pbjlearning.com/product/txhb390/) was just approved by the Office of the Texas Attorney General and we have more coming soon.

In January, Radical Empathy began its “Appleseed Program,” where it sends out VR headsets to potential licensees for a free 30-day review. Due to its success, in April, we tripled the number of headsets we can send out to potential customers.

Our interactive VR experience story was originally written in 2018. Over 7,500 people across the world, including incredible experts, have gone through the narrative experience and provided amazing feedback. We are taking that feedback and giving Trapped a re-write for 2023.

We’re also creating a new VR experience to expose the reality of domestic servitude in America, showing people that labor trafficking is happening right in front of us, too. It’s called TRICKED: An American Visa Story.

* Yes there are some amazing people going full bore at ending trafficking. If you’re reading this, you probably know some. They ARE heroes. We have to acknowledge they are the minority and accept that their numbers need to increase, exponentially, if we are ever even going to catch up, much less overtake, the growth of this human trafficking cancer.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

We are using Virtual Reality (VR) to prevent human trafficking through an empathetic, interactive experience.

VR is revolutionizing the way we experience and learn about the world around us, and among its many applications, education and training are emerging as one of the most promising areas of development.

Radical Empathy Education Foundation‘s virtual reality experience, “TRAPPED: A VR Detective Story” (Trapped), is an excellent example of how VR can be used to promote education, prevention, and awareness of the dangers of trafficking.

TRAPPED: A VR Detective Story is an interactive “choose your own path” story that allows the user to direct and control the narrative. The experience places the user in the shoes of Lisa, a 14-year-old girl from the suburbs who became a victim of trafficking through psychological manipulation and coercion. By experiencing the story from Lisa’s perspective, the user gains a first-hand understanding of how anyone can become trapped in a trafficking situation.

After the experience, students begin sharing incredibly openly about really difficult topics. Once, a group of twenty 12- to 14-year-old students were randomly selected to try the VR experience at their middle school. Eight young girls decided they needed to stay and talk, so the teachers and I pulled a bunch of chairs into a circle in a classroom, and we talked with them for hours about their shared experience in VR and how it matched up with their personal experiences in their “real lives.”

Those kids were at the same school, but they didn’t know each other before they used the VR. It broke down all sorts of barriers. It was like being in The Breakfast Club movie.

Here’s a short article with some information about how counselors are using our VR experience: https://pbjlearning.com/2023/03/19/trapped-the-powerful-vr-experience-for-youth-and-counselors-to-combat-human-trafficking/

I want to make more breakthroughs like that happen.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Here are my thoughts on social media… I’ve had a lot of amazing experiences with social media on different platforms. I’ve started a successful Facebook game company and run many well-traveled social media events and accounts.

Learn this first: you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.

Come to grips with what you’re willing to share. Remember that nothing is ever deleted from the internet and take whatever care you wish. Create a “brand” for your company and stay true to it. Be honest. If you’re wrong, admit it. Your customers are your most precious asset. Make them happy by listening to them and honoring their involvement. I believe in telling people the truth because it dispels the lies that will fester in its stead. It’s so much easier to tell the truth, anyway.

Figure out what you want to accomplish with your social media audience. You need to know the “Key Performance Indicators” of your business and how to measure the actual value of what you’re doing. Are you trying to gain followers? Subscribers? Paid subscribers? Monetize on merchandise? Pay attention to where you’re putting your effort and measure your results.

You need to know when to amplify or let go of a particular activity (or even social media platform).

Test your results. Talk to other people. Ask for advice.

Human trafficking is a very difficult topic to get traction on. My partner, Dave, has created channels on YouTube and TikTok, which have garnered millions of views and likes and all that. We haven’t figured out how to get a user to come take our online course. We can’t be that bad at it, given our experience, but there you are.

I think it’s because the topic is radioactive, currently. And I think everyone thinks someone else is doing something about it.

So, I’ve adjusted my KPIs accordingly, and I’m not expecting to draw real B2C revenue from those sources. We mostly participate in social media as a public service, essentially, to provide accurate information to the public. We want to do more!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://reefcares.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reefcares/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pbjlearningonline/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billyjoecain
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/pbjlearninginc
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@pbjlearning
• Other: https://billyjoecain.com

Image Credits
Images are all (C) Billy Joe Cain and can be used without any attribution, although we would prefer they link to reefcares.org or pbjlearning.com if at all possible. ;)