SEATTLE — While thousands gathered to enjoy the food and music at the Northwest Folklife Festival at the Seattle Center Memorial Day weekend, recruiters were targeting teenage girls there for the internet sex industry. Even Folklife Festival staff knew nothing about the efforts until contacted by KIRO 7’s Amy Clancy. Michelle Sanders Leyva, spokeswoman for the Festival, called news of the recruitment effort “disappointing.”
The company, T.K.K. Modeling, had employees handing out packets of condoms and other sexual items, plus business cards, recruiting models for live adult chat sites. Four teenagers from Edmonds were approached; two of them are minors. Maddy Nealey told Clancy the recruiters said “we’re recruiting hot girls and, assuming you’re 18, you guys meet our requirements.”
Her friend Victoria Lebesis, who is 17, said the representatives from T.K.K. never gave the girls the opportunity to reveal their ages.
Clancy: "Did they ask you if you were 18?"
Lebesis: “No, they said ‘assuming that you’re 18.’”
Clancy: "But they didn't actually ask you?"
Lebesis: "No."
TKK's website -- and an email to KIRO 7 --- clearly state the company only wants adult models; 18 and over only. But Nealey and Lebesis claim they saw T.K.K. recruiters approach girls of all ages, all around them at the Seattle Center. “I just think it’s weird because we were at a public place and they’re doing it to a lot of people,” Lebesis said. “Everybody else could have been younger than me.”
Julie Nealey, Maddy’s mother, told KIRO 7 the recruitment effort promising a career in “modeling” bothers her, no matter what the company’s age requirements might be. “I sent her off to Folklife and she comes back with a solicitation to work in the porn industry,” Nealey said. “They hop it up as the hot girls, the pretty ones, you can make money. And young impressionable girls are going to think they’re going to become a star,” Nealey worried.
The age requirement is important to law enforcement. Distribution of child pornography is a felony.
Statement from Northwest Folklife Festival
At an open event, like this Festival, people or companies unfortunately can take advantage of the crowds that are drawn. All our sponsor and vendor agreements state that any handouts need to be approved by Folklife. We take that responsibility seriously, and are active all weekend long to monitor it. T.K.K Modeling was not sanctioned by Northwest Folklife, nor were we aware of their presence.
Our priority at the Folklife Festival is to provide a safe, friendly, family environment, and we take great effort to respond promptly if/when we receive a report of those simply taking advantage of our attendees. Unfortunately, T.K.K. Modeling was not brought to any of our team member's attention until this email from you today, post-Festival.
What I'd rather share with the community regarding the Northwest Folklife Festival, the day after, is our great thanks for support. With something like 200,000 people in attendance over the course of the weekend, over 5,000 performers from over 65 different local cultural communities donating their craft, performance or art, the Festival was beautiful. It just wouldn't be the same without our incredible community – so we offer our deepest thanks.
Statement from T.K.K. Modeling
T.K.K. Modeling is a company for adult entertainers with the mission of empowering performers to take pride in their sexuality and never feel ashamed of working in an often misunderstood and vilified industry. We take pride in conducting our business with the highest standards of ethics and integrity. It is our strict policy that all persons we approach at events must always be asked whether they are 18 years old or older before we engage in any further conversation with them, provide them any of our contact information, or hand out any of our promotional materials. Our website expressly states that all applicants MUST be 18 years old, and each application must include proof of age in the form of government-issued photo identification. We unfortunately cannot control how and to whom our materials are distributed once they leave our hands. We regret that anyone outside our intended audience has been given our promotional materials and we apologize for any confusion or distress.
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