Simon Goff, 30, has been in Bangkok helping prepare the recently launched Asian MTV Exit campaign, which aims to increase awareness of human trafficking and help prevent it. A related short documentary, narrated by Tata Young, will air on MTV (Sep 21, 23, 25).

How did this campaign begin?

In 2003, we launched the first MTV Exit campaign in Europe, focusing on sex trafficking. Then in 2005, we started work in Asia. To be more locally relevant,  we wrote new scripts that addressed the different problems here, then each film was made like a template, with gaps to be filled in by an “ambassador”—someone with influence on each country’s youth, who would dub the film in their language.

How are you working with local NGOs to make this a long-term effort?

MTV’s no expert in human trafficking, so people at NGOs gave us information and are going to be doing the ground work. The documentary is rights-free, so we’ll be making copies and giving them out to NGOs to copy and distribute. We’ll also recruit local and foreign artists for live events and try to have NGO people running them.

What do you want people to get out of this documentary?

We realize that people who are watching MTV here are more well-to-do and probably aren’t at risk of being trafficked, which is why there are mixed messages in the documentary. Maybe you buy prostitutes; you have to learn to recognize signs of forced prostitution and take responsibility, not just pay your guilt away with some extra money. Maybe it’s your mother who’s abusing a domestic servant; you have to stand up for that and say that’s wrong. When you buy something, do you know where it’s coming from? Are people being forced into slavery so that you can buy something cheaply?