Sound of Freedom Act Inspired by Hit Film

Pop culture can move the needle on any number of issues.

For “Friends” fanatics, the “Rachel” haircut was all the rage in the 1990s. Sitcoms like “Will & Grace” and “Modern Family” helped pave the way for gay marriage acceptance nationwide.

No matter what you think about the Climate Change debate, Al Gore’s 2006 documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” rocked the national conversation on the topic.

And a new law signed by the Governor of Alabama found inspiration from 2023’s most unlikely blockbuster.

The Sound of Freedom Act, named after the Angel Studios’ smash, vows to protect children from sex trafficking.

The Jim Caviezel film, which earned more than $180 million domestically after sitting on the proverbial shelf for five years, followed the fact-based story of Tim Ballard’s efforts to save children from sex slavery.

The Act, according to Ivey’s press office, gives Alabama the “toughest” anti-human trafficking laws in the country.

The new law raises the penalty for first-degree human trafficking to a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment when the victim was a minor.

“Human trafficking of minors is one of the most heinous and heart-wrenching crimes in America, and because the most defenseless among us are the victims, those found guilty should face the harshest penalties,” Governor Ivey said in a statement.

The Sound of Freedom Act will take effect on October 1, 2024.

“Sound of Freedom” inexplicably became a culture war target when the press accused the film of being QAnon-adjacent without facts or context. Audiences rejected that framing, flocking to a story that touched on a real-life issue too often ignored in feature films.

The human trafficking problem is global in nature, according to the U.S. government.

With an estimated 27.6 million victims worldwide at any given time, human traffickers prey on people of all ages, backgrounds, and nationalities, exploiting them for their own profit.

UNICEF reports that child trafficking occurs in all 50 U.S. states.

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