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By Sydney MacDonald In 2018 it was discovered by Statista (2019), that there were 2.65 billion people using at least one form of social media, and 3.1 billion users were projected to accumulate by 2021 (Clement, 2019). This is a staggering amount of people consistently being exposed to millions upon millions of advertisements and posts per year. Unfortunately, this creates an opportunity for criminals and predators to make contact with vulnerable individuals and can lead to a darker form: online human trafficking. Initially, when one thinks of human trafficking, what first comes to mind is kidnapping in a foreign country and a person who is being forced to work for their captors. We often see this sort of storyline in movies or TV show dramas, where the situations can be sensationalized. I’m sure that many have seen the movie franchise, “Taken”. Human trafficking is much more complicated and sinister, and it often takes many forms. Whether domestic or international, some people do not even realize they are being trafficked until they try to leave their situations. It is even more complex when it comes to the online world. It is said that around 150 billion dollars are made yearly by traffickers, and approximately 99 billion dollars comes from commercial sexual exploitation, both in-person and online (Human Rights First, 2017). Our society is constantly upgrading and inventing new technology, which provides many opportunities for us to better ourselves. Yet at the same time, it allows traffickers easier access to vulnerable persons. This is especially true in terms of access to our youth, who do not always have the best judgement and experience when it comes to knowing who to trust. These mediums allow traffickers to better “groom” their targets to their specific needs, posing as a friend, partner or even possible employer. It has even been discovered by the FBI, that sex trafficking has become the 2nd fastest growing criminal industry in the world, just behind drug trafficking (Enough is Enough, 2020). This increase is clearly an indication of greater accessibility through social mediums such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other platforms of the like. The online persona that traffickers put forth makes potential trafficked individuals easily ensnared. It is easy to get caught up in an online relationship with a person you’ve never met. They know exactly what you want to hear and use it to make you feel special. You don’t see them, they don’t see you, initially. It seems harmless enough. But that is where the grooming comes in. At first, they may not ask for pictures. They are patient, cunning and willing to wait for these individuals to let down their guard and slowly collect personal information ranging from their likes and dislikes to their family members’ names and vulnerabilities. They manipulate and exploit youth who may be in a fragile state of mind and have low self-esteem. They groom them to become dependent on their attention and approval. This is how they entrap youth. Due to their lack of experience and need for approval, they are sometimes willing or forced to do anything for that person. This is partly because of the “built trust” and/or fear of blackmail from the trafficker. This is where it takes a very dangerous turn. Those who end up sending pictures to their predator can then become individuals affected by exploitation and blackmail, especially if the photographs are sexual in nature. An example of this would be the story of a 15-year-old Canadian girl, Amanda Todd. It is a tragic story of a young girl who was exploited and blackmailed for pictures of herself. She and her friends often would go onto their computers to play around with their webcams and meet new people. These “new people” would often compliment her and make her feel special. After some time, these new online friends of hers asked her to expose herself to the webcam, which after a lot of convincing, she did. A year after her exposure, a man she hadn’t known messaged her on Facebook and demanded that she “put on a show” for him or he would release the incriminating photos of her everywhere. This man had discovered everything about Amanda, including her family’s names, her school, and her friends. It was a serious case of manipulation. This, unfortunately, led to a series of events in which Amanda was physically and emotionally bullied by both people in her life, as well as those online. This led to her taking her own life in 2012. Amanda’s story on the surface seems like a tragic but simple bullying story. Yet, it is much more complicated than that. Though most would not think of it as sex trafficking, this is considered a form of sexual exploitation. She was blackmailed to provide more pictures to this man (child pornography). Unfortunately, this is not the only case like this, and many cases include the young person relenting to their blackmailer’s requests, which then begins the cycle of online sex trafficking. In order to prevent online exploitation, we must educate ourselves on the many dangers of the web. One helpful resource is Cybertip.ca. Cybertip informs the public about the risks that the internet poses to children and teens who are unsupervised online, as well as provides precautionary steps that parents can take in order to keep them safe (Cybertip, 2020). They also provide online support referrals to those who have been affected by trafficking (Cybertip,2020). As numbers of this crime climb, it is imperative that we as a community understand, identify and stop this diabolical abuse of our most vulnerable people in society. Technology is a tool that is used to connect people, but sometimes those connections are what puts people in danger. To safeguard ourselves and loved ones, we must educate ourselves about the dangers of the internet and hopefully with the education of this rising problem, we can eliminate the number of people affected by human trafficking. References:
Clement, J. (2019, August 14). Number of social media users worldwide 2010-2021. Retrieved From https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/ Cybertip. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.cybertip.ca/app/en/ Human Trafficking First. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/resource/human-trafficking-numbers Enough is Enough. (2020).Internet Safety 101. Retrieved from https://internetsafety101.org/trafficking Helpful Resource: Cybertip. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.cybertip.ca/app/en/
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