Online sex trafficking involves the recruitment, exploitation, and coercion of individuals, often minors, for sexual exploitation. Traffickers use many tactics to manipulate their victims, including deception, grooming, and blackmail. They might force victims to engage in explicit activities on webcam, provide intimate images and videos, or arrange in-person encounters for sexual exploitation. Today, we’ll talk about how online sex trafficking impacts minors (children and teens) and how we can keep them safe.
Who is at risk?
Any minor (or person, for that matter) is at risk for online sex trafficking, as the digital landscape is an integral part of daily life for many. However, traffickers may target specific types of children more often, including those who:
- Have low self-esteem
- Have absent parents
- Live in unstable homes
- Are traumatized
- Experience poverty
- Are lonely or misunderstood
Online sex trafficking tactics
Grooming
Grooming is a manipulation tactic traffickers use to get close to their victims. Once they’ve identified a child they want to traffic, they spend time bonding with them, pretending to care about their needs and interests. This process allows them to gather information about them to manipulate them more.
With this information, the trafficker tries to meet the child’s needs. Depending on the situation, this might be safety, love, money, acceptance, a parental figure, etc. They might promise the child a better life, offer drugs and alcohol, or give gifts.
Once the trafficker establishes a trusted relationship with a child, they might try to isolate them from their loved ones with constant criticisms (e.g.,” Your friends don’t understand you like I do.”). Once a child’s support system is fractured, the trafficker has greater control. As such, exploitation becomes easier.
Social media and online video games
These digital spaces offer traffickers many opportunities to find victims to exploit. They often create fake identities, pretending to be someone the child knows or a new friend. Under this guise, they build “true” friendships or romantic relationships with children.
Traffickers might meet children on one platform and ask them to add them to an additional encrypted messaging app. Encryption ensures online conversations aren’t stored in a database, which makes it harder for law enforcement to track the trafficker.
Commonly, traffickers will ask children to produce sexually explicit content. Then, they’ll threaten to leak it to friends and family if they don’t make more. Traffickers can sell these materials on underground online markets for child pornography. This process is called sextortion.
Traffickers may also ask children to meet in person. If that happens, they might get assaulted, be confined, and forced into sex work,
Fake job ads
Traffickers might post fake job ads to lure teen job seekers online and within the community. These ads often have few details but promise pay or opportunities too good to be true. Traffickers may use this tactic to deceive teens into meeting for an interview in a shady location, which can lead to victimization, exploitation and forced confinement. Traffickers can use fake job ads to get important details, like social security numbers and addresses.
Signs of online sex trafficking
Aside from the general signs of human trafficking, there are certain things we can look for that might indicate online sex trafficking:
- Secretive online interactions and relationships
- Receiving gifts or money from online friends who they’ve never met
- New fear or anxiety about online activities, including suddenly avoiding specific platforms
- Increase in bitcoin or another cryptocurrency. If traffickers send children money as part of the grooming process, they might use cryptocurrency. It’s more anonymous than traditional payment methods, which makes it hard for law enforcement to track.
Protecting children from online sex trafficking
- Teach children about online safety, including risks, proper use, permanence of what they post and reporting dangerous situations.
- Use parental control tools to limit exposure to harmful content and websites.
- Teach children to change their privacy settings on social media to control who can view posts and interact with them.
- Teach them how to see signs of grooming, online exploitation, and cyberbullying.
- Create a supportive and trusting environment at home where children feel safe discussing their online experiences and seeking help if needed.
- Adults should report suspicious online activity involving minors to law enforcement agencies.
Key takeaways
- Grooming is a manipulative tactic traffickers use to bond with their victims. Understanding this process is crucial in recognizing signs of exploitation and helping children stay safe online.
- Be wary when children have secretive online interactions, gifts from unknown online friends, increased cryptocurrency use, and sudden changes in online behavior as potential signs of online sex trafficking.
- Empower children with knowledge about online safety, privacy settings, and recognizing grooming tactics. Creating a supportive home environment and reporting suspicious activity is vital to safeguarding children from online exploitation.
Sources
https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/stop-sextortion-youth-face-risk-online-090319
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-is-child-abuse/types-of-abuse/online-abuse/
https://humantraffickingfront.org/the-use-of-the-internet-to-recruit-children-by-traffickers/
“