The Internet’s Darkest Corner: How Human Trafficking and Technology Intersect

From staying up to date with the latest news to researching products to buy, the internet offers a plethora of resources for its users. For every web surfer, there is a niche community that is welcoming, inclusive, and above all, accessible. Most internet enjoyers browse innocently, completely naive to the sinister crimes brewing in one of the darkest corner of the internet: human trafficking. Imperceptible to even the most skilled law enforcers, human traffickers now use the internet as their main way to buy, sell, and capture victims.

What is Human Trafficking?

Human trafficking is defined as the billion-dollar business that harbors and exploits human beings against their own will. The forms of trafficking vary, including domestic servitude, forced labor, forced marriages and more. Although these forms of trafficking occur often, sex trafficking is the most prevalent says Kirstin Prylinksi, a researcher for Suffolk University’s law school. In her peer-reviewed paper Tech Trafficking: How the internet has transformed sex trafficking, Prylinski reveals that sex trafficking generally encompasses “prostitution”, “sex tourism” and “pornography” at the expense of the victim’s physical and mental health.

Trafficking in History

Human trafficking has existed for centuries, with the earliest documented cases of human trafficking and enslaved peoples being traced back to the Greco-Roman era (from 332 BC). Social hierarchies were prominent in ancient societies, rendering the need for slaves because high-status citizens did not participate in labor or war. This resulted in the government enslaving and exploiting lower-class citizens. Though these empires have fallen, this attitude remained, especially during the period of colonization. Colonizers enslaved black Africans and forced them to work on plantations in the New World. These Africans were starved, brutally beat and murdered, raped, and overworked while colonizers basked in the glory of fame and riches. Like modern-day human traffickers, colonizers almost never reaped what they sowed.

Three Components is all it Takes

Digital human trafficking occurs when traffickers use the internet to “recruit and advertise” victims, says the University of Southern California. The rise of digital human trafficking stems from the popularization of social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. These platforms allow traffickers to scope out potential victims that are easily manipulated. Traffickers target vulnerability: females, substance addicts, domestic violence survivors, and the impoverished are all viable candidates. Via social media, traffickers reach out to their potential victims and offer solutions such as shelter, money, or a job. According to Kendall Vitale, a human rights lawyer, traffickers use “anonymity, communication, and advertisement” to deceive their target.

In 2018, an Eastern European male duo stationed in Russia utilized all three of Vitale’s components in combination with female vulnerability to traffic 100 girls. The traffickers knew Instagram would be the ideal platform to coerce these girls, given that it is a platform focused on visuals. Upon creating a fake Instagram Profile, advertising a small modeling agency profile, they were ready to scout. The duo communicated via Instagram’s Direct Message feature and made a proposition to each of these young girls: share revealing photos in exchange for a modeling contract in Russia. According to the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime, it was particularly difficult to locate the traffickers and victims due to the use of anonymity.

Anti-Trafficking Initiatives

With 63% of the global population having access to the internet and the number of victims continuing to rise, it is crucial, now more than ever, to take action. Global organizations, such as the United Nations and the Internet Watch Foundation have already taken it upon themselves to lay the groundwork for combatting human trafficking. With over 117 signatories and 40 ratifications since 2000, the United Nations’ Trafficking Protocol provides its members with the tools they need to identify traffickers and rescue victims across all digital mediums. The Internet Watch Foundation has partnered with government officials, tech companies, and NGO’s with the aim to report human trafficking to authorities and remove child pornography from adult websites. In 2021 alone, the Internet Watch Foundation filed 361,000 digital child trafficking reports.

Notice the Red Flags

Identifying human traffickers is no easy task; however, it is not impossible. Usually, there are three red flags to be on the lookout for:

1. Bogus job postings

2. No mutual followers

3. An alarming amount of information about a person they have never spoken with

These are common tactics that human traffickers use to lure in victims. If a social media profile exhibits any of these characteristics, it is best to block and report the account immediately.

Works Cited

Elgersma, Christine, and Common Sense Media. “Parents, Here's the Truth about Online

Predators.” CNN, Cable News Network, 3 Aug. 2017, https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/03/health/online-predators-parents-partner/index.html.

Kam, Katherine. “4 Dangers of the Internet.” WebMD, WebMD, n.d.,

https://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/4-dangers-internet.

Prylinski, Kirstin M. “TECH TRAFFICKING: HOW THE INTERNET HAS TRANSFORMED

SEX TRAFFICKING.” Gale, July 2020, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A627515911/AONE?u=fl_program&sid=AONE&xid=2e33dede.

SAGE Publications. “Introduction and History of Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery.”

SAGE Publications, 2018, https://us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-assets/86866_book_item_86866.pdf.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. “Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2018.”

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2018, https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/glotip/2018/GLOTiP_2018_BOOK_web_small.pdf.

University of Southern California. “Technology and Human Trafficking.” University of Southern

California, 2012, https://technologyandtrafficking.usc.edu/definitions-2012/.

Vitale, Kendall. “Barricading the Information Superhighway to Stop the Flow of Traffic: Why

International Regulation of the Internet Is Necessary to Prevent Sex Trafficking.” Digital Commons, 2012, https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1729&context=auilr.

Volodko, Ada, et al. “‘Spotting the Signs’ of Trafficking Recruitment Online: Exploring the

Characteristics of Advertisements Targeted at Migrant Job-Seekers - Trends in Organized Crime.” SpringerLink, Springer US, 31 Dec. 2019, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12117-019-09376-5.

Withers, Mellissa. “Modern Day Slavery.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 2019,

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/modern-day-slavery.

Wooditch, Alese C. “Human Trafficking.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica,

Inc., 2019, https://www.britannica.com/topic/human-trafficking.