Awareness

What is Human Trafficking?

Pornography fuels demand for sex exploitation

The United States is the largest consumer of pornography and sex exploitation, in part of being one of the wealthiest countries with an appetite for sex consumption fueled by increased sexualization on TV and movies.

Sex Trafficking is the fastest growing illegal business and the 2nd largest criminal enterprise behind drug trafficking.

Unlike drugs, a victim can be sold for sex multiple times per day – over and over again. With the increasing popularity of the internet, traffickers are able to exploit the vulunerable to a potentially unlimited number of customers, who do NOT have to be in the same physical location.

Grooming & Exploitation Online

Cybersex trafficking is the exploitation of a person through the internet via webcam, photos, videos, or other digital media. Like sex trafficking the victim is forced to provide sexual services via force, fraud, or coercion. Unlike sex trafficking, victims will likely never come into contact with most of their buyers. Instead, their traffickers may assault, live-stream, film, or photograph them from a central location—which can be anywhere in the world with an internet connection—and send the material to paying online predators.

Grooming Children Online

Nearly 80% of the US population owns smartphones and up to 98% of middle school students have access to Wi-Fi. Youth aged 15–24 are the most connected age group; 71% of this demographic is currently online. Platforms like social media, forums, discord/private chat servers, and online games—all places where children and youth are highly active—are ideal environments for traffickers to both recruit and exploit victims.

Traffickers can take the shape of faceless online “friends” who spend months grooming (befriending and building a relationship with) children to build trust over time so they can coax them into a life of abuse and exploitation. By initially giving the victim attention, care, and gifts or making enticing promises, traffickers can gain the confidence of unsuspecting youth.

Traffickers use many similar deception tactics online as they do offline. They might promise a good job to a poor student, pose as a role model or caring significant other to create dependence, or entrap a victim through indentured servitude for a compounding loan. Once a relationship is established, the trafficker can then manipulate or coerce the victim into performing sexual acts online, on the street, or both.

Predators vs. Traffickers

Predators

Predators consume child pornography and are at high risks of being contact predators.

A predator exploits the vulnerable by consuming child pornography and then often shows up at a sting operation where they thought they would be violating an actual child. These predators can also be labeled traffickers as they disseminate and produce inappropriate material that further exploits these children to continue feeding the insatiable sick appetites of other predators.

Traffickers

Traffickers can take the form of any person in an organized effort to exploit a child for sex. These could be taxi drivers who would never watch child exploitation videos, but are paid by pimps, brothel owners, bar owners, hotel management or anyone in a network of individuals who are involved in knowingly guiding predators to a child who is being sold for sex.

Coco Berthmann shares how she grew up being trafficked by her own family