Human Trafficking North America

Social Media and other online sources have become hot beds for human traffickers to lure, buy, and sell victims

Women and children are the most commonly abused as victims of human trafficking through the internet.  Most often women of impoverished backgrounds have been forced into prostitution, and most often have childhoods where they were abused in multiple ways. Predators often appear to offer the women a stable life that they have not experienced before. These predators have become prolific on the internet, using advertising on porn sites and sites like Craigslist have become popular destinations for traffickers to do their business. Human trafficking has been around long before the internet was invented, but with the easy accessibility that the internet provides traffickers are now able to buy, sell, and lure victims across state and country lines. This makes it very hard for legislation to be passed regarding this issue because it requires the involved countries to work together to stop the evolution of human trafficking.

Because of the widespread abilities of the internet, predators have been able to target even more women and children that are not necessarily from a background of poverty. While these predators are able to reach more people, the most vulnerable are still women and children. The industry of selling humans that many, according to Kunze, “that the commercial sex industry itself has been responsible for many of the technological and Internet related developments in the last decade.”

The use of Social Media among minors has not only increased the incidence rate of abduction and human trafficking, but it has also made it harder for legislation to stop the spread of child trafficking.

While the internet has made it easier for predators it has also created cultural subgroup that approves of their ravish and unhuman behavior. According to Farley, Franzblau, and Kennedy, “The Internet plays a crucial role in validating the norms, cultures, and beliefs of the sex buyers’ subculture. A language that normalizes sexual predation is developed in online chat rooms and bulletin boards.”

As well as using message boards to connect predators to their victims, video chatting is being utilized for prostitution over the internet. People pay to watch helpless women being tortured and sexual abused.