I recently asked “how can parents help protect their children from sexual predators online?”. The answer is, the same way you help keep them away from predators everywhere else. Protect children when young, arm them with the skills they need to value themselves, and help them feel empowered to say no. Give them the love and support they need, and pray that they will be among the majority of kids and teens that will go through childhood without being victims of sexual exploitation. Then, you give them all the support they need should they get hurt.
Contrary to sensationalized media coverage, we should be celebrating the marked decrease in sexual exploitation over the last decade. In fact, between 1993 and 2003, the rape/sexual assault victimization rate for youth ages 12–17 fell46 percent. (National Center for Juvenile Justice, 2006).
This decline stands in stark contrast to the extreme level of anxiety the media has generated amongst parents. Research by McAfee, (Oct 2008) that found “about two-thirds of mothers of teens in the United States are just as, or more, concerned about their teenagers’ online safety, such as from threatening e-mails or solicitation by online sexual predators, as they are about drunken driving (62 percent) and experimenting with drugs (65 percent).” There are certainly reasons for concern about online safety, but this level of angst is entirely unwarranted.
What we do know is that while the majority of teens (rarely young kids) will at some point receive sexual solicitations online, most simply delete the message with little more than a passing thought of ‘jerk’ – just like they do with unwanted sexual solicitations in the rest of their lives. Those most at risk are youth who are already emotionally and or physically vulnerable.
To decrease a child's risk of sexual exploitation in every environment, there are several steps parents and caregivers should take:
Give your child unconditional love and self-confidence so they don't feel a need to seek acceptance or validation from unhealthy sources.
Don't teach 'stranger danger'. No one has the right to touch them inappropriately. Let them know they have the right to set boundaries on physical contact with everyone. They must be able to say no to things that make them uncomfortable, and it must be respected. It may embarrass you when they don't want a hug from Auntie Sue, but making them give a hug when they don't want to teaches children that they don’t have the right to physical boundaries...and creates a climate of opportunity for sexual predators.
Foster a relationship of trust and communication so they feel safe coming to you with problems. Let them know you are always available to talk and that you will listen calmly and provide assistance – not punishment for bringing the problem to you.
Help them create a large circle of quality friends so they have a strong support network, and teach them to be good friends to others.
Be frank in discussions about their bodies, and as they get older discuss their sexuality and the sexuality of others. Avoiding these topics leaves a large gap in their defenses.
Coach your child in understanding how to read the motivations of others. It is a critical life skill to understand what is behind other people's actions. If the actions don’t feel right, encourage your child to go with their gut – no explanation needed.
Provide a safe environment with supervision and boundaries. Know where they are and whom they are with. Know who they communicate with in person and online – and do it without spying. Spying is a sure relationship destroyer.
Childhood is a journey to adulthood. Help kids and teens take on new privileges as they have the skills and understand the responsibilities to do so. Help them see the correlation between new privileges and the mastery of new skills and the acceptance of new responsibilities – online and offline. This teaches them to be in control of their own destiny and understand cause and effect.
Most sexual exploitation is by family members or other trusted adults. In these cases, the first person 'groomed' is usually the caregiver. Once an abuser has the caregiver’s trust, they have access to the child. It is imperative that you be very particular about who you trust and that you pay attention to anything that strikes you as out of the ordinary – trust your own gut. There are usually warning signs in these cases that the caregiver rationalized or chose to overlook.
Believe your child, or other children who turn to you for support.
Indifference and silence are child predator's greatest allies. Be prepared to act in defense of your child or other’s children. Do not sacrifice a child to 'save a marriage', 'a family' or 'a friendship'. By abusing a child, the abuser has already betrayed and killed those relationships. Whatever you imagine is still there is an illusion. If you suspect abuse, report it immediately.
Children often won't disclose abuse because they fear the consequence will be even worse that the exploitation. The first goal of a sexual predator is to abuse the child. Their second goal is often to make the child believe it was their own fault, feel responsible for what will happen to the abuser (particularly family members), or feel afraid that they will be hurt even more if they tell. Support the victim and repeat frequently that they are not responsible for the consequences of the abuser’s actions.
Some teens won’t even recognize they have been abused – they get so mentally groomed that it may take years before they understand that what they experienced wasn’t a ‘love relationship’. They may even fight against punishing their abuser. But it doesn’t change the reality of exploitation, it just means they need even more help to process what happened to them.
THE VICTIM IS NEVER AT FAULT. NEVER. We don’t blame five-year-old victims of sexual exploitation. We don’t blame fifty-five-year-old victims. Yet somehow as a society, we find it acceptable to be horribly cruel to teen victims. We say things like ‘What did they think would happen?’, ‘dressed like that/behaving like that/sneaking out like that… they got what they deserve’, or we accuse them with words like ‘how could you have..?’, ‘I told you not to..’, or ‘what was your part in this?’ What the victim hears in these comments is you siding with the predator by implying it was the victim’s fault. These comments, and the attitudes behind them, are inexcusable. Anyone making these comments is another abuser heaping additional harm on an already devastated child or teen.
The online world is not a mystery; it is just another facet of our lives. When children and teens learn the life-skills – including online-life-skills - they need, and receive the support they require, their risk of becoming a victim of sexual exploitation is minimized – online and offline.
New research confirms what many families already knew – cellphones help them stay closer.
While most news articles focus on the negative aspects of new technologies and Internet services, the benefits we reap as a society, as couples, as families, and as individuals, far outweigh the risks – when some basic safety precautions are in place.
According to a new report published by the Pew Internet and American Life Project (PEW), technology has become a central feature of families’ day-to-day lives. In spite of news stories frequent suggestions that technology is fraying family ties, the research found that cell phones and the internet help families stay in touch and coordinate schedules throughout the day – and that shared experiences an entertainment often occur online when family members are at home.
In fact, the research found that the majority of adults with cellphones and internet-connected lives feel that their families are as close, or closer, today than their families were when they grew up.
Increased connectedness is not limited to immediate family members, 33% of internet users feel they have improved their connections to friends “a lot” and that cellphones and the internet are particularly helpful with staying in touch with extended family.
Not surprising, younger users take greater advantage of the internet’s social opportunities: 49% of wired 18-29 year olds say the internet has improved their connections with friends.
For younger adults, the internet has not affected the amount of time spent with friends, family or socializing in person. Instead, making time for online activities has come at the expense of TV time – with a sharp 29% drop in TV viewing by the youngest adult segment.
Not all the news is as positive; the research also found that highly tech-connected families were less likely to eat dinner together and less satisfied with the quality of family and leisure time. Another downside is the blurring of traditional lines between time at work and time at home. Among employed internet users, 19% say the connectivity has increased the amount of time they spend working from home– suggesting that maintaining firm boundaries on tech-use for all members of the family is important to sustaining quality ‘family time’.
Feel like the internet is stealing your family time? Consider evaluating how much your cellphone, email, and Internet use may be preventing you from relaxing and focusing on quality family time, and perhaps how you can increase your family’s interactive play. Perhaps family online gaming replaces the traditional board games of yesteryear. If you can’t beat em’, join em’.
In recognition of National Cyber Security Awareness Month, LOOKBOTHWAYS and CyberPatrol have created four family-oriented Internet safety videos that give parents, educators and others, quick and accessible advice on how to protect children online.
Parents so frequently say “my kid wouldn’t even know how to commit a _(fill in the blank_) crime” that it’s time once again to help educate adults on the Internet-and-crime-connection.
It used to be that the best training ground and recruitment site for young criminals was a stint in juvenile detention. Now criminal recruiting, knowledge transfer and training are learned wherever Internet access is available.
Most of the focus on Internet crime relates to crimes occurring online like ID theft, cyber-harassment, or sexual stalkers who find victims online. However, attention also needs to be directed on the cadre of young gang- and criminal- wannabes learning their skills online to commit offline crimes.
The rise in gang membership is directly related to the increased use of social networking sites for gang recruiting. These gangs typically target middle school – and even younger – children.
Counteracting gang recruitment tactics requires open discussions in homes and schools about understanding propaganda in the virtual world and the glamorization of violence. For younger children, leveraging filtering tools is important to block this form of contact and content. Do not wait for children to become teens before discussing this, you need to have the conversation and teach youth the skills to recognize the propaganda before they are approached online.
The use of the Internet as a crime academy continues to expand. Type in the phrase ‘how to cook meth’ and Google returns over 1.25 million results, with a disturbing number of these actually teaching kids what it takes. The listed websites go range from step-by-step guides, to full YouTube demonstration Videos. Searching on ‘lock bumping’ – the term means to open a lock without the proper key – returns over 4 million results with the requisite photos and video demonstrations.
Another large temptation for minors is in creating, or buying, Fake ID cards online. A couple of examples include the website Make Your Own Fake ID’s, that offers free fake ID templates for download, and the article on Wikihow titled How to make a fake ID and begins their instructions by saying ‘These instructions are for making a fake ID suitable for getting into clubs or bars….
Teens are well aware of the access they have to criminal instructional guides online. Parents and teachers who choose to avoid this reality do so at youth’s peril. It is far better to have candid and ongoing conversations about any temptation to leverage the Internet for criminal behavior, and the inappropriateness of a wide variety of online content.
Pocket change used to come from allowances and part time jobs. Now some teens make their money – legitimately or illegitimately – online. Many sites enable online revenue streams and parents have little to no oversight, or even understanding, of where the money comes from.
Making money online can be a great source of revenue for teens and college students because online work typically allows the flexibility of hours students need – they work when it fits their schedule. However, there are a concerning number of ways to earn money illegally online either by exploiting themselves or by exploiting others.
Some earn money by creating virtual products like digital clothing, accessories and home furnishings that can fetch a good price on sites like SecondLife. These items may be entirely tasteful, or graphically explicit. Some teens spend hours in their room at night ‘performing live’ through their webcam in exchange for goods or money – usually transferred through an account like PayPal. Others engage in a variety of online fraud tactics ranging from spam and phishing, to financially motivated hacking, and running botnets.
Know where your teen’s money comes from. If they seem to have more money than their allowance or part time job affords start asking some tough questions. Watch for ‘gifts’ arriving or new clothes, jewelry, gadgets, etc. Gifts may be delivered to your home - particularly if your teen is the first one home and can presort the mail - but are also frequently delivered to a friend’s home to avoid your attention. Discuss online revenue streams, ethics and honesty then decide together whether earning money online makes sense for your teen.
You have heard it before, but there is no substitute for active, positive, parenting. Your three strengths when talking to your kids are 1) your life’s experience and the example you set, 2) the open conversations you have to prepare them to accurately identify scams and predatory behavior on- and offline, 3) the protective tools you install like family safety settings (often called parental controls), up-to-date anti-virus and spyware products, and leveraging the safety settings of the products and services your child uses online.
Help your child reap the best of the internet by teaching them how and why to avoid the internet’s criminal underbelly.
The Combating Child Exploitation Act of 2008 is coming to a vote in the senate. This bill needs to be approved. Law enforcement agencies are valiantly struggling against the tide of online criminal activities with antiquated laws and severe underfunding. The goal of this bill is to begin correct those deficits by applying stronger financial support for increased manpower and training, as well as laws that cover crimes enabled by emerging technology.
This bill will:
Establish a Special Counsel for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction within the Office of the Deputy Attorney General
Improve the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force
Increase resources for regional computer forensic labs to track internet criminals
Criminalize making alterations to a minor’s photo so that it depicts child pornography
Strengthen laws against child exploitation to increase the ability of law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute child sexual predators
Enable ISP’s and similar services to legally report child pornography violations directly to a foreign law enforcement agency to combat international criminals
The estimated cost to consumers for increasing law enforcements capabilities to fight Internet child exploitation is estimated at $3 per American – that is $.75 cents a year - over the 2009-2013 budgeted period.
This is a very, very small price to pay to increase significantly the protection of children online.
Act now:
Contact your senate representatives by phone, email or written letter to let them know you care about the speedy passing of this bill.
The phrase back-to-school conjures up thoughts of trying on clothes to see what fits and what doesn’t, and purchasing the notebooks, pens, and other paraphernalia your student needs for the year ahead.
However, new to most parents is the realization that an Internet safety checkup also falls into this seasonal rhythm.
The beginning of school is an excellent time to review your current Internet safety guidelines and see if they are still a good fit for your family and your child. It may be time to expand online privileges and reinforce the added responsibilities and expectations that come with age and with any new devices your child may be using.
Here is a checklist for this change of season:
Begin by reviewing your student’s current privileges and responsibilities. Ideally, kids should take on new privileges and responsibilities each year so they can learn to become more responsible, and eventually grow into independent adults. Is it time to increase the level of access you provide to them?
Reinforce the basics. Internet Safety has three basic principles - protect yourself, respect the safety of others, and act responsibly by following family rules and the terms and conditions set by services.
Address new areasof potential risk – For example, if your child is starting to use social networking, it’s time to have a discussion about which service to use, what information he or she should share, what privacy settings should be in place, and so on. Learn more. This type of discussion should also take place when your child starts learning to use e-mail, IM, or any other type of online activity.
Review your school’s Internet usage guidelines. Permission slips for using the Internet in school are sent home during the first week of school. These require parents and students to agree to the school’s guidelines and they provide another great opportunity to address acceptable online usage and actions.
Talk to each child, tween, and teen every year about cyberbullying. Cyberbullying, online harassment, and cyber stalking are all terms for ways in which those who wish to hurt others, for whatever reason, use online tools to do so. This form of bullying is incredibly damaging both to those who are victims, and to the bullies themselves. You need to know the Six Safety Tips to Avoid or Deal with Online Bullying and What to Do if You or Your Child are Cyberbullied. It is critical that you establish an environment that makes your children feel safe in coming to you to report any problems.
The back-to-school shopping list these days often includes laptops and cell phones. The instant access and the convenience that laptops and cell phones afford make them ideal for studying, socializing, and coordinating schedules. By instituting a few precautions, your student can enjoy all the benefits of Internet connectivity and make the most of a great school year.
When choosing devices there are three Internet safety considerations to keep in mind: 1) What safety protections do the devices have in place, and what do you need to add? 2) Does the device enable features that you don’t find age appropriate? If so, how do you turn off or minimize these features?
Laptops:
Don’t skimp on security and safety software. Install all the safety tools your child needs, such as antivirus, anti-spyware, a firewall, and age appropriate filtering tools. Remember that installing these tools is not enough – you must update security and safety software regularly to protect against new threats. Select auto-update settings to ensure the highest level of protection. Learn More
Leverage the safety settings within the services. Every service should have settings that allow you to limit exposure to others or to types of content.Learn More
Protect your student’s laptop from theft. Laptop theft comes in two forms – theft of the information on the laptop, and theft of the laptop itself.
To protect against information theft help your child establish a strong login password and teach him or her to log-off (password protect) the laptop whenever the laptop is left on its own.
Laptops are easy to steal if left unattended for even a moment. Consider buying a laptop cable lock, so your child can physically lock it to something such as a desk. These locks typically cost between $15 and $35 dollars - far less than a replacement laptop.
Review the laptop’s features for safety. Of all laptop features, webcams are particularly problematic. Children often show poor judgment about the live video images they share. If the laptop you purchase has a webcam, set specific guidelines about how and when it can be used. Learn More
Cell Phones:
Most cell phones today are small computers. In the same way you evaluate the online services and features your child can access on computers, you need to understand the phone’s features and the Internet services can their phone can access. Learn More
Ensure that there are safeguards in place to protect your child. Does the phone have content filters? Can features be turned off? Learn More What additional safeguards does the carrier provide? (Don’t be shy about asking and demanding answers).
Choose between a prepaid versus a monthly plan. Many parents like the financial accountability that a prepaid plan provides for their teens, however these plans usually don’t provide you with information about your teen’s calling activity like monthly plans do.
Understand how to track phone usage problems.
If your student is overly tired in the mornings or is sneaking out at night, check the times of day that calls and text messages are occurring (monthly cell phone bills provide this information). If there is a problem, solve it by taking charge of the phone at bedtime and returning it in the morning.
Check for inappropriate use during school hours: when texting and cheating can be issues. Address these directly by establishing clear consequences.
With your checklist complete, your student positioned for a great online year.
If you receive news alerts for various news topics, you may have seen this latest form of spam that grabs pieces from current news stories, and then mixes them with common search terms to return fraudulent results among your legitimate news feed search results.
The goal, like any scam of this nature, is to get you to click on the link giving malicious code the opportunity to infect your computer.
A quick scan of the opening paragraph of this type of scam is generally enough to clue you in – it’s just an incoherent string of likely keywords. Unfortunately, many readers just scan the title and then open the link - a behavior these scammers are quite literally banking on.
Another red flag with these scams is found in the sender information. Never heard of the service or site the news article is posted on? Look it up. If it is a site like Mashable.com, keep in mind that anyone can post anything to the site. The information may be entirely legitimate, or as the case in the first example, a scam. If you haven’t heard of the site like The Infogneto servicesblog (shown below), type the name into a search engine that identifies suspicious sites, or displays the warnings from your security service, to help you understand the likelihood of fraud or other exploitive behavior.
Look at who created the post. The two scams in the example below show the content poster ‘names’ are just sequential letters of the alphabet ..ghij.. and ..stuv.. with random numbers or number sequences following.
Scams like these will get more sophisticated over time. Your best insurance is to keep your security software up to date and to look critically at the content for scams before you click.
One of the most loathsome forms of online fraud is perpetrated against people struggling with serious illnesses who are eager for a cure from any quarter, no matter how unlikely.
Internet health fraud is a growing problem. The FDA describes health fraud as offering “articles of unproven effectiveness that are promoted to improve health, well being, or appearance.”
Scammer’s products run the gamut - from miracle drugs to medical devices, foods, even cosmetics. Whether offered in the form of a fruit juice, a vitamin pill, salve, or inhalant, the companies that offer these products provide jargon and hype with amazing claims of success to particularly vulnerable people.
Martin Katz, an FDA compliance officer, said, “Most people who are taken in by health fraud will grasp at anything. They’re not going to do the research. They’re looking for a miracle.”
Health Fraud Goes Online
Health fraud has flourished for thousands of years - ever since the first peddler figured out he could make money offering a miracle elixir from the back of his cart. The Internet simply provides a new distribution method that offers a huge audience for these snake oil cures.
Gary Coody, national health fraud coordinator at the FDA, has outlined the challenge and one step to overcoming it. “Because of the sheer volume of fraudulent health products and their accessibility from foreign locations, the FDA has forged partnerships with many federal, state, and international enforcement agencies.”
Simple online searches reveal that the many victims of health fraud suffer from a variety of illnesses and conditions, including:
Cancer
AIDS
Heart disease
Diabetes
Herpes
Obesity
Sexual dysfunction
Influenza
Autism
People with these and other conditions should be aware of several problems with online drugs and ‘cures’.
These products may be contaminated, diluted, ineffective, out of date, or have harmful side effects. Any product, synthetic or natural, potent enough to work like a drug is going to be potent enough to cause side effects, and any treatments you use without a prescription can have adverse reactions with medications you’re already taking.
Beyond these direct risks of damage from the spurious cures, there is an indirect risk: taking these instead of proven treatments could mean that patients get sicker and in extreme cases, die.
The goal of these scams is to steal money by selling hope. At best, patients are purchasing placebos where only their pockets incur damage – some end up throwing their life’s savings, even incurring debt in their pursuit of health. Many are paying for products that abbreviate rather than prolong their lives.
How rampant is health fraud online? Consider the results for some health cures that I received on a Google search recently:
44,800 results for “black salve” a cancer treatment which claims to draw cancer out through the skin but in reality burns healthy skin tissue and causes severe scarring.
11,100 for Hoxsey cancer treatment, an unproven herbal remedy that the FDA has tried to get rid of since the 1950s.
3,150,000 results for diabetes cures (diabetes can’t be cured, just managed).
Weight loss gets a whopping 70,300,000 results. Weight loss pills alone commands 2,120,000 links. There just isn’t a guaranteed weight loss supplement that the 6 o’clock news and your doctor missed, though there are several that can cause serious harm.
Though some search results on health cures lead to scholarly articles, a great many more lead to fraudulent sites. Online it is easy to pose as a medical practitioner and make wild claims that link to a variety of ‘supporting medical studies’.
Learn the Warning Signs
Health fraud con artists use the same tactics and phrases repeatedly. Learning to spot them can help you avoid scam sites and offers.
Health fraud red flags, according to the FTC, include:
Web sites that offer quick and dramatic cures for a variety of ailments. “Beneficial in treating cancer, ulcer, prostate problems, heart trouble, and more…”
Statements that suggest the product can treat or cure diseases. “Shrinks tumors, cures impotency…”
Promotions that use words like “scientific breakthrough,” “miraculous cure,” “secret ingredient,” and “ancient remedy.”
Text that uses impressive-sounding terms like: “hunger stimulation point” and “thermogenesis” for a weight loss product. These terms are sometimes plucked out of scientific journals, but they may have nothing to do with the disease or condition you have – let alone legitimize the ‘cure’ you’re being peddled
Undocumented case histories or personal testimonials by consumers or doctors claiming amazing results. “After eating a teaspoon of this product each day, my pain is completely gone…” Most are made up, and others are hearsay. Some patients’ recoveries may be due to a remission of the disease from previous or concurrent treatments.
Limited availability and advance payment requirements. “Hurry! This offer will not last.”
Promises of no-risk money-back guarantees. “If after 30 days you have not lost at least four pounds each week, your uncashed check will be returned to you.”
Promises of an “easy” fix. For many serious diseases there are no cures, only therapies to help manage them.
Paranoid accusations—suggesting that health-care providers and legitimate manufacturers are in league with each other to suppress this miracle cure.
Look closely at the vocabulary used by these Web sites:
The words “in days” can mean any amount of time.
The term “rapid” is ambiguous.
Don’t be fooled by the term “natural”—it doesn’t equate to safe. Many natural ingredients are extremely lethal –cyanide for example is found in many common plants. Conversely, 60 percent of over the counter drugs and 25 percent of prescription drugs are based on natural ingredients, alternative cures have no exclusivity on the use of natural ingredients.
Beware of products offered as a “FREE TRIAL! – You pay only shipping and handling”.
In these cases, the charges levied for shipping and handling are the way they make their money. Think about it, if the ‘pills’ cost them $.45, and the mailing costs $2.00, but they charge $19.95 in shipping and handling, they still earn $17.50 cents from every customer. If they can scam ten thousand consumers they’ve earned $175,000 dollars.
Resisting the Hype
Products that cure serious diseases, are widely reported in the media, not discovered on obscure Web sites. No matter how desperate you are for a cure, it doesn’t make sense to believe someone who claims to be the exclusive supplier of a miracle cure.
If you are older, you are at unique risk and so should be especially vigilant. Senior citizens are often targeted by sales pitches that play to emotions—“look younger,” “lose weight overnight,” or “cure cancer”.
To check out a health product you encounter online, the FDA suggests that you:
Check the source. Make sure the company is based in your country by calling it’s phone number and verifying it’s address. If you are a United States citizen, for example, you can file complaints against US companies but you are out of luck if you don’t get what was promised from a foreign-based company.
Talk to a doctor or other health professional who you trust, and then follow that advice.
Be mistrustful of treatments offered by people who tell you to avoid talking to others because “it’s a secret treatment or cure.”
Contact your local FDA office (find the number in the blue pages of your phone book, or go to http://www.fda.gov/default.htm) to find out if they’ve taken any action against the product or its marketer.
Report fraud to the service provider where the ad was posted, to the Better Business Bureau, and to the FDA
Slavery
isn't a relic of history; it is the third most lucrative activity of
organized criminal groups worldwide, after the trafficking of arms
and drugs. According
to the U.S. State Department, the trafficking and
enslavement of men, women, and children around the world devastates
the lives of possibly as many as four million new victims every year.
It also generates billions of dollars each year for those who traffic
in human misery.
Unfortunately,
the Internet has come to play a critical part in human trafficking.
The opportunities that the Internet gives legitimate businesses to
expand and reach new audiences serve up even greater benefit
to illegitimate businesses in that they can base illegal activities
outside the reach of law enforcement and broadcast advertising
worldwide with impunity.
Slavery,
human and sex trafficking, servitude, and child labor are not
comfortable topics. But we cannot eradicate this scourge within our
own borders or worldwide without first acknowledging its reality and
understanding what it is, where it happens, and the economic and
societal factors that give rise to such abuse. We must also remove
the blame and stigma from victims, and meaningfully punish those who
profit from or add to this human misery.
Human
trafficking refers to the recruiting, transporting, and exploitation
of women, children, and men through the use of force, deception, or
coercion or by paying for the consent of a parent or another who has
control over a person.
People
are sold into the international sex trade for prostitution, to create
pornography (including child pornography), or for sex tourism and
escort services. People are also forced into labor for
sweatshops, construction sites, and farms, or bought to be organ
donors1.
"The practice may take other forms as well, including the
abduction of children and their conscription into government forces
or rebel armies, the sale of women and children into domestic
servitude, and the use of children as street beggars and camel
jockeys."2
Though
it is difficult to measure accurately the full impact of human
trafficking, estimated numbers are staggering:
Today,
27 million people are enslaved, more than at the height of the
transatlantic slave trade.3
More
than four million people are trafficked annually.4
Two
million girls worldwide between the ages of five and 15 are forced
into the sex industry every year.5
Underage girls are the bulk of the victims in U.S. commercial sex
markets, with the average age of children forced into prostitution
just 12 years old.6
30
percent of shelter youth and 70 percent of street youth are victims
of commercial sexual exploitation.7
The
revenue generated from human trafficking for transnational organized
crime rings is estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars
annually. Human trafficking ranks lower in revenue only than drugs
and arms smuggling.
Over
seven billion dollars a year come from trafficking women and
children alone.8
A
woman or child sold into prostitution can earn up to $150,000
annually for a pimp, madam, or crime boss.9
How it happens
People
are trafficked in virtually every country in the world. Though
trafficking often includes transporting victims across borders,
millions are also trafficked within their own countries.
Worldwide
supply is driven primarily by economic desperation and lack of a
sustainable income, oppressive political conditions at home,
displacement through war or other crisis, lack of family support, or
direct familial coercion.
Victims
are sold by desperately poor families who see no other way for the
family to survive or forced by spouses or parents who "rent "
the victims for income. They are lured by the promise of legitimate
work, plucked from the millions of runaway and throwaway youth
(those whose parents have abandoned them), or kidnapped.
Human
trafficking victims are controlled primarily through brute force or
the threat of it. But traffickers also control them through forced
confinement, threats of imprisonment in the host country or
retaliation against family members, or moving them so frequently that
they are never able to establish relationships in their communities.
These
methods are exacerbated by lack of money, inability to speak the
language of the place where they have been enslaved, drug and alcohol
dependencies, fear of imprisonment in the host country, or the
knowledge that they cannot go home because their families would
reject them for having been prostituted.
Eighty
nine percent10
of those who are victims of the sex trade in the U.S. are forced into
it and want to escape (although there are a few voluntary
participants).11
This is contrary to the media’s most frequent portrayal –
think Pretty Woman. We have come to acknowledge the difference
between diamonds and "blood" diamonds, though both types
sparkle just as brightly. We have yet to acknowledge the reality of
the extraordinary high rate of blood pornography and blood
prostitution.
Those
purchasing sex (johns) or watching pornographic movies cling to the
misperception that their victims are "willing." Of course
they appear that way; failure to appear happy or willing brings on
horrendous abuse. For example a study in the Canadian Medical
Association Journal (July 2004) showed that the homicide rate among
prostituted women is 17 times higher than their peers.
In
the U.S., the foremost appetite for trafficked victims is for sexual
exploitation followed closely by domestic servitude. Though huge
numbers are trafficked into the country each year, tens of thousands
more are "made in the U.S."
The
vast majority of sexual trafficking victims are first forced into
prostitution as minors, many of whom have already been victims of
sexual and physical abuse. (An estimated 80 to 95 percent of child
prostitutes have a history of sexual abuse.) At any given time, there
are between 100 thousand and 300 hundred thousand children in the
United States alone12
at risk of commercial sexual exploitation.
Pimps
and madams approach and befriend vulnerable youth at malls or clubs,
and with increasing frequency, through
social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.
Once hooked, victims are groomed into emotional, drug, or alcohol
dependencies, or simply beaten, raped, or threatened into compliance.
How our
social attitudes support the sex trade
The
social acceptance of sexual exploitation of children is directly
evidenced by a sobering national statistic:20 percent of our youth
are sexually abused before their 18th birthday.13
If any other disease were crippling 20 percent of our youth, the
uproar would not end until change had been achieved. In the U.S., we
also permit blatantly hostile and degrading attitudes and comments
about women to get commercial airtime. And we have come to a point
where pop culture has blurred the lines between acceptable behavior
and sexual exploitation.
The
media teaches young girls and boys alike that prostitution is sexy
and glamorous, instead of learning its devastating, brutal
realities. Look no further than MTV and "family friendly"
sites like AOL,
Yahoo,
and MSN
to watch videos like Candy
Shop by 50 Cent which praises the purchase of
prostituted women (and worse).
We
routinely see highly sexualized ad campaigns. We have for
years been bombarded with explicit campaigns used to sell jeans,
t-shirts, cars, aftershave – just about every commodity under
the sun. A disturbing trend is the sale of products designed to
sexualize children—for example, Abercrombie and Fitch selling
thong
underwear with sexually provocative phrases to seven
year olds. Tesco, a major retail chain in the UK, advertised pole
dancing kits for little girls as toys: "Unleash
the sex kitten inside...simply extend the Peekaboo pole inside the
tube, slip on the sexy tunes and away you go! Soon you'll be
flaunting it to the world and earning a fortune in Peekaboo Dance
Dollars."
We
glamorize the role of pimps. We've watched as positive
meanings have been attached to pimps – for example, to "pimp
your ride" or "pimp your Web site" now means to make
it cool. Major, otherwise reputable, companies like Microsoft and
MySpace are using this phrase in a misguided attempt to appeal to
young people.
White
Wolf Publishing celebrates being a pimp with
a card game, Pimp: The Backhanding!, so that anyone
with a few bucks can "experience the dizzying highs and
soul-bending lows of exploiting women, pushing drugs and dodging
undercover cops." (In a case of clear-cut hypocrisy, the company
has a disclaimer that it “does not condone or support the
illegal sex trade industry.”)
We've
institutionalized the purchase of humans in our rites of passage.
Many bachelor parties include a prostituted woman or stripper. (What
better way to celebrate the union of marriage to one woman than
through the sexual exploitation of another?) And many fathers still
"celebrate" their son's coming of age by taking them to a
prostitute, thus ensuring that their first sexual encounter is an
exploitive one.
We
don't recognize prostitution and other sexual exploitation as the
abuse it is. Sadly a considerable amount of the commentary
surrounding the prostitution charges against former New York
governor, Elliot Spitzer, failed to even recognize that exploitation
occurred. When "boys will be boys" is an accepted attitude,
the silent consequence is that girls can be exploited.
This
extends to our prostitution laws. In every city, in even the smallest
towns, and especially around every military base, it is common
knowledge where to buy the services of prostituted women and
children. Yet if law enforcement targets such a locale, the abusers
-- both pimps and johns -- are typically let go as if they were the
victims. The true victims, the prostituted women and children, are
arrested, jailed, and reviled for the crimes committed against them.
Even
our Supreme Court maintains a shameful record on child pornography,
offering in its ruling the most damning evidence of social tolerance
of the exploitation of minors. It has ruled that digitally generated
child pornography is acceptable and legal because "the
Government has shown no more than a remote connection between speech
that might encourage thoughts or impulses and any resulting child
abuse." (Read
more about this.)
Follow the money: the Internet's role in sex
trafficking
The Internet plays a
lucrative and critical role in all types of human trafficking. Here,
however, I will focus primarily on the Internet's role in
facilitating a multi-billion dollar slice of the overall business—sex
trafficking and forced pornography (including child pornography) in
the U.S. market
In the past,
advertising for trafficked humans or for pornography was difficult
for criminals. There were few places that would allow ads for it and
the transport of "goods" was fraught with risk. The
tremendous reach of the Internet has vastly simplified and reduced
these costs.
Where once the
clientele was limited to a network of known individuals, now
traffickers can reach almost a billion and a half1
potential "customers" on the World Wide Web. Criminals can
broadcast advertising on Web sites or as spam through email, text or
instant messages, and the like.
The Internet makes
it possible for criminals to base illegal activities in countries
whose lack of laws, level of corruption, or inability to investigate
and prosecute any crime, let alone Internet crimes, allow them to
operate without risk of punishment.
Unlike the physical
world where law enforcement can take action against an establishment,
the Internet enables virtual storefronts that can crop up and
disappear with the click of a mouse, or be hidden in such a way that
they are difficult, if not impossible, to trace.
The Internet makes
it easier for customers, too, to purchase or rent humans. To transmit
or purchase exploitive images, no one has to be physically present or
even identifiable for the exchange to occur. The transaction may be
the purchase of existing images or it may be interactive where
"buyers" can select victims from an online catalog and
watch live video of the exploitation. This anonymity significantly
lowers the risk of being caught or punished, and a considerable body
of evidence indicates that it may increase the number of people
willing to act on their cruelest impulses.2
Some companies that provide Web services profit from the sex trade
Internet companies
offering "free" services make money primarily through
payments by advertisers. Advertisers underwrite your online
activities in exchange for access to you. The service provider's goal
is to earn advertising revenue from every online action—every
time you click to a new page, upload or view content, buy something.
The more people who visit a site and the longer they stay, the more
advertising they will see and the more money the service provider
will make.
The pornography spam
and the easy Internet access to extremely explicit images, videos,
and live-cams is no accident. It is very deliberate advertising and
soliciting by pornography suppliers to expand their current base of
customers.
Because revenue and
Web site traffic are so intertwined, legitimate service providers
attempt a balancing act. They want to allow as much traffic through
their services as possible to get the greatest revenue while avoiding
negative publicity or legal prosecution. There is an understandable
reluctance to block any content or turn down any advertising even if
it violates the site's own code of conduct or directly conflicts with
the desired corporate image. (See
some examples below.)
The financial
temptation to turn a blind eye to a company's own standards is
particularly strong when interest in violating content is high.
Highly sexualized content, ranging from the blatantly sexual to the
basest and most brutal sex trafficking, drives an enormous percentage
of online traffic.
68
million (25 percent of total search engine requests)
Internet
users worldwide who view pornography
42.7
percent with 72 million visitors each month
Monthly
downloads of pornography (peer-to-peer)
1.5
billion (35 percent of all downloads)
Number
of users viewing pornography every second
28,258
Web
sites offering illegal child pornography
100,000
Internet
pornography sales
$4.9
billion annually
Revenue
from online pornography – over $97 billion annually
Greater
than the gross national product of Chile, and equal to the
combined annual revenues of Microsoft and Google.
These numbers do not
include those who view pornography on mobile devices like cell phones
and PDAs. Nor do they include the huge volumes of pornography, child
pornography, solicitation for prostitution, and the like, posted by
consumers and businesses and hosted on sites like MSN Spaces,
MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Craigslist, and Stickam.
Enforcing a
company’s standards isn’t hard. Companies have the tools
to monitor all the content allowed onto their site if they choose
to—without busting the bank or ruining the online experience.
Companies have the technology to filter every image piece of text,
photo, and video before it is ever uploaded without significantly
impacting performance.
Blocking sexually
demeaning content from appearing on sites is also not a freedom of
speech issue. These portals and services are owned by companies with
clear terms of use that specifically outline their right to accept—or
deny—any content at any time.
People often blame
the Web for the trash passing as content on many Web sites. But the
Web doesn't create or distribute content – people create
it, and companies host it. What stops companies from adhering to
their professed standards? The loss of revenue if they clamp down on
advertising and member content.
Of course there are
many responsible companies providing Internet services that act
thoughtfully and responsibly. Some manage to maintain this in every
aspect of their business; others struggle to find a balance.
In this blog you've
already seen a few examples where a company's stated values appear to
be at odds with their revenue stream: the ads on AOL for sex videos
even when AOL's "family-friendly" filter is turned on,
White Wolf Publishing's choice of content. There are more shown
below.
But Consider examples of two companies with brand integrity: Disney
and Playboy. Each has clearly stated brand values (whether you
approve of them or not) and both have a track record of staying true
to their brands and brand promise. Neither claims one set of brand
values, but acts in a radically different way.
A sample of shame
Sadly, it is all to
easy to find examples of multi-million dollar companies that are
household names (even ranked in the Fortune 500) who promote and
profit from sexualizing youth and denigrating women.
MySpace
MySpace is a clear
example of a company that accepts ad revenue and gives prominent
placement to ads from such companies as Onlinebootycall.com. “Find
a Booty Call” was the first ad shown on the page (captured May
2008). This in spite of the fact that it targets young people and has
a large user base of minors,
MySpace sponsors
OnlineBootyCall counter to its own Terms
of Use (see the section. "Content/Activity
Prohibited”). And lest there be any confusion as to what
service is being offered through onlinebootycall.com, it’s a
meat market.
In addition to this
advertising, MySpace allows users to freely post content that
flagrantly violates its Terms of Use In March 2008, I searched
MySpace for the name "daddy." It brought back a disturbing
number of sickening pages including the one below.
This guy called
himself "daddyforlittle" and blatantly states his interests
as sex, porn, pleasing women, but he reverts to his little girl
fixation by saying "…there is nothing sexier than a girl
…”. Notice his background image is of a little anime
girl wearing flimsy tap pants and lying across a bed.
This pedophile is
blatantly soliciting and MySpace has not only allowed him access but
allowed him to create this site as a lure.
This site, owned by
Hearst
Publishing, ranked for a time at the top of my list of
irresponsible Web sites targeting teens. This highly
sexualized site is for "cool teens and college students"
although people as old as those in their late fifties use this site.
Yet look at what espin is promoting to minors and young adults. Users
can:
Sign up for weekly e-mail messages ("Hi chuck!")
listing new users who match the profile interests of the searcher.
They can search for minors by photo, ethnic background, and
geographic area (within as little as a 25-mile radius). Notice the
ages of some of the girls offered up—Cecil (16), ineedaskat
(13), and so on.
Get automatic "Tips" from espin if they don’t
give a lot of information on their profiles. The result is pressure
to reveal more personal information which increases the chance that
they can be identified and found.
Be bombarded with highly sexualized quizzes that make any
responsible answer seem uncool. Espin then posts the answers for
others to see.
See advertising from companies that promote ways to help kids
hide their Internet use from parents – “Don't let others
know where you've been. Clear your browser history in just one
click.”
See ads that promote links to live sex cam sites.
See promotions for third-party services like the "Love &
Sex" daily text messages. For just $4.99 per month your daughter
can get daily tips like: "Want more action? Tell your guy you
got a spray tan and he can't touch you for 3 days or it'll smear.
He'll jump you ASAP. Could guys BE any easier?"
Note Over a year ago on Seattle’s King 5 TV station, I
highlighted the problems on Espin. The company responded with a token
link to generic safety tips on the top of the Home page and called it
done. These "safety" tips have since been removed.
Craigslist is at
least very forthright about its position as a broker for sex. On the
landing page for sexual encounters, there's a specific warning to
those who may not want to view those pages. Craigslist also provides
safe sex tips.
LOOKBOTHWAYS Wall of Shame
See more examples of companies who profit from sexualizing
minors, demeaning women, and sex trafficking—MissBimbo.com,
Stickam, Second Life, and others.
Take action
When the Internet
was originally created, there was little need for security. As we
developed new uses like ecommerce, more sophisticated communication,
and online entertainment, functionality outpaced oversight.
Trafficking at home
and abroad will continue to flourish and grow until we acknowledge
the devastating impact of human trafficking within the U.S. and
abroad, protect victims, and punish perpetrators. And until we
establish an infrastructure like the one we use to protect ourselves
in the "real" world—laws and law enforcement,
industry regulation, safety standards, and so on—we will have
an environment where criminals of every kind, including human
traffickers, can thrive.
There is, however, a
great deal you can do to be a force for change:
Change
begins with awareness. Share what you've learned with
others.
Reject
the labels applied to victims and abusers.
The victims of
human trafficking aren't prostitutes, they are being
prostituted. These are prostituted women andprostituted children. They aren't domestic help; they are indomestic servitude, and so on. Until we change our labeling,
we will fail to acknowledge the horrific abuse those who are
trafficked suffer.
Pimps aren't cool
and pimping isn't something you want to do to your car or Web site.
Pimps are serial rapists, slave holders, domestic violence thugs,
and often drug dealers and killers.
Denigration of
females with anti-women or girl phrases, attitudes and actions
including gender stereotyping simply cannot be tolerated in words,
music, video, photos, products, or actions. These aren't creative
expressions; they are violent assaults on the rights and dignity of
women and girls.
Hold
companies responsible. Every major Internet services
company has content guidelines or codes of conduct. Demand that
companies enforce them. Every major company has a corporate image
and value statement—demand that they adhere to them. These
aren't calls for morality; these are calls for honesty.
Support Internet
companies that do not advertise (or profit from) sexualization,
denigration, or tacit trade on their sites.
When companies
fail to respect human rights and gender dignity on their sites or
advertise on sites that fail to respect these, let them know that
you find their behavior unacceptable and stop using their services.
Demand
decency from the men you know. Real men don't abuse
women. And they don't pretend that paying a prostitute compensates
for the abuse. We have to stop the “boys will be boys”
mentality.
Keep
your eyes open for human trafficking.
If you think you
have come in contact with a victim of human trafficking, call the
Trafficking Information and Referral Hotline at 888-373-7888.
If you believe
there is a business in your area that is prostituting women notify
the police and call the Trafficking Information and Referral
Hotline.
If the victim is a
child or you suspect abuse of any child, call the National
Center for Missincg Child Hotline at 800.843.5678.
Get
involved. Check out some of the excellent organizations
that champion the rights of trafficking victims to find out how you
can help:
ECPAT-U.S.A
is dedicated to ending child prostitution and pornography, and the
trafficking of children for sexual purposes.
What
is the Prostitution of Children?
This article by the NCMEC defines child prostitution and
outlines the risks children face. It explores the factors that drive
adults to force children into prostitution, the trends in child
prostitution, and the long term effects it has on children.
Teen
Sex Slave Trade Hits Home This ABC News piece
outlines the scope and realities of the sexual slavery of children
on the streets of America.
Trafficking
In Minors The United Nations report on the global
trafficking of children.
ew research confirms what many families already knew – cellphones help them stay closer. 
or younger adults, the internet has not affected the amount of time spent with friends, family or socializing in person. Instead, making time for online activities has come at the expense of TV time – with a sharp 29% drop in TV viewing by the youngest adult segment. 
e
routinely see highly sexualized ad campaigns. We have for
years been bombarded with explicit campaigns used to sell jeans,
t-shirts, cars, aftershave – just about every commodity under
the sun. A disturbing trend is the sale of products designed to
sexualize children—for example, Abercrombie and Fitch selling
Read more about how online
services make money in 
Sign up for weekly e-mail messages ("Hi chuck!")
listing new users who match the profile interests of the searcher.
They can search for minors by photo, ethnic background, and
geographic area (within as little as a 25-mile radius). Notice the
ages of some of the girls offered up—Cecil (16), ineedaskat
(13), and so on.
Get automatic "Tips" from espin if they don’t
give a lot of information on their profiles. The result is pressure
to reveal more personal information which increases the chance that
they can be identified and found.
Be bombarded with highly sexualized quizzes that make any
responsible answer seem uncool. Espin then posts the answers for
others to see.
See advertising from companies that promote ways to help kids
hide their Internet use from parents – “Don't let others
know where you've been. Clear your browser history in just one
click.”
See ads that promote links to live sex cam sites.
See promotions for third-party services like the "Love &
Sex" daily text messages. For just $4.99 per month your daughter
can get daily tips like: "Want more action? Tell your guy you
got a spray tan and he can't touch you for 3 days or it'll smear.
He'll jump you ASAP. Could guys BE any easier?"
Note Over a year ago on Seattle’s King 5 TV station, I
highlighted the problems on Espin. The company responded with a token
link to generic safety tips on the top of the Home page and called it
done. These "safety" tips have since been removed.