The Multi-Facets of Cyber Sex-Trafficking: A Call for Action and Reform from Society
Creators: name: Rodas, Ericka
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: Law
subject: FOS: Law
subject: FOS: Law

description: In the year 2014, human trafficking is still prevalent. Traffickers around the world abuse vulnerable individuals and rob them of their freedom to be safe from harm despite the international and national laws that are in place. In particular, sex trafficking, a subset of human trafficking is a form of discrimination in which people in power, typically men, take advantage of the vulnerabilities of women and children— though men are also victims—to exploit them for their services, whether for labor and/or sex. In addition, deception, fraud, force, and coercion are often used to recruit victims (UNODC 2000, Article 3(a)) although that should not be the main factor when investigating and prosecuting these crimes; for children proof of the threat or use of force or coercion is not required. Already a hidden crime due to the difficulty of identifying the traffickers and victims, the advances in internet technology have offered traffickers a new mechanism to escape detection from law enforcement. Internet offers affordability, accessibility, and anonymity –the “Triple-A Engine Effect” (Manning 2006, 133). Shawn Henry, former Executive Assistant Director of the FBI informed the public that the Internet, despite its contribution to knowledge, has many setbacks. “At any given time, there are an estimated 750,000 child predators online — and they all have a key to your house via the Internet” (FBI News Video 2011, Shawn Henry). As a result, it is time for individuals to be more cognizant of the importance of internet safety in order to combat cyber-sex trafficking. In May 2013, the use of the Internet to facilitate sex trafficking came to the fore again with the case in the Philippines in which three girls were rescued from a ring forcing them to perform live sex shows via the Internet for customers. Often the customers-- mostly Americans and Europeans--paid $56/minute for the girls to perform live sexual acts (web-cam sex) based on the customers’ typed requests transmitted via computers (de Leon 2013). In the case of the three girls, who were eight years old when the abuse started, U.S. agencies, the Philippine National Police and the non-profit Visayan Forum Foundation received tips on one of their frequent customers, Jeffrey Herschell from Washington, Pennsylvania with the help of the victims. This information helped law enforcement arrest and sentence the offender to 12 years in federal prison (Coorlim 2013). The methods of recruitment of the victims resemble that of “traditional” sex trafficking. Traffickers prey on an individual’s poverty, runaways, kidnapped children, and individuals from abusive homes. Also, traffickers rely on a child’s negligent use of the Internet to lure them into their dangerous world; children often do not realize that safety precautions should be used on online because they think it is a safe place to share one’s personal information. It grants its users mobility and the ability to use more than one mobile device, thereby making it borderless and difficult for law enforcement to prosecute traffickers and buyers. Moreover, if the sexual encounter is not recorded, it will be difficult to trace the IP address and to prove that a crime has been committed. Since this is a relatively new phenomenon there is no standard definition for this besides “cyber mediated crime” (Davis 2012, 276) or “child abuse imagery” (Smolenski 2013, 2). I will be examining cases and laws in the Philippines, a source country, and the United States as a source, transit, and destination country; these two countries are reflective of where current demand and supply originate for this heinous crime. The Philippines is more advanced in its human trafficking law since it added Section 3g: Sex Tourism, Section 3h: Sexual Exploitation and Section 3j: pornography facilitated by “whatever means” in Republic Act 10364 of 2012. The U.S. however, failed to enact House Resolution 2801 on Internet Facilitated Human Trafficking introduced in September 2011. This is may have been caused by lack of understanding of the issue. The committee chair of the House Energy and Commerce House Judiciary has not given approval to refer the bill to move past the committee. With the ever increasing importance and use of the Internet, child rights advocates hope that this Bill will be passed and approved in Congress; it would establish a task force for the study of the causes and effects of this crime and produce an effective response and prevention methods. Questions that will be answered in this project are the following: How can we redefine cyber-sex trafficking in order to make it a crime “worthy” of being investigated? Law enforcement is often concerned with traditional crimes and might not have the resources necessary to investigate and prosecute the crime. Traffickers have modified their methods of recruitment and business with potential buyers. As they realized that law enforcement began monitoring the streets, they started to use the Internet as a means to facilitate their illegal activity since it guarantees anonymity of the user. Therefore, law enforcement needs to be informed and trained on cyber-sex trafficking to be able to combat it effectively; otherwise traffickers will continue to sexually exploit children online with impunity. 2. Given the failure of U.S. Congress at present to enact H.R. 2730 “Strengthening the Child Welfare Response to Human Trafficking Act of 2011” and H.R. 2801 “E-SAFETI Task Force Act” how can the U.S. limit access to pornographic and sexually explicit material of children without violating the right of free speech enshrined in the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution? 3. How can the U.S. and the Philippines collaborate with different sectors of civil society: parents, educators, children themselves, and law enforcement (including adequate resources) to prevent this crime from happening in the first place?