Ayra Parashar / 8th A / Elpro International School

How is technology being utilized for

human trafficking?
Introduction:
Human trafficking or “modern slavery” includes forced labour, forced or
servile marriage, debt bondage, forced commercial sexual exploitation,
human trafficking, and slavery-like practices.
No one can deny that technology has evolved to become a huge boon for
everyone, but it is a common venue accessible by literally anyone and all
types of people, it is bound to be misused, as traffickers abuse these
platforms to gain insight into people's lives, and technology has been used
at every step of such antics; the recruiting, control, and exploitation of
victims as well.
A research paper has been created by the UN Office On Drugs and Crime
(UNODC). That considers 114 different court cases about human
trafficking. It sorts all of them differently and sections them according to
how the victims are being recruited and how the entirety of the human
trafficking is done. Of those 114; 79 of such cases involved the use of
technology. How are they recruited through technology?
Internet-based trafficking has increased quite a lot. The reason why this is
done; is anonymity. it allows users to separate their online and offline
identities, this also allows users to disguise their identifying information
online making it difficult to hold users responsible for what they do or say
online. It leads to a lack of transparency and can make it challenging for
employers to evaluate potential traffickers properly.
The UN Office On Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has recognized 2 strategies
that traffickers follow to assert their cause on their potential candidates.
They are hunting and fishing strategies and are carried out when traffickers
make use of technology in their plans.

Hunting

Sources I used to make this report:-

- a report from the ICAT (inter-agency) coordination group against trafficking in persons
- UNODC. (2020). Global report on trafficking in persons 2020.
- Polaris. (2020). Analysis of 2020 national human trafficking hotline data. Polaris Project.
Ayra Parashar / 8th A / Elpro International School

In this strategy; a trafficker himself/herself reaches out to the victim usually

through social media. It starts with a friendly conversation which eventually
gets more forceful as they get to know each other better. The traffickers
start milking out sensitive information or aspects about the person like their
financial situation, feelings, or other weak points which makes them much
more vulnerable to being taken advantage of.
21 cases were gathered by UNODC to understand different hunting
strategies. Out of these cases, 18 were all about finding and getting
victims, like recruiting them. In 4 cases, the focus shifted to traffickers
looking for people who might want to use the services of victims who were
being exploited. Surprisingly, one case showed a mix of both, where
traffickers were hunting for both victims and people interested in the
services of the victim.
It’s a manipulative strategy in which traffickers don’t wait around or sit idle,
they go after their targets whether it’s the victim or the client who wants to
use their service. Using technology to exploit victims can make it tough for
them to move on. When victims are allured to do inappropriate things
online, such as the uploading of provocative material publicly. These things
can be shared widely. In societies with strict rules about how women
should behave, these problems can be even worse. Men and boys also
struggle due to societal expectations about masculinity. Having provocative
content online can hurt victims' chances of having a successful career and
fitting into society.

Fishing
In this strategy; placement of advertisements takes place that are often
high-paying or are prestigious job offers that appear excessively alluring,
and then traffickers patiently wait for responses from their potential victims.
In one of the cases around 100 women fell prey to overseas “modelling job”
ads. They were compelled into submitting explicit images, only to find out
later that they were innocently recruited for sexual exploitation; while the
traffickers turned to blackmail using the obtained pictures.
But this “fishing” strategy extends beyond capturing victims, this strategy
can also be used to dupe clients that choose to promote exploitative
Sources I used to make this report:-
- a report from the ICAT (inter-agency) coordination group against trafficking in persons
- UNODC. (2020). Global report on trafficking in persons 2020.
- Polaris. (2020). Analysis of 2020 national human trafficking hotline data. Polaris Project.
Ayra Parashar / 8th A / Elpro International School

services. One such case serves as an example that demonstrates how a

single trafficker managed to associate one victim of sexual exploitation with
over 100 sex buyers in a mere 2 months which was all scored through a
single online advertisement.
Other than these tactics; why is technology being used for human
trafficking so spontaneously? what makes it easier for the traffickers to go
unrecognizable?
The answer to this is the dark web. Understanding the dark web is not that
particularly challenging and it is similar in the functioning to the regular
internet we use every day. We log in to a browser that is connected to the
internet so that we can have access to the information we need. The
disparity is that the dark web is mainly utilized for illicit and illegal activity.
Things such as child pornography, drugs, weapons, and other illicit material
are bought, sold, and or traded on the dark web. Presently there is a very
noted methodology to access the dark web which is through the web
browser called Tor; it was developed in 1995 by the U.S. Naval Research
Lab under 3 personnel for the private use of the navy.
It was developed so that the identities of people who are using the system
are confidential and undisclosed. The original concept of the dark web was
to allow its users to surf the web without restrictions and censorship which
is found in the browsers we use today; as well as certain countries put
filters on certain websites, and those websites are usually not from their
perspective countries.

Conclusion
Human trafficking is going up and changing, especially online. Some
happen on the dark web, but there are other ways to reach victims without
using the dark web. Many people know about trafficking and the dark web,
but we need to teach more about how Tor technologies work and why
some people use that web browser

Sources I used to make this report:-

- a report from the ICAT (inter-agency) coordination group against trafficking in persons
- UNODC. (2020). Global report on trafficking in persons 2020.
- Polaris. (2020). Analysis of 2020 national human trafficking hotline data. Polaris Project.