Trafficking and Social Media

18 November 2021

Bianca Lara

Source: VeryWell

In the digital age, social media has allowed for many new changes and growth to take place. We use social media to keep tabs on friends, post our activities, network for our careers, shop, and find services when our sinks bust. Connecting with new people has never been easier and although it has brought about many conveniences to our life, it has also become a place where individuals can easily find themselves becoming targets of human trafficking.

Youth on social media can especially become vulnerable to trafficking through false promises or conversations with individuals they perceive to be friends. Every social platform offers some chat option and it had become increasingly dangerous for youth since you do not who you are talking to. Social media allows individuals to express themselves, and others to disguise their

true intentions. What was once unlikely to happen, now with the use of social media, the opportunities of trafficking have risen exponentially.

A study performed by The University of Toledo (UT) Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institute “found that social media is increasingly being utilized as a medium to contact, recruit, and sell children for sex.” Traffickers use social media to stalk out potential victims, establish a rapport that can go on for months and eventually gain enough trust where they can meet their victims in person and sell them into trafficking.

Trafficking Websites and Apps

Although social media can be used to solicit trafficking, that is not their intended use. there are some websites/apps, however, that have hidden agendas. Seeking arrangements is a popular ‘sugar baby’ website. The website specifically targets young women as it allows ‘sugar babies’ to sign up for free if they use their university email and automatically qualify for premium membership status. College students can become a vulnerable population since in many cases, individuals are far from home, struggling financially, and may know a limited about of people. Although not every encounter on seeking arrangements may end up in trafficking, it increases young women's vulnerability.

When I first came to The University of Texas at San Antonio, every freshman gets assigned a mentor where you must meet with them at least 3 times your first semester. In the first-ever meeting, I had with my mentor I asked her for advice on finding a way to make money since I was struggling to buy groceries. My initial thought was that she would tell me about work-study options but instead, she referred me to an online sugar baby website. I remember she said that all her sorority friends were doing it and they were all fine. She mentioned that you just go on dates with random guys and if the date goes further, you get paid more. I was shocked when she recommended this to me, and I told her I would try looking more into work-study options since I was not comfortable with her suggestion. It was around that time when I noticed just how common it was for young college girls to be involved in those kinds of sites and the dangers that come with it. Needless to say, the next two required meetings I had with my mentor I kept it very short and made sure to not bring up financial issues with her again.

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References

How sex traffickers use social media to contact, recruit, and sell children. Fight the New Drug. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2021, from https://fightthenewdrug.org/how-sex-traffickers-use-social-media-to-contact-recruit-and-sell-children-for-sex/.

Utoledo study details link between social media and sex trafficking. EurekAlert! (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2021, from https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/816194.