SEX TRAFFICKING: A DIGITAL SHIFT TO ONLINE RECRUITMENT
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MISSION STATEMENT
By spreading awareness of the role that the internet plays in human trafficking, I hope to help educate anyone who will listen on the impact that this industry has on our society. My mission has always and will always be to make the unseen seen.
MY STORY
After spending a gap semester after high school in Thailand and Cambodia working for various anti-trafficking organizations, I made it my mission throughout college to take every opportunity to research the topic of human trafficking.
THE GOAL
The goal of my advocacy campaign was to raise awareness of the issue of human trafficking. I wanted to investigate how the pandemic could have affected the fight against human trafficking on a local, national, and global scale. Anyone with access to the internet should be aware of the online recruitment of men, women, and children from around the world.
THE PROCESS:
HUMAN
TRAFFICKING
LOCAL LEGISLATION
CYBER SEXUAL HARASSMENT BILL
REVENGE PORN BILL
NONCONSENSUAL PORNOGRAPHY
POLICING SEX TRAFFICKING ONLINE
DA#1: PETITION
After interviewing the outreach and demand coordinator at my local anti-trafficking organization about the current bills they were working to pass that benefit those at risk for human trafficking, I wrote a petition to my state senator asking for his support and to raise awareness of the Cyber Sexual Harassment Bill. While I did not hear back from them, I am confident that this petition represents a written advocacy to someone with the power to influence change.
Dear Senator Loftis,
As a Furman student who has called Greenville, South Carolina home for almost four years, I want to begin this letter by thanking you for your recent support of anti-hazing efforts in our state. Before attending Furman as a freshman in 2018, I spent three months working alongside anti-trafficking organizations in Southeast Asia. My experiences abroad manifested into my college experience where I have served as vice president for Furman's chapter of International Justice Mission and taken every opportunity to research the topic of human trafficking, both foreign and domestic.
As I am sure you know, Greenville County is among the top five counties in South Carolina for human trafficking activity. After meeting with Switch, a local faith-based anti-trafficking organization, I learned that many of the victims of sex trafficking in Greenville County reported knowing their seller personally who coerced them into sexual acts. One widespread tactic trafficker use to coerce their victim comes by threatening the release of intimate photos or videos of them to close friends and family if they resist complying with their demands. As technology evolves, so do the tactics used by traffickers to harass and humiliate their victims.
On January 11, 2022, the Cyber Sexual Harassment bill (H4563) was reintroduced for revision. As of now, South Carolina is one of three states without a bill to defend victims of cyber sexual harassment. I urge you to continue your anti-hazing efforts by supporting the upcoming bill.
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Sincerely,
Claire Corbett
Furman University '22
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DA #2: OP-ED
My next piece of written advocacy in the form of an unpublished opinion editorial establishes and defines the intersection between the internet, commercial sex, and human trafficking. I concluded this op-ed with a call to action from my state, where the revenge porn bill would soon be brought before legislatures.
Human trafficking shows no signs of slowing down, with a recent study claiming a 20% increase in online recruitment of sex trafficking victims during the pandemic. According to South Carolina's Attorney General's Human Trafficking Task Force, 53% of sex trafficking cases were attributed to internet-based commercial sex and pornography in 2021. South Carolina can work against these statistics by joining the 48 other states that criminalize nonconsensual pornography.
Nonconsensual pornography, commonly referred to as revenge porn, involves uploading explicit content of a person online without their consent.
The term "revenge porn" is controversial because those who share explicit content without consent are often motivated by more than revenge.
For example, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime defines human trafficking as any situation in which "force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or vulnerability, or giving payments or benefits to a person in control" are used to exploit another individual. Victims of revenge porn are vulnerable to their offender, often resulting in some form of coercion.
The New York Times published an explosive column that accused PornHub of hosting illegal content. "PornHub became my trafficker," claims one woman who was trafficked and abused from age nine. "I'm still getting sold, even though I'm five years out of that life." Though she escaped her abusers, videos of her abuse still circulate PornHub.
As the pandemic continues to draw more of our lives online, we are met with a new landscape for crime. What's more, as technology advances, so do the tactics and strategies of sex traffickers. Too often, the law fails to keep pace with this evolution.
Currently, no federal law exists that criminalizes the dissemination of nonconsensual pornography in the U.S. In less than a decade, forty-eight states have criminalized the offense with various degrees of severity. South Carolina and Massachusetts are the only states left without proper legislation.
While South Carolina has made significant progress against human trafficking, continued support from lawmakers is critical. Those engaged in the various facets of human trafficking rely on legislative assistance as we witness an increasing number of cyber-related cases.
South Carolina must pass the Cyber Sexual Harassment Bill (H4563) and finally criminalize revenge porn.
DA#3: INFOGRAPHIC
I wanted to really prioritize the data that I had come across relating social media to sex trafficking throughout my infographic. By this point in my research I felt like i had finally articulated my advocacy topic as something specific to my interests and skillset.
DA #4: MEMES
Memes are an effective communication form that starts trends, influences campaigns, and shapes perspective. I posted two memes to an anti-trafficking organization's Instagram story that I am on the board for at my university. Of the two, I chose to keep this one for my portfolio to illustrate the difficulty of presenting information regarding human trafficking; however, not impossible. I used the "dude with a sign" meme to illustrate the apparent need for change.
DA #5: VIDEO
I interviewed multiple professionals in the field and created a short documentary narrating the trends of sex trafficking called: Nameless, Faceless, Profit Units. The title of this video is inspired by the countless number of exploited victims online who may encounter their trafficker. The interviews that I included are Victor Boutros, from the CEO and co-founder of the Human Trafficking Institute, Dr. Johnny Nahn, professor of criminal justice at Texas Christian University, and Aly Decken, education manager at anti-trafficking nonprofit in Greenville, SC.