Description:

“E-Human Trafficking: Understanding Challenges, Opportunities, and Best Practices to Ensure Trust and Safety Online” The proposed workshop designed to discuss the double role of Internet and technology in spreading and Combating E-human trafficking and the role of big in combat. The contrasting and complementary perspectives of IGF attendants will be vital to our problem-solution format, in which participants are encouraged to collaboratively construct possible technological, socioeconomic, and legal initiatives and policies to help end global sex trafficking online. The proposed 90-minute workshop will initially explore the problem of online human trafficking with didactic presentations from five expert panelists, and then open up the solutions-oriented segment to a collective discussion on the the paradoxical role of Internet as both the mechanism behind e-human trafficking while also presenting tools, including big data, to combat this exploitation. The Problem: Global technology and Human Trafficking in the 21st century Human trafficking has become one of the most pressing humanitarian issues of our time. It is a $100 billion a year industry that sexually exploits 4.8 million individuals worldwide. According to the International Labor Organization, 21% of these victims are children. The use of technology in human trafficking increases the complexity of this crime as traffickers use the Internet to identify and deceive victims from afar. To profit themselves, cyber criminals use violence, threats, lies, money, false promises, and other forms of coercion to compel their victims to sell sex. Victims may be romantically involved, family members, or future “employees” of those who prey upon them. Women comprise 96% of victims to this industry, suffering violations of their basic rights to bodily integrity, equality, dignity, health, security, and freedom from violence and torture. Cyber predators use technology to identify, recruit, and conduct surveillance on their victims and a key point our workshop will discuss is the role of both social media and the Deep Web in this industry. They search social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tinder, and other sites and apps for posts which might indicate vulnerability in their geographic region. These vulnerabilities include poverty, substance abuse, runaway activity, and destabilized family relationships. Thereafter, traffickers use different techniques to attract victims such as expressing, love, admiration and online employment etc. to manipulate them further. The UK’s National Crime Agency (2014a) highlights the use of “online dating”, “social media sites”, and “advertising of jobs” as some of the manipulative ways the internet is used to recruit victims ignorant of trafficking–technology interface. Once they have contact, they can also manipulate their victims into non-consensual acts by using surveillance and recordings as a threat. Particular exploitative tactics to coerce victims include video recordings taken with mobile phones or video cameras which traffickers threaten to send to their families and friends. Perpetrators use the internet to advertise their victims on websites and then these website owners become third party profiteers of commercial sexual exploitation. The Internet has several segments, including Deep Web—the content that is not indexed and cannot be accessed through traditional search engines--and its subsegment, the Dark Web. Actors within Dark Web websites are anonymous and hidden so traffickers find it a safe place for their illicit activities, as they are only accessible through special software that allow anonymity. Child pornography and e-human trafficking can only occur with the help of the Dark Web, so this will be a pressing issue for our workshop. In these ways, the internet is increasingly used as a tool and medium for transnational organised crimes such as sexual exploitation. Human trafficking has been propelled by the global revolution in ICT and internet platforms, social media, and the dark web have become the new illigal markets for human trafficking. This phenomenon is an unintended and lamentable effect of international emphasis on increased accessibility to technology, and it presents cutting-edge questions of e-governance, international law, and even national sovereignty. However, stakeholders at the IGF 2020 have the potential to provide vital insights into how to improve current policy and present innovative ideas on batting e-human trafficking. Possible Solutions: Prevention and Prosecution through Technology The technology used by traffickers could also be part of the solution. Harnessing ICT as an anti-trafficking tool is the most promising approach to cut down on three stages of trafficking; acquisition, transportation and forcing of labor. In this way, technology provides primary, secondary and tertiary prevention interventions. Various technologies create greater transparency in order to prevent trafficking from happening. The ability for those who are the most vulnerable to be able to connect directly to employment, rather than through middle men, is also useful as a primary preventative measure. As a secondary measure, technology can also be used to identify, trace, and pursue traffickers through the tracing of their websites and applications. In addition, technology such as GIS offers ways to track movements of those believed to be trafficking victims and or traffickers in real time. Mapping and data that captures this information provides evidence to facilitate the prosecution of traffickers. We have seen technology utilized as evidence in other criminal acts and trafficking during investigations. Additionally, increased use of technology in combating trafficking allows for greater collection of quantitative data. This data can then be analyzed and distributed allowing for greater transparency and information around transnational supply chains and movement of people illegally. More data also speaks volumes in terms of mobilizing support, not only from governments and institutions, but also from consumers. With more public awareness around what goods may be connected to forced labor, pressure can be placed on companies and governments to intervene in regards to human trafficking. Finally, as a tertiary prevention step, access to technology can also be galvanized to identify and then rescue current victims, as well as proactively protect future victims from harm. Victims who do find themselves in positions of exploitation, and do have access to technology, are able to access avenues to escape. As we have seen with under the cuurent COVID-19 pandemic, greater numbers of individuals are accessing mental health care through online apps and services. It is worthwhile to think through how different technologies can offer trafficking victims access to therapeutic care. This could occur while in a trafficking situation or after they are able to move to a safe situation. Returning to the importance of locating and prosecuting perpetrators of trafficking, victims who are able to access continuous mental health services post-traumatic experience, are more likely to be able to provide testimony in cases brought against their abusers Workshop Focus: This workshop aims to clarify how traffickers use technology and how the same (or even more advanced) technology can be utilised to fight online human trafficking. In this digital revolution era, we see Big data playing a significant role in prediction, identification, and prevention of crime across the globe. Analysis of big data specifically human trafficking, its possible to collect data from mobile phones, extract information form various socail media pages including face book, twitter, instagram and other social media apps. Analysis of big data enables early detection and sends early alerts to the tracing of traffickers and gangs as well as tracing of victims; their geographical location, identities, connections etc. Data tracing requires a multifaceted approach and cooperation from a wide range of stakeholders, across borders and overseas. To combat e-human trafficking, policy makers and leaders need to set policies that tacle cyber crimes, convict cybre criminals and establish cyber security prevention mechanisms across nations, given that e-human trafficking is a transnational issue. Similarly, its necessary to put in place enforcement measures including sensitisation on laws, policies and strategies domestically, regionally and internationally. This could include enhancement and use advanced technologies for immigration such as setting up electronic readers or monitoring applications to identify and trace cross border victims.