Technology Use Among Human Traffickers and Counter Human Traffickers

Collaboration among different anti-trafficking entities is essential to combating traffickers, especially when they use sophisticated means to conduct their work.  Due to the rapid forces of globalization, human trafficking around the world has increased with the use of technology.  According to Internet World Stats (2010), the last decade has seen a 400% rise in internet users; there are now over 1.8 billion internet users worldwide.  The internet provides a means of global networking in which, “predators use chat rooms, message boards, peer-to-peer file-sharing servers, news groups, and specialized websites to obtain information on potential [sex tourism] destinations” (Kunze, 2010, p. 251).  According to Hughes (2001), when new technologies are introduced to a network of people, they act as an enabler for “those with power to intensify the harm and expand the exploitation” (p. 1).  Through technological means, the world has become more connected and a tighter network through which traffickers can intensify their work.

Due to the transient nature of human trafficking, law enforcement around the world has struggled to assist victims and identify perpetrators.  With the use of online and mobile technology, trafficking of persons is even more difficult to identify because criminals exploit victims through technological means.  Thus, law enforcement officers stipulate, “sex trafficking itself has ‘moved online’” (Kunze, 2010, p. 252).

Online trafficking of persons is a borderless crime without a simple solution.  Kunze (2010) explains, “Unlike the flow of information on the Internet, domestic law enforcement are restricted by national boarders.  Because of this, domestic law alone cannot suffice to thwart international criminal activity such as tracking via the Internet” (p. 252).  The complexity of a profitable, transient industry that is exempt from international technological law creates significant barriers for anti-trafficking efforts.  A review of the literature suggests that traffickers are using sophisticated avenues of technology to advance their conduct of human and sex trafficking.  A relevant question to ask is if, and how, anti-trafficking efforts utilize technology in counter trafficking efforts.

Using Technology to Combat Trafficking

It is easy to condemn technology as a source for the expansion and perpetration of human and sex trafficking around the world.  However, law enforcement and other anti-trafficking groups are using technology to collaborate and combat the technological skills of the traffickers.  Key examples of such efforts are found in The Vienna Forum to Fight Human Trafficking (2008), which discussed how technology is used, both to perpetuate and to combat human trafficking.  The forum proceeding stated the importance of recognizing the potential gains of technology use: “rather than repressing technology, it becomes necessary to harness its potential to interfere with organized criminal activities and to combat trafficking and assist its victims” (p. 13).  There are many examples provided in the Vienna Forum that further illustrate the international operations conducted to collaborate with other anti-trafficking entities and to combat human trafficking with the use of technology.  The following information will briefly overview a few counter trafficking collaborations and tactics.

            Organizational efforts such as INTERPOL, the G8 Sub-group on High-Tech Crime, the Virtual Global Taskforce, and the Internet Watch Foundation collaborate with international law enforcement agencies through the use of technology to share intelligence, information, and resources.  Technology significantly contributes to collaboration with anti-trafficking efforts.  It provides a common database for information sharing and creates an instantaneous way for agencies to communicate with one another to break down barriers of time and distance.  Sophisticated technology skills are also vitally important for law enforcement to counter online traffickers.  They often use the same technologies as the organized crime rings but for reverse outcomes.

INTERPOL, the largest international police organization, was created to support law enforcement agencies in their fight against international crime.  One of the five key priority areas for INTERPOL is human trafficking.  INTERPOL provides an intelligence database for international law enforcement to access and gain information on traffickers.  INTERPOL also lists international links, resources, and networks that provide information about different trafficking investigations, and provides support in tactical operations.  INTERPOL’s technological strategies create a platform for collaboration.  One example of INTERPOL’s effectiveness is Project Childhood, which specifically investigates trafficking of children for sex tourism purposes in Asia.  Project Childhood develops partnerships between police and other regional stakeholders to prosecute offenders and to provide restoration programs for victims (INTERPOL, 2010).

Eight countries, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, established the G8 “Sub-group on High Tech Crime” to prevent, investigate, and prosecute cybercrimes that involved computers, networked communication, and other new technologies (UNGIFT, 2008).  The 2004 meeting of G8 Justice and Home Affairs Minsters recommended that legal systems allow undercover agents to use covert filming and listening devices, and covert forms of electronic communications (Sea Island Summit, 2004, para. 2).  These methods require collaboration with many international intelligence sources to gather evidence on organized crime for law enforcement operations.

The Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) created an international partnership of law enforcement agencies in order to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.  The taskforce’s main focus is to protect children with objectives to “make the internet a safer place, identify location, and help children at risk; and to hold perpetrators appropriately to account” (UNGIFT, 2008, p. 15).  VGT uses creative strategies to counter trafficking opportunities with technology, such as Operation Pin.  Operation Pin was launched in December 2003 by the VGT.  VGT created a website that claimed to contain images of child abuse to lure potential criminals to the site.  Law enforcement monitored the website, captured details about individual users who accessed the site, and reported the individual’s information to relevant national authorities.  Through VGT and law enforcement collaboration, Operation Pin captured information about individuals that actively sought out information about child abuse, discouraged internet users from searching for such information, and caught many individuals in the process.

A slightly different approach regarding law enforcement efforts is the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF).  IWF is a United Kingdom-based initiative that uses the internet as a ‘hotline’ for users to report illegal content online.  The IWF is facilitated by law enforcement but is dependent upon worldwide internet users to report online crime.  Efforts such as these support collaboration between worldwide internet users and law enforcement.

Provided information demonstrates how technology can be strategically crafted to combat human trafficking and utilized for collaboration among anti-trafficking government agencies, law enforcement, advocacy groups, and worldwide technology users.  Based upon provided information, the narrative of counter trafficking efforts positions technology as a tool that anti-traffickers use: to effectively collaborate with each other, to directly combat the technological sophistication of traffickers, and to collectively gather data from internet users.  With these different uses of technology in mind, I am curious and would like to more deeply explore how technology and collaboration can be utilized for anti-human trafficking efforts.