traffickers use tech to hurt children.
- Most exploited kids first met their trafficker online.¹
- Traffickers prey on large numbers of vulnerable kids on social media by exploiting their desire for connection, success and "likes"²
- The reach and ease of connection of social media allows traffickers to continuously search for and recruit multiple different victims at once online.³
- The most common apps used by traffickers and their victims are Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.⁴
we use tech to protect children.
- Online education specifically focused on at-risk kids using social media is key to preventing their victimization.⁵
- Using AI and image recognition technologies, backed by research-based understanding of traffickers and victims, we can identify at-risk kids on social media faster and at much larger scale than traffickers.
- By finding at-risk kids before the traffickers do, we can help educate and inoculate them against the trafficker's recruitment tactics.⁵
Notes: 1. Thorn. Survivor Insights The Role of Technology in Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (2018), at pages 26, 53; Kunz, et. al., SOCIAL MEDIA & SEX TRAFFICKING PROCESS from connection and recruitment, to sales (2018), at page 9. 2. Thorn at page 51; Kunz, et. al., at page 6; Polaris. On-Ramps, Intersections, and Exit Routes: A Roadmap for Systems and Industries to Prevent and Disrupt Human Trafficking (2018), at page 19. 3. Thorn at page 54; Kunz, et. al., at pages 4, 7. 4. Thorn at pages 34, 36; Kunz et. al., at pages 8, 10; Polaris at page 18. 5. Thorn at page 60; Polaris at pages 33-35.