New Information Technologies and Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation: A Study of the Users

New Information Technologies and

Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation

A Study of the Users

Strasbourg, France, Dec 2000

Donna M. Hughes

Prepared For

The Group of Specialists on the Impact of the

Use of New Information Technologies

on Trafficking in Human Beings

for Sexual Exploitation

Committee for Equality Between

Women and Men

Council of Europe

Methods I

Interviews

Law enforcement officials

Researchers of trafficking and child sexual abuse

Computer industry consultants

Reports

Law enforcement officials

Researchers

NGOs

Methods II

Content analysis

Men’s writings in newsgroups, Web sites

Email from men

Original research on the Internet

Most people only had partial information

Organization of Report

The Technologies

Description of features of technologies

The Use of New Technologies

How users/perpetrators use technologies

The Users

Who the users/perpetrators are, their

characteristics

The Challenges

The Technologies New and Old

Old and new technologies are used in combination

Combination of delivery systems Web TV, Satellite cable, Internet and mail

Old images and videos are digitized

Video used to record child pornography, video capture of images for Internet distribution

New technologies increase duplication and distribution

The TechnologiesNew Technologies

Digital Video Disks (DVD)

Interactive capabilities for the viewer

The viewer can choose the version, point

of view, or camera angle

If use of pornography distances and

alienates users from real-life relationships,

sexuality and intimacy, this technology can

exacerbate that

The TechnologiesMulti-Media Formats for Content

Combinations of new technologies and media formats

Still images, videos, CD-ROMS, DVD

Sex industries produce and deliver images and videos in multi-media formats

Content is duplicated and distributed in a variety of ways

Wide, uncontrolled distribution

The TechnologiesSex Industries, Users and Perpetrators

Sex industries, users and perpetrators

have aggressively adopted all new

technologies

Marketing new developments for delivery,

viewing, and increased quality of content

Conceal illegal activities and avoid

detection

The TechnologiesInternet venues

Newsgroups – anonymous, easy to use

1000 illegal images of child pornography

posted on newsgroups each week

Web sites and message boards

Commercial sex industry – large,

sophisticated subscription-base online

clubs and databases of images and videos

Streaming videos

The Technologies

Chat rooms

Accessibility varies: open, private groups with

passwords, one to one communication

No logs maintained

File transfer protocol (FTP)

Allows direct access to files on hard drive

Peer to peer networks

Decentralized, file swapping programs used

with searchable databases

Technologies

Encryption

Online Practices

Practices that advertise sex sites

Spam – unsolicited email

Advertising banners

Free Web sites

Practices that trap viewers

Page jacking or misdirection/false advertising

Mouse trapping

Technologies for Anonymity

Disguise identity for criminal or offensive

activities

Anonymous remailers

Use wireless technologies

Use technologies that don’t use cache files

Combinations of techniques

Use of New Technologies

Traffickers and Pimps

Use mobile phones and pagers to

communicate with and control women and

girls, and for surveillance

Use new technologies to communicate and

coordinate activities

Web sites for advertising women and girls

for use in the production of pornography

Traffickers/Stalkers Contacting

Victims

Perpetrators contact victims in Internet

forums

Contact adults, physically meet and assault

them

Contact children, engage in sexually

inappropriate chat, send pornography, entice

the child into sending sexually explicit

photographs of self, and physical meetings

Traffickers recruiting victims

Post job advertisements on Web sites in

Eastern European countries

Email messages sent out in Brazil

recruiting women to go to Spain

Stalking children in chat rooms

Numerous cases of perpetrators

contacting and luring children from chat

rooms

Some cases indicate that they may be

ways traffickers recruit victims

Commercial child pornography

Newsgroups and password protected

bulletin boards have been sites for

advertisements for children to use in

pornography

Trafficking children in Russia for the

commercial production of child

pornography for Western market

Pimping women on the Web

Use of Web pages to advertise brothels

Photographs of women are included

Men communicate with pimps and make

“appointments” with women through

Web sites, email and chat rooms

Men can post “reviews” of the specific

women’s “performances”

Peer communication

Men exchange information on where to find

women

Newsgroups, Web sites, and chat rooms

Several public newsgroups dedicated to

finding and “reviewing” women in

prostitution

These writing contain information that

indicates the women may be trafficked

Transmission of Images,

Videos and Live Broadcasts

The number of pornographic video clips

and live broadcasts is increasing

Women are smuggled/trafficked for live

broadcasts

Rape and torture images and videos

Audio and video clips make the content

more vivid

Victimization and revictimization

The Users

Analysis of Child Pornography Collectors

Analysis of collectors of child pornography

Use computer to meet at virtual community of

like minded people

An important psychological process directly

connected to acquiring technological skills

Collector is empowered by collecting, sexual

satisfaction, computer skills and supportive online

community

“Functional addiction”

Characteristics of Collectors of

Child Pornography

Age range 13-65

Preference for white children

More images from Eastern Europe

Collectors of Pornography

Collector spends large amount of time with

their collection

Labeling

Categorizing

Collecting series of images

Printing out hard copies of favorite images

Technology facilitates these types of

activities

Collectors of Pornography

Progressive interactive contact with

other users

Start with downloading images with no

contact with others

Escalate to interacting with other collectors

in chat rooms

Interaction with others requires trading, so

escalate to distribution

CollectorsProgressive Activity

Collecting is progressive in content and

technologies used

Start off collecting adult pornography, then

escalate to child pornography

Start off with still images from newsgroups

and Web sites, then escalate to movie clips

Increasingly sophisticated technologies

Increasingly harmful offender behavior

Collectors

Need large computer storage – extra

hard drives and external storage

Used other people’s computers

Collectors

How much of what is known about child

pornography collectors applies to adult

pornography collectors?

Stalkers

Sex offenders engage children online

Sexual talk

Audio and visual interactions online

Meetings

Ages 17-56, maybe 50% of online

solicitations come from other adolescents

Travel to meet children, or send children

money ticket to travel to meet them

Stalkers

Most are collectors of child pornography

Higher proportion of sadistic offenders

Buyers Who Write on the Internet

Traveling businessmen

Local men reporting on prostitution

Male students

They say they consult newsgroups and

Web sites before they travel and print

out information on prostitution

Write to relive the sexual experience

Producers of Child Pornography

All producers of child pornography, are also collectors

Ages 26-53

Producers secretly photograph children

Producers distribute images of children they sexually abuse

Perpetrators send digital cameras for live transmission over the Internet to children they contact online. The perpetrators use video capture equipment on their end.

Commercial Production of

Child Pornography

Eastern European countries

Slavic children for predators who prefer

white children

Poverty, unemployment

Increase in street children who can be

victimized

Laws on producing and distributing

pornography, even child pornography are

weak

Adult Pornography

High profit industry

Moving from the control of organized crime

to large businesses

Budapest, pornography production is

considered part of free market economy

Competition on the Internet resulted in

rougher, more violent, degrading images

and videos

Trafficked Women and

Children in Pornography

Known cases of the use of trafficked

children for the making of pornography

Russia and Hungary

Numerous cases of the use of trafficked

women in prostitution

How many trafficked women are used in

the making of pornography???

The Consumers

“A major weakness in contemporary

work in this area is that it does not

consider how individual consumers use

and understand pornograph[y]…nor

does it acknowledge their choice,

responsibility and accountability for their

behaviors.”

Unintended Users

Pornographic material is pervasive; it is

difficult to avoid it

Sex industry uses aggressive techniques to

get and keep pornography in front of

viewers

Spam

Advertising on search engines

Page jacking or misdirection

Mousetrapping

Future Users

Teenagers learn social norms and attitudes

through new media

The Challenges

Challenges

Diversity of attitudes and laws concerning

prostitution and pornography (and

trafficking)

Denial of the harm

Sexual exploitation has been normalized

Lack of empathy for victims

No standards (legal or moral) to evaluate

or understand images

Challenges

Disconnection between the acts and the

images

Child pornography: The image is evidence

of abuse

To change attitudes and laws so that

freedom of expression is protected, but

protects rights of people to be free of

trafficking and sexual exploitation