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
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
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
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
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
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