Abstract
This report examines the advantages and disadvantages associated with the growth of technology within the United States, specifically how technology, digital literacy, and cybersecurity can be used to both facilitate and combat sex trafficking and sexual exploitation on the Internet. The first part of the report addresses trafficking statistics in the United States, as well as legal intervention the country has taken against this epidemic, including an explanation of the Trafficking Victims Prevention Act and the FOSTA-SESTA bill. The second part of the report addresses the online recruitment of buyers and sellers, as well as how the use of open-source intelligence, biometric facial recognition, and hashing assist in the fight. And finally, an overview of Operation Innocent Images, the Endangered Child Alert Program, and Operation Peer Pressure, is provided to highlight steps taken to stop the victimization of innocent human beings.
Faculty Advisor/Mentor
Philip Mann
Document Type
Paper
Disciplines
Criminal Law | Criminology and Criminal Justice | Information Security
DOI
10.25776/9x1g-zn67
Publication Date
2020
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Included in
Criminal Law Commons, Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons, Information Security Commons
The Cyberworld and Human Trafficking: A Double-Edged Sword
This report examines the advantages and disadvantages associated with the growth of technology within the United States, specifically how technology, digital literacy, and cybersecurity can be used to both facilitate and combat sex trafficking and sexual exploitation on the Internet. The first part of the report addresses trafficking statistics in the United States, as well as legal intervention the country has taken against this epidemic, including an explanation of the Trafficking Victims Prevention Act and the FOSTA-SESTA bill. The second part of the report addresses the online recruitment of buyers and sellers, as well as how the use of open-source intelligence, biometric facial recognition, and hashing assist in the fight. And finally, an overview of Operation Innocent Images, the Endangered Child Alert Program, and Operation Peer Pressure, is provided to highlight steps taken to stop the victimization of innocent human beings.