ABSTRACT

This chapter explores some of the controversies surrounding sex trafficking, particularly in relation to its prevalence and the role that technology plays both in creating new opportunities to exploit people and facilitating exploitation that would likely happen whether or not emerging technologies played a part. It summarizes current research on Internet-facilitated sex trafficking, demonstrating the ways in which cyberspace provides a new environment for traffickers to recruit, blackmail, exchange, and advertises victims to potential sex buyers who are also complicit in the victimization of both children and adults. While not unique to internet-facilitated sex trafficking, the framework of a 'continuum of limited autonomy' remains relevant in the changing technological landscape through which sex trafficking is taking place. Researchers have begun to explore the role of the Internet in facilitating sex trafficking among vulnerable children and adults in the US and throughout the world, including the barriers to identifying and protecting victims and prosecuting perpetrators.