Hidden in Plain Sight: A USCCB/MRS Anti-trafficking Newsletter July 2024 Issue 10 “Trafficking in the Digital Age: The Role of the Internet and AI” While the internet has seen an increasing prevalence in modern daily life, it has also become an increasingly prevalent platform for facilitating the proliferation of harmful activities including the sexual exploitation and abuse of children. The internet provides a sophisticated tool where trafficking offenders can exploit those most vulnerable through social media, online advertisements, and gaming platforms all while having anonymity and wide reach. Traffickers recruit, manipulate, and exploit individuals with increased scope and speed all from their own homes. The internet has allowed for the offender to create and dissemenate child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) without ever having to physically meet the victim, increasing the challenge for law enforcement to combat this issue. The introduction of generative AI has created a new avenue for offenders to create an unlimited number of highly realistic fake images and videos of children making the job of removing the materials and discerning from real and generated material increasingly difficult for law enforcement. Sex Trafficking a Definition: Sex trafficking or exploitation is defined by the U.S. government as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act, in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age. Such forms of trafficking include any forced sex act given or received by any person as a “value” or for profit or gain. Like sex trafficking, labor trafficking consists of the recruitment, harboring, transportation, patronizing, soliciting, or obtaining of an individual for labor or services, using force, fraud, or coercion for involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. Traffickers engage in a variety of methods to trap individuals in a state of labor slavery. Three common tactics used by traffickers include: 1) Debt bondage, which is the condition of compelling a person into serving his/her personal needs such as security for debt, control, and exploitation; 2) Involuntary servitude, defined as the condition of serving any person compelled by a scheme, plan, threat of serious harm, physical restraint, abuse, or legal process; and 3) Peonage, also known as debt slavery, a system in which the perpetrator or employer compels a worker to pay off a debt with work; usually income of the worker is very low, and the debt is such a large sum of money that the worker will never pay off this debt. CSAM includes but is not limited to “any representation, by whatever means, of a child engaged in real or simulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a child for primarily sexual purposes,” as well as the use of a child to create such a representation. Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, G.A. Res. 54/263, Annex II, U.N. Doc. A/54/49, Vol. III, art. 2, para. c, entered into force Jan. 18, 2002 [hereinafter Optional Protocol] (on file with the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children. The COVID-19 Pandemic and its Impact: The COVID-19 pandemic has had dramatic effects on the prevalence, creation, and dissemination of CSAM. As global online activity throughout 2020 and 2021 increased, so too did the distribution and use of CSAM. As children and adults were confined to their homes the numbers of reported and discovered offenses of CSAM skyrocketed. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) CSAM monthly reports doubled from 1 million in 2019 to 2 million in 2020, increasing a further 35% from 2020 to 2021 (NCMEC). In that same period, Facebook reported 46 million incidents of CSAM; Google reported 1.4 million; Snapchat 656,000; and TikTok 177,000 (USA). Additionally, due to the nature of lockdowns and social distancing, the COVID-19 Pandemic increased live-streamed sexual assault (SA) and computer-generated CSAM (CG-CSAM). Live child sexual abuse is streamed over the internet through the use of webcams allowing the offender to watch the abuse live, oftentimes directing or ordering sexual acts. The majority of such abuse is streamed through online webchats, social media, or video-meeting platforms. Given the nature of live streaming, following the end of the stream, all evidence of sexual acts is gone making it extremely difficult for law enforcement to detect and trace. Computer-Generated CSAM The emergence of “Deepfakes” has made the creation and distribution of CG-CSAM alarmingly easy. Deepfakes use digital alteration to manipulate material making it appear as though a person in a photo or video is someone else. Deepfakes allow for the malicious use of face swaps, lip-syncing, and puppeteering which can then be used for blackmailing and inflicting psychological and emotional harm on its targets. The revolutionary ability of AI has allowed offenders to not only abuse a child for CSAM but allowed them to create new images based on the original. Theoretically allowing for an infinite number of CSAM to be produced and distributed, escalating the chances of contact offending. Contact offending is the idea of the material triggering an interest that leads to viewers perpetrating the abuse themselves. Sextortion Sexual Extortion or Sextortion is the coercion of child victims into sending sexualized images to offenders online. Offenders coerce victims into sending images through social media, online games, or by lurking in chat rooms and livestreams after gaining their trust. Once explicit images are sent to the offender, they are used as blackmail to demand money or further explicit images. Offenders, upon receiving the initial payment, demand further payment 93% of the time leading to a cycle of debt. Payments are made not only through online payment platforms and bank transfers but also through less trackable means such as gift cards. The victim, the majority of the time a young child, is controlled by the offender who threatens to expose the images further to friends, family, or publicly. The difficulty in combatting sextortion is less than a quarter of minors report to law enforcement, with 85% citing “shame” as the main reason for not seeking help. In many cases, victims have self-harmed or committed suicide seeing no other way to escape the control of their offenders. IWF reported a 129% increase in “self-generated” CSAM in 2022, the result of online grooming or sextortion. In 2023, the CyberTipline received over 186,000 reports of online enticement, a 300% increase from 2021 (NCMEC). The increase in global connectivity has allowed offenders to solicit, groom, and coerce minors into sending sexually explicit material. A common misconception about sextortion is that offenders are acting alone. However, research has shown that international criminal gangs have a highly sophisticated networks that target children worldwide. NGOs, Federal Agencies and Action Items The issue of child sex-trafficking is a complex and ongoing global problem that requires the efforts and collaboration of multiple stakeholders to combat. NCMEC and its international branch, the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC) are private non-profit organizations that fight to find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation, and prevent sexual exploitation. In 1998 the NCMEC created the CyberTipline, a centralized system for reporting suspect child sexual exploitation online. The CyberTipline allows electronic service providers to report any incident regarding child sexual abuse or exploitation for review and with the support of national and international law enforcement agencies those materials are investigated and combatted. The federal government has also taken steps to combat the issues of child sexual abuse. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) all work to identify and rescue victims, support survivors, and apprehend and prosecute perpetrators. In December 2021 the U.S. Department of State released the National Action Plan, “a three-year comprehensive approach to combat human trafficking, including actions to strengthen prosecution of traffickers, enhance victim protections, and precent the crime from occurring within our borders and abroad.” Action Items: · Educate Yourself and Others: Learn about the signs of child sex trafficking and the methods traffickers use. Share this knowledge with family, friends, and community members through conversations, social media, and local events. · Advocate for Stronger Laws and Policies: Contact your local representatives to support legislation aimed at preventing trafficking and protecting victims. Participate in advocacy campaigns and petitions. · Use Technology Safely: Monitor and guide children's online activities to ensure their safety. Report any suspicious online behavior or content to appropriate authorities, such as the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). · Report Suspected Trafficking: Be vigilant and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement or hotlines dedicated to combating trafficking. Familiarize yourself with local and national hotlines for reporting trafficking Get to Know Our Intern! My name is Edward Sieh, a rising sophomore at Princeton University majoring in Politics with a minor in French. This summer, I have had the privilege of working with the Migration and Refugee Services department, where I delved into the intersection of advocacy, education, politics, and the Catholic faith. My experience with USCCB allowed me to explore national-level advocacy, policy, and communications, all within a framework that supports and nurtures my Catholic faith. I dedicated my efforts to promoting and defending the dignity and rights of migrants and refugees, deepening my understanding of the complex issues surrounding migration. I am very thankful to be a part of the team that has welcomed me, and I look forward to continuing my work with this team that is so dedicated to promoting the values of the Catholic church and securing the rights of migrants. July Webinar Series: World Day Against Trafficking in Persons Join us for a two-part webinar series, as we delve into the basics of human trafficking, and the role of law enforcement, detection, and other topics. Please Register Clicking the two links below: Part 1 Zoom Registration Part 2 Zoom Registration New Resource! We are thrilled to announce that we have a new St. Bakhita prayer card! Amy Heyse painted the beautiful piece of art that graces the front. Although we cannot print to order, we can share with you a PDF version of the prayer card. We also have the prayer card available in Spanish. For more information, please email [email protected] If you want to learn more about the USCCB/MRS' Anti-Trafficking Program, reach out to: Felicitas Brugo Onetti Anti-Trafficking Education and Outreach Coordinator Email: [email protected] Phone: (202) 541-3064   Our Company | Contact Us   USCCB | 3211 Fourth Street NE | Washington, DC 20017 US Unsubscribe | Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice