How Facebook and Instagram are being used to orchestrate child sex trafficking

The testimonies are chilling. In a lengthy investigation, published on Thursday 27 April, the British newspaper The Guardian reveals how predators use social networks, and especially those of the Meta group, to identify vulnerable young people that they prepare to sex trafficking, through various extremely consolidated manipulation techniques, then exploited thanks to the platforms, where they find victims and clients.

A far from isolated phenomenon

The investigation opens with the terrible story of Maya, a 12-year-old girl, victim of sex trafficking. Her 28-year-old pimp reached out to her on Instagram. Initially he complimented her, told her she was pretty, trusted her. After a few exchanges, he asks for nude photos of her and the teenager agrees. Why be wary of this man who doubles her attention to her and keeps saying sweet words to her? He even promises her money in exchange for these pictures.

A little later they meet in person. Then things take a different turn: the man asks her if she would agree to help him make money “. She gives him her Instagram credentials and the pimp turns Maya’s account into a showcase to sell her sexual services to a multitude of men whom she will then please at nearby motels. He can’t say no anymore, and sees her mac arrange, in DM, all the logistical details of her passages.

His story is far from being an exception. In many cases the networks, through their multimodal aspect (public accounts, private messages, etc.), serve both to identify unaccompanied minors, to advertise their sexual services, and to negotiate transactions:

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the internet is used by human traffickers such as a “digital hunting ground”, allowing them access to both customers and potential victimswith children being targeted by traffickers on social media.

How Facebook and Instagram became marketplaces for child sex traffickingGuardian, 04/27/2023

The numbers are there: in 2020, according to a report by the American non-profit Human Trafficking Institute, Facebook is the platform most used by sex traffickers for ” prepare and recruiting children (65%). In second place is Instagram followed by Snapchat. But, as revealed by Keeperdespite what they claim, these platforms (leading Meta) struggle to identify and prevent criminals from using their networks as a playground. Lack of means… or of will?

Meta’s role

For two years the Keeper, then interviewed more than 70 sources, to try to identify why and how these platforms could become such child trafficking hubs. British newspaper reporters met with survivors, consulted court records, interviewed Meta, convicted offenders, child protection professionals, online content moderators, to understand” how sexual predators use Facebook and Instagram and why Meta can so easily deny any legal liability for sex trafficking that occurs on its platforms “.

With regard to this second point, what emerges from the survey is above all the legal complacency from which the Internet giant benefits. In fact, if there is a legal obligation to report to the NCMEC (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) any content that includes child sexual abuse images or depicts the sexual abuse of a minor, it is not mandatory to report suspicions of abuse. (commercial sexual exploitation of children). This means that NCMEC can only rely on the goodwill of the platforms when it comes to spotting this type of behavior online.

The law relieves platforms of liability

Also, Meta is protected by the Communications Decency Act, Article 230 of which provides that interactive Internet services (including social networks and the companies that own them)” they should not be treated as publishers of content posted by their users. This article (dating back to 1996, ed) was included for ensure the free flow of information while protecting the expansion of the technology industry at the time of its deployment in the early 2000s. But, in fact, this article exonerates the platforms from any responsibility regarding the contents circulating on them.

The survey also reports the words of the moderators, who explain that they feel helpless and little supported in the face of cases of sexual exploitation of minors, with the feeling that their reports are in vain, and that users who are victims very often remain abandoned to themselves, for lack of concrete sanctions taken by the hierarchy. Even the instructions sent to the moderators seem vague, on the criteria to keep an eye on, according to Meta, to justify a report.