Symposium: the Evolution of Technology & Gender-related Offenses Traffickers’ fing Behavior During a Pandemic: Why Pandemic Online Behavior Has Heightened the Urgency to Prevent Traffickers From Finding, Friending and Facilitating the Exploitation of Youth Via Social Media

SYMPOSIUM: THE EVOLUTION OF

TECHNOLOGY & GENDER-RELATED

OFFENSES

TRAFFICKERS’ “F”ING BEHAVIOR DURING A PANDEMIC:

WHY PANDEMIC ONLINE BEHAVIOR HAS HEIGHTENED THE

URGENCY TO PREVENT TRAFFICKERS FROM FINDING,

FRIENDING AND FACILITATING THE EXPLOITATION OF

YOUTH VIA SOCIAL MEDIA

NICOLA (“NICKY”) A. BOOTHE, ESQ.*

PROLOGUE ................................................. 534

INTRODUCTION .............................................. 534

I. SOCIAL MEDIA IN GENERAL ................................ 537

A. SOCIAL MEDIA USE BY YOUTH .......................... 538

B. SOME NEW, SOME UNKNOWN APPS: NOT TO THE PREDATORS . . . . 540

II. HUMAN TRAFFICKING GENERALLY ............................ 543

A. TRAFFICKING OF YOUTH ............................... 545

B. SEX TRAFFICKING OF YOUTH ONLINE ..................... 546

C. CURRENT HUMAN TRAFFICKING LEGISLATION CHALLENGES. . . . . . . 547

1. Challenges in Application of Human Trafficking Laws . . . 548

2. Constitutional Challenges to Human Trafficking Laws . . . 551

D. CHALLENGES TO PROSECUTION POSED BY NARROW LEGISLATIVE

APPLICATION ....................................... 553

III. URGENCY FOR ACTION CREATED BY POB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554

IV. SUGGESTIONS TO COMBAT TRAFFICKERS’ “F” USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA . . . 558

V. CONCLUSION ........................................... 563

* Professor, Former Interim Dean, Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University, College of Law;

J.D. Florida State University College of Law, 1994; B.S. University of Florida, 1991. The author wishes

to thank her colleague, Professor Cheryl (“Shelly”) Page, for her insightful comments; and her tireless

research assistants, Taniesha Alexander, J.D., and Jasmin Hernandez, for their assistance. © 2021,

Nicola A. Boothe.

533

PROLOGUE

“The guy was reaching out to a lot of girls all day long, one girl who is

actually in a youth home, she had access to the internet, and he con-

nects with her on a social media platform. He drives all the way up

from Columbus to Toledo, picks her up at her foster home and drives

her back down to Columbus, and then trafficks [sic] her here in

Columbus. You know, 25, 30 years ago he would have never been able

to connect with her, but, because of social media that connection was

immediately made in over a few hours. . .He found out where she was

and she told him, ‘yeah please come get me I want to get out of

here.’”

1

INTRODUCTION

During the trans-Atlantic slave trade, millions of native Africans

2

were tricked

into slavery.

3

Today trans-continental deception continues, ensnaring victims

from every corner of the world, many of whom are vulnerable children deceived

and enslaved through violence and abuse.

4

Ranked as the second most prevalent

criminal enterprise,

5

human trafficking is a multi-billion-dollar enterprise in the

United States and across the world,

6

with many of the victims recruited, solicited

and exploited via social media. The correlation between this social media exploi-

tation and the use of technology during the 2020 pandemic (hereinafter referred

1. Ohio Anti-Trafficking Professional, 2018; as reported in Ryan Kunz et. al, Social Media & Sex

Trafficking Process from Connection and Recruitment, to Sales, UTOLEDO, 4 (2018), https://www.

utoledo.edu/hhs/htsji/pdfs/smr.pdf (emphasis added).

2. See JAMES A. RAWLEY ET. AL., THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE,16 (revised ed. 2005)

(reporting, analyzing and presenting in table format the analyses conducted in 1968 by historian Philip

D. Curtin and in 2001 by historian David Eltis, who estimated, respectively, that 9,556,000 and

9,599,000 Africans were transshipped across the Atlantic during the trans-Atlantic slave trade).

3. Karen E. Bravo, Exploring the Analogy Between Modern Trafficking in Humans and the Trans-

Atlantic Slave Trade, 25 B.U. INT’L L.J. 207, 218 (2007) (noting that a “growing numbers of victims

were being enslaved by modern-day traffickers: tricked by schemes offering employment abroad or

other prospects of fruitful economic opportunities, or simply sold by parents or other authority figures,

men, women, and children around the world were being subjected to sexual or other exploitation without

compensation”).

4. See NATIONAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESOURCE, NCVRW RESOURCE GUIDE: HUMAN TRAFFICKING

FACT SHEET (2017) , https://www.ncjrs.gov/ovc_archives/ncvrw/2017/images/en_artwork/Fact_Sheets/

2017NCVRW_HumanTrafficking_508.pdf (noting that it is estimated that approximately one-third of

sex trafficking cases involve children) (citing NAT’L HUMAN TRAFFICKING RESOURCE CTR., DATA

BREAKDOWN 2015 (2016), https://humantraffickinghotline.org/resources/2015-nhtrc-annual-report).

5. U.S. DEP’T OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERV., HUMAN TRAFFICKING FACT SHEET (2004), https://www.

hsdl.org/?abstract&did=23329 (“After drug dealing, human trafficking is tied with the illegal arms

industry as the second largest criminal industry in the world today, and it is the fastest growing.”).

6. International Labor Organization, Econ. of Force Labour, (May 20, 2014), https://www.ilo.org/

global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_243201/lang–en/index.htm (noting that the International

Labor Organization estimated that forced labor human trafficking generates annual profits of 150 billion

US dollars in 2014).

534 THE GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF GENDER AND THE LAW [Vol. XXII:533