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Thursday, February 14, 2008
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SAFEHS Wishes everyone a SAFE V-Day by Being Internet SAFE!
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Excerpts from: Technology Is a Double-Edged Sword:
This blog has excerpts that highlight how internet trafficking has become an important issue of the 21st century especially with its increasing use around the globe.
To read a full length of this article, visit:
http://www.crime-research.org/articles/Mohamed2
Technology Is a Double-Edged Sword: Illegal Human Trafficking in the Information Age
Date: March 05, 2005
Source: Computer Crime Research Center
By: Judge Mohamed CHAWKI and Dr. Mohamed WAHAB
Introduction
Trafficking in human beings is a major concern for the global community. The introduction, growth, and utilisation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been accompanied by an increase in illegal exploitation and abuse of technology for criminal activities. With respect to cyberspace, the Internet is increasingly used as a tool and medium by transnational organised crime. Human trafficking is an obvious form of organised crime that has been affected by the global revolution in ICT. This form of illegal trafficking is not exclusive to sexual exploitation with respect to women or children trafficking but also covers indentured servitude and child labour. This new form of slavery violates fundamental and basic human rights and freedoms, and transcends national boundaries and territories to negatively impact on numerous countries across the globe. It is estimated that over 900,000 people are being trafficked every year.
This illicit activity is also connected with other forms of transnational criminal behavior such as corruption, fraud, coercion, and money laundering. Thus, there is persisting need for international cooperation, especially between countries of origin, transit, and destination to stamp out such illicit activities and protect the fundamental rights of powerless victims.
Although new techniques are constantly being implemented and regulations being adopted to combat and eradicate diverse forms of human trafficking, yet ICTs are also providing new means and tools that facilitate human trafficking, especially for sexual exploitation. On such a basis, these new forms of organised crime present new challenges to lawmakers, law enforcement agencies, and transnational human rights organisations. This necessitates the existence of an effective supra-national as well as domestic mechanisms that monitor the utilisation of ICT for criminal activities and uphold essential human rights and freedoms.
Accordingly, this white paper seeks to address and analyse the following issues: Firstly, the impact of ICTs on trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and the techniques used. Secondly, an analysis of the existing legislative and regulatory framework and their efficiency in combating this form of cross-border organised crime will be provided, taking the European Union as a case study. Finally, the paper will conclude by discussing the steps that should be taken to protect human rights and minimise the risk of utilising ICTs in illegal criminal activities, especially with respect to human trafficking.
I. The Use of the ICTs in Trafficking in Human Beings
A) A Study of the Phenomenon
1) Understanding the Concept of Trafficking in Human Beings
Many different definitions of trafficking in human beings have been suggested by scholars, domestic law, and international agreements. Amongst the most influential definitions, is the one offered by the United Nations protocol to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking in persons especially women and children supplementing the United Nations convention against transnational organised crime takes the term trafficking in human beings to mean :
“The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs”.
We should notice that trafficking is not Smuggling. Smuggling is generally voluntary, where a person agrees to be trans-ported, usually across a border. The relationship between the smuggler and the person being smuggled usually ends when the border is crossed. Smuggling fees are paid up front or perhaps upon arrival. On the other hand, trafficking is not voluntary: trafficked persons are lied to, tricked and may be forced into crossing a border. The relationship between the transporter and the victim continues well after they reach the destination. The trafficker holds the victim’s documents, threatens them or their family if they do not obey him. Traffickers impose large debts on victims of trafficking for ‘transportation’ and force victims to work off these debts. Smuggling can turn into trafficking when the smuggler uses threats of harm or coercion against the person smuggled or ‘sells’ the person and transport debt to a trafficker.
2) Human Factor
The use of ICTs in trafficking in human beings involves the utilisation of computers and / or networks. However, as sophisticated as technology had become and as fascinating as the science of artificial intelligence (AI) might be, we are not yet at the point where computers can-by themselves-engage in criminal activity. The machines are wonderfully compliant and totally amoral. Trafficking in human beings by the use of ICTs always involves at least one human being who plans, prepares, and initiates the criminal act.
a) Understanding the Traffickers
Traffickers may be freelancers or members of organized criminal networks. They may recruit and find potential victims through advertisements in local newspapers offering good jobs at high pay in exciting cities or use fraudulent travel, modeling and matchmaking agencies to lure unsuspecting young men and women into trafficking schemes. A trafficker may be a family friend or someone well-known within the community who is able to convince the families that their children will be safer and better taken care of in a new place. Traffickers often mislead parents into believing that their children will be taught a useful skill or trade - but the children end up enslaved in small shops, on farms, or in domestic servitude. Many types of traffickers depend on the use of a computer network to accomplish the criminals act. In such cases, technology is directly used to commit the crime.
b) The Victims
Victims include: men, women and children, although most agree that women and children are more often victims of trafficking. Generally, traffickers prey on those most vulnerable: people who are very poor, who have disabilities, the very young or old, people who have low literacy skills and educational levels, or people who cannot speak English. Women are lured by promises of employment as shopkeepers, maids, nannies, or waitresses but then find themselves forced into prostitution upon arrival to their destination. Many victims are unaware that their travel documents will be seized, they will have to repay an enormous debt, or that they will be subject to brutal beatings if their earnings are unsatisfactory. These victims do not know how to escape the violence or where to go for help. The victims generally avoid authorities out of fear of being jailed or deported, especially if they have fraudulent documents. Traffickers often move victims from their home communities to other areas -- within their country or to foreign countries -- where the victim is often isolated, unable to speak the language and unfamiliar with the culture. Most importantly, the victims lose their support network of family and friends, thus making them more vulnerable to the traffickers’ demands and threats.
c) The Users in ICTs Supported Trafficking
Actually, we limited the analysis of the users to collectors of child pornography, stalkers and buyers. Some of the distributors of pornography on the Internet started off as collectors, and then decided to profit from their collections. Other sex offenders such as pedophiles can engage children on many levels, from sexual talk to enticing
them into physical contact. Lastly there are those who buy women and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
1. Collectors of Pornographic Materials
Acquiring a computer and accessing the Internet enables to get satisfaction from images and fantasy and meet a virtual community of people who reinforce their behavior. They may develop a sense of confidence in themselves for their new computer skills and success at building a large collection. Most start out accessing adult pornography, and then move on to child pornography. They continually move up to more sophisticated technologies and more extreme forms of sexual exploitation of children, either in seeking more harmful, extreme images, or the physical sexual abuse of children. Collecting these materials is an important psychological process and is directly connected to acquiring new technological skills. The offender becomes increasingly “empowered” by the combination of a physical collection, sexual satisfaction, computer skills and a supportive online community.
2. The Stalkers
In fact the Internet has become a favored site for stalking children. Sex offender can engage children on many levels, from sexual chat to enticing them into physical contact. The many ways of disguising a person's identity has allowed many child sex stalkers to commit sex crimes against children with impunity. During a three year Internet law enforcement project, conducted by the Keene Police Department, New Hampshire, USA, 200 offenders were arrested who targeted male children. In this project, police officers entered chat rooms and newsgroups pretending to be boys. Forty-eight of those men were “travellers,” meaning they stalked boys online and eventually travelled to meet. They stalked boys online and eventually travelled to meet them. They ranged in age from 17 to 56, with a mean age of 35, and the following age distribution: 17 to29 (38%), 30s (25%), 40s (27%), and 50s (10%). Most, but not all, of these stalkers collected child pornography. Four of the men travelled internationally from Canada, Netherlands and Norway, and the others travelled from 10 different states in the United States. A few of the stalkers sent money, bus or airline tickets for the boys to use to run away and meet them.
3. The Buyers
Those who use the Internet to search for women trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation seem to be mostly traveling businessmen, local men reporting on local prostitution, or students. Some of them say they consult newsgroups or Web sites before they travel and even print out the information to take with them. Some of the men write about their experiences buying women for the purpose of sexual exploitation as a way of reliving the experience. Some include a lot of graphic details that indicate they are getting enjoyment out of reliving the experience through writing about it.
B) The Scope of the Phenomenon
Having defined the concept of trafficking in women, it becomes necessary to determine the scope of the problem. This involves examination of not only the number of human beings trafficked each year, but also their characteristics, what makes them vulnerable to being manipulated ,where they are coming from, and what conditions they suffer once in this situation.
1) Prerequisites of Trafficking
In fact, the main reasons for trafficking in human beings are economic. After the fall of the communist bloc, there were economic crises in most of the countries of South East Europe. The high number of unemployed caused great difficulties for families. They were in dire need for jobs and financial resources. Thus, the fell victims to trafficking of human beings. Secondly, there are educational reasons, especially the lack of an appropriate level of education. Most of the victims of trafficking are poor and not well educated. Today, women are mainly trafficked from South to North, from South to South and from East to West. The flows are from poorer countries to countries where the standard of living for an average person is relatively higher. The fact that lesser developed countries, populations are used for trafficking supports the recognition of a right to development as a human right. Trafficking is linked with forced prostitution that follows false promises of well-paid jobs. The seemingly economic hopelessness in the Newly Independent States, transitional economies opened what experts call the most lucrative market of all to Russian criminal gangs. Law-enforcement officials and relief groups all agree that Ukrainian and Russian women are now the most valuable in the trade. Although accurate statistics are difficult to find, the United Nations estimates that 4 million people throughout the world are trafficked each year.
2) The Magnitude of this Phenomenon
Concerning trafficking in children and women for sexual exploitation in Europe, two geographical areas merit a mention. The Western and the Northern parts of Europe, which serve as destination areas, and Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union which serve as transit areas and a source. In Western Europe alone, the International Organisation for Migration estimates that around 500,000 women per year are trafficked from poorer regions in the world.
- A recent U.S. Government estimate indicates that approximately 800,000- 900,000 people annually are trafficked across international borders worldwide and between 18,000 and 20,000 of those victims are trafficked into the United States. This estimate includes men, women, and children trafficked into forced labor and sexual exploitation as defined in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. This estimate does not include internal trafficking. The new figures were generated from a database that examined reports of specific trafficking incidents, counts of repatriated victims, estimates for victims worldwide, and victim demographics derived from analysis of information from press, governments, non-governmental and international organizations, and academic reports from 2000 to the present.
- In Europe, an increasing portion of the trafficked women comes from the former socialist countries. A growing amount of women who want to search for work abroad are deceived by traffickers into leaving their countries, believing that they will work as dancers or hostesses, or even as prostitutes, but instead end up living under slave-like conditions where their fundamental human rights are violated. For criminal groups, trafficking in women is very profitable with revenues more than seven billion dollars annually from trafficking in human beings.
- According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and the U.S. State Department, 700,000 to 2 million people, the majority of them women and children, are trafficked each year across international borders. Thirty-five percent are under the age of 18.
- According to the IOM, the majority of these victims come from Asia, with more than 225,000 arriving annually from Southeast Asia and more than 150,000 from South Asia. The former Soviet Union has become the largest new source of forced prostitution with 100,000 trafficked each year from the New Independent States. More than 75,000 are trafficked from Eastern Europe, 100,000 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and over 50,000 from Africa. Most of the victims are sent to large cities, vacation or tourist areas, or military bases in Asia, the Middle East, Western Europe, and North America.
C) The Use of New Technologies in Human Trafficking
The world’s transition into an information society is being marked by profound developments in all aspects of human life: in work, education and leisure, in government, industry and trade. The new information and communication technologies are having a revolutionary and fundamental impact on our economies and societies. The success of the information society is important for developing, competitiveness and employment opportunities, and has far- reaching economic, social and legal implications. Information and communication infrastructures have become critical parts of our economies. Nevertheless, the exploitation of ICTs for criminal activities is a Sid effect. These criminal activities may take a large variety of forms and may cross many borders. Although, for a number of reasons, there are no reliable statistics, there is little doubt that these offences constitute a threat to industry investment and assets, and to safety and confidence in the information society. The universal digital accessibility opens up new opportunities for the unscrupulous. There is scope for action both in terms of preventing criminal activity by enhancing the security of information infrastructures and by ensuring that the law enforcement authorities have the appropriate means to act, whilst fully respecting the fundamental rights of individuals. With respect to this impact of technology, a question that arises is to determine whether the concept of trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation necessarily involves physical movement, or also includes attention online exploitation of virtual images of people.
1) ITCs and Sexual Exploitation
In fact, various kinds of technology means can be used for the purpose of sexual exploitation - either by individuals for their own private use or by persons or groups using the Internet as a commercial tool, to promote and sell images or services. Technical aspects are crucial for the development of sites which exploit all the technical possibilities of the Internet. Often, the geographical location of the server exerts a negative impact on jurisdiction and legal issues. The, the main techniques that are used worldwide involve:
a) Mainstream Communications
Like cable TV, which can be used in connection with trafficking of women and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Images made using trafficked women may be transmitted to viewers through these venues. New cable Networks use satellite transmission to deliver hundreds of channels and pay-per-view delivers content on demand. Cable companies consider that the more sexually explicit the content the greater the demand.
According to Paul FISHBEIN, owner of Adult Video News “There are many outlets, that even if you spend just $ 15,000 and two days – and put in some plot and good-looking people and decent sex – you can get satellite and cable sales. There are so many companies, and they rarely go out of business. You have to be really stupid or greedy to fail”.
b) Scanners and Video Digitizers
They are nowadays used to change old pornographic images and videos into electronic format that can be accessed online. Digital cameras and recorders enable the making of images that do not need to be professionally processed, thereby eliminating the risk of detection. These new types of equipment also make it technologically easier for people to become producers of pornography. Digital media formats are no longer static. One format can be quickly converted into another. From one video, 200-300 still images can be captured and then uploaded to a Web site. According to an Adult Video Producer “Anyone, with a video camera can be a director – there are countless bottom feeders selling nasty loops on used tape. Whatever the equality or origin of a product, it can at the very least be exhibited on one of the 70,000 adult pay Web sites, about a quarter of which are owned by a few privately held companies that slice and dice the same held companies that slice and dice the same content under different brands”.
c) The Digital Video Disk (DVD)
Videos of sexually exploited and trafficked victims can be shot from multiple angles, and copied on DVDs for distribution and online accessibility. Viewers can interact with DVD movies in much the same way they do with video games, giving them a more active role. According to a producer:
“If a viewer wants something different, we give it to him. The viewer can go inside the head of the person having sex with [name deleted], male or female. He can choose which character to follow. He can re-edit the movie. It’s a great technology”.
Although technologies like this have many applications and enable creativity and interactivity, when used in pornographic films, these raise the question of the impact on people and expectations about relationships. A portion of men who practice the illegal trafficking in women do so either because their lack of social skills or their misogynistic attitudes prevent them from establishing relationships with their peers.
d) The Internet Applications and Services
This help in the transfer of files, images and videos across geographical boarders instantaneously in an undetected manner. Accordingly most acts are committed with the help of:
1. Web Sites
They are considered the main factor for the distribution of sexual materials online. Moreover streaming videos can be downloaded or viewed with Web browsers. The most recent versions of Web browsers come packaged with plug-ins. The only country for which there seems to be a decline in Web advertisements for sexual materials is Sweden. The new Swedish law has deterred public advertising for adult entertainment. A Web site registered in Denmark claims it to have the “world’s largest collection of real life amateur slaves”. Men are encouraged to “submit a slave to the picture farm”. Graphic descriptions of extremely violent acts are included in the advertisement. A Web site registered in Moscow advertises itself as “the best and most violent rape site on earth”. It claims to have “Several Hunders [sic] of rape pics”. Subscribers are offered 30,000 hardcore porn images, 500 online video channels, and 100 long, high quality videos.
2. Peer to Peer Networks:
They are mostly known under the brand of Napster. Within this application, the Peer-to- Peer networking concept is used to share files, i.e. The exchange of MPEG compressed audio files. However, Peer-to-Peer is not only about file sharing, it is also about establishing multimedia communication networks based on Peer-to-Peer concepts or resource sharing.
3. File swapping programs:
The file swapping programs are used to search files on the network. With the help of this program, the user designates one directory on his/her computer that will be open to the public and another for downloaded files. When the user logs onto the Internet, he/she will be automatically connected to all other people running the same program. All available files are indexed into a large searchable database. When keywords are entered the request moves from one computer to the next returning links to files. This has revolutionized how computers and people communicate with each other on the Internet.
4. File transfer protocol:
FTP and standard Internet protocol, are the simplest way to exchange files between computers on the Internet. Like the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, which transfers displayable Web pages and related files, and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), which transfers e-mail, FTP is an application protocol that uses the Internet's TCP/IP protocols. FTP is used to transfer Web page files from their creator to the computer that acts as their server for everyone on the Internet. It’s also commonly used to download programs and other files to your computer from other servers. As a user, you can use FTP with a simple command line interface (for example, from the Windows MS-DOS Prompt window) or with a commercial program that offers a graphical user interface. Your Web browser can also make FTP requests to download programs you select from a Web page. Using FTP, you can also update (delete, rename, move, and copy) files at a server. This technique of file exchange can be used by collectors of sexually explicit materials of trafficked victims.
5. Search engines:
They can contribute to the expansion of sexual exploitation. Search engines are becoming more sophisticated and powerful in indexing the content of cyberspace. As a result users seeking particular types of adult entertainment, women, children, locations, etc. can find it faster and with more precision.
6. Chat Rooms:
The most common means by which sexual predators contact children over the Internet is through chat rooms, instant messages and email. In fact, 89% of sexual solicitations were made in either chat rooms or instant messages and 1 in 5 youth (ages 10-17 years) has been sexually solicited online (JAMA, 2001). Considering that 25% of kids online participate in real time chat and 13 million use instant messaging, the risks of such children, either knowingly or unknowingly, interacting with a predator is alarming. It is estimated that there are more than 100,000 chat rooms available to users world wide. Moreover those seeking to buy women and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation use these rooms to exchange information about location and prices of enslaved women and children all over the world.
In one case, a thirty-seven-year-old German man living in Greece contacted a fourteen-year-old girl from Florida in a chat room. He followed her Internet communication with letters by mail and telephone calls. After a long time of corresponding, he convinced the girl to run out from Florida and to travel to Greece to work. A woman met her, gave her a programmed cell phone and drove her to a local airport. The girl flew to Ohio where a convicted child pornographer assisted her in getting a passport and leaving the United Sates. However, the Police were able to trace the girl by examining the e-mails saved on her computer at home. They found her in Greece where they also arrested the German gentleman. He was charged with abduction of a minor with malicious intent, sexual assault and exposing a minor to improper material. Investigation of his home revealed child pornography of other girls.
(7) Pornographic spam:
Spam, which is generally considered unsolicited commercial e-mail, makes up about half of all e-mail sent worldwide. Much of it is deceptive, and costs businesses billions of dollars each year.
II. Analysing the Existing Legislative Instruments and their Efficiency in Combating
Human Trafficking
In fact, many countries have legislations under which perpetrators, distributors and peddlers of sexually explicit material may be prosecuted, trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation can be fought, even when such offences are facilitated through the medium of the Internet. However, the fundamental right to free communication and the right to secrecy of correspondence are intangible, but all too often, criminals misuse these rights to disguise the real nature of their activities.
The authorities and the police will always find it difficult to distinguish between these cases, and the fact that this takes place on the Internet certainly does not make matters easier for them. Hence there is a persisting need to give investigators more technical and financial resources and provide sound training on the subject. Even at national level it is no easy matter to deal with criminals who use the Internet, and it is all the more difficult if they are operating from abroad. Sentences may be passed in certain cases, but are rarely enforced in the countries in which such persons are active.
In most cases, the sole means open to the police is to send the incriminating evidence to their counterparts in another country via the usual Interpol or Europol channels. If the laws of that country permit, and if the actions are punishable, the perpetrator may be prosecuted. Children under 18 cannot give valid consent, and any recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of children for the purpose of exploitation is a form of trafficking regardless of the means used.
Experts also underlined that there was a gap between cases concerning children and child pornography, clearly prohibited by most European laws, where Internet content providers had been asked to close Internet sites, and cases involving trafficked adults or mail order brides, where the laws were less clear and the actions taken less effective. Even with the preparation and adoption of adequate legislation, the importance of establishing adequate means of implementing such legislation, which otherwise would remain only a token gesture, remains crucial.
The difficulty in prosecution of crimes committed over the Internet is not so much an absence of specific legislation, but rather a difficulty in applying existing norms to a technology that did not exist at the time the legislation was drafted. The transient and intangible nature of the Internet, as well as the anonymity and secrecy that communications via the Internet permits make the identification of the author and/or intended recipient of an illicit communication, as well as the collection of evidence, much more difficult and elusive. This is one of the reasons why government authorities, especially in Belgium, France and the Netherlands, now tend to concentrate their legislative efforts towards adapting procedural and investigative tools to the specificities of the new technology.
section cut -- about the E.U. Visit original to read
Conclusion
Human trafficking is a persisting international evil that transcends national boundaries in a manner that renders this form of organized crime a global concern. Human trafficking may take several forms including trafficking for forced labour, servitude, and organ removal. However, trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation is a major criminal activity and a blatant evil that should be effectively tackled on all levels. It has been seen that amongst the major reasons that facilitate trafficking are: economic, educational, and social conditions. Source countries are mainly low-income developing and under developed States, which renders human trafficking a manifestation of a larger development divide.
On a different note, the globalisation of technology and the revolutionary advancement of ICTs have impacted on criminal activity, especially human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Mainstream communications, video digitizers, Internet applications and services, and software and file transfer protocols are amongst the tools utilized by traffickers to commit their crime and promote their services. The increasing proliferation in usage of technology assisted criminal activity and trafficking merits further attention from the global community by enacting the necessary legislative provisions and implementing effective technological and enforcement tools that reduce ICT-facilitated criminal activities.
By and large, it is submitted that human trafficking should be subject to a global principle of public policy that aims at combating and preventing this form of organized crime through raising global awareness and increasing literacy rates, promoting economic development, improving social conditions in least developed source and transit countries, coordinating legislative efforts on national, regional and global levels, and establishing a high level global network of cooperation between national, regional, and international enforcement agencies and police forces.
To read a full length of this article, visit:
http://www.crime-research.org/articles/Mohamed2
Technology Is a Double-Edged Sword: Illegal Human Trafficking in the Information Age
Date: March 05, 2005
Source: Computer Crime Research Center
By: Judge Mohamed CHAWKI and Dr. Mohamed WAHAB
Introduction
Trafficking in human beings is a major concern for the global community. The introduction, growth, and utilisation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been accompanied by an increase in illegal exploitation and abuse of technology for criminal activities. With respect to cyberspace, the Internet is increasingly used as a tool and medium by transnational organised crime. Human trafficking is an obvious form of organised crime that has been affected by the global revolution in ICT. This form of illegal trafficking is not exclusive to sexual exploitation with respect to women or children trafficking but also covers indentured servitude and child labour. This new form of slavery violates fundamental and basic human rights and freedoms, and transcends national boundaries and territories to negatively impact on numerous countries across the globe. It is estimated that over 900,000 people are being trafficked every year.
This illicit activity is also connected with other forms of transnational criminal behavior such as corruption, fraud, coercion, and money laundering. Thus, there is persisting need for international cooperation, especially between countries of origin, transit, and destination to stamp out such illicit activities and protect the fundamental rights of powerless victims.
Although new techniques are constantly being implemented and regulations being adopted to combat and eradicate diverse forms of human trafficking, yet ICTs are also providing new means and tools that facilitate human trafficking, especially for sexual exploitation. On such a basis, these new forms of organised crime present new challenges to lawmakers, law enforcement agencies, and transnational human rights organisations. This necessitates the existence of an effective supra-national as well as domestic mechanisms that monitor the utilisation of ICT for criminal activities and uphold essential human rights and freedoms.
Accordingly, this white paper seeks to address and analyse the following issues: Firstly, the impact of ICTs on trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and the techniques used. Secondly, an analysis of the existing legislative and regulatory framework and their efficiency in combating this form of cross-border organised crime will be provided, taking the European Union as a case study. Finally, the paper will conclude by discussing the steps that should be taken to protect human rights and minimise the risk of utilising ICTs in illegal criminal activities, especially with respect to human trafficking.
I. The Use of the ICTs in Trafficking in Human Beings
A) A Study of the Phenomenon
1) Understanding the Concept of Trafficking in Human Beings
Many different definitions of trafficking in human beings have been suggested by scholars, domestic law, and international agreements. Amongst the most influential definitions, is the one offered by the United Nations protocol to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking in persons especially women and children supplementing the United Nations convention against transnational organised crime takes the term trafficking in human beings to mean :
“The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs”.
We should notice that trafficking is not Smuggling. Smuggling is generally voluntary, where a person agrees to be trans-ported, usually across a border. The relationship between the smuggler and the person being smuggled usually ends when the border is crossed. Smuggling fees are paid up front or perhaps upon arrival. On the other hand, trafficking is not voluntary: trafficked persons are lied to, tricked and may be forced into crossing a border. The relationship between the transporter and the victim continues well after they reach the destination. The trafficker holds the victim’s documents, threatens them or their family if they do not obey him. Traffickers impose large debts on victims of trafficking for ‘transportation’ and force victims to work off these debts. Smuggling can turn into trafficking when the smuggler uses threats of harm or coercion against the person smuggled or ‘sells’ the person and transport debt to a trafficker.
2) Human Factor
The use of ICTs in trafficking in human beings involves the utilisation of computers and / or networks. However, as sophisticated as technology had become and as fascinating as the science of artificial intelligence (AI) might be, we are not yet at the point where computers can-by themselves-engage in criminal activity. The machines are wonderfully compliant and totally amoral. Trafficking in human beings by the use of ICTs always involves at least one human being who plans, prepares, and initiates the criminal act.
a) Understanding the Traffickers
Traffickers may be freelancers or members of organized criminal networks. They may recruit and find potential victims through advertisements in local newspapers offering good jobs at high pay in exciting cities or use fraudulent travel, modeling and matchmaking agencies to lure unsuspecting young men and women into trafficking schemes. A trafficker may be a family friend or someone well-known within the community who is able to convince the families that their children will be safer and better taken care of in a new place. Traffickers often mislead parents into believing that their children will be taught a useful skill or trade - but the children end up enslaved in small shops, on farms, or in domestic servitude. Many types of traffickers depend on the use of a computer network to accomplish the criminals act. In such cases, technology is directly used to commit the crime.
b) The Victims
Victims include: men, women and children, although most agree that women and children are more often victims of trafficking. Generally, traffickers prey on those most vulnerable: people who are very poor, who have disabilities, the very young or old, people who have low literacy skills and educational levels, or people who cannot speak English. Women are lured by promises of employment as shopkeepers, maids, nannies, or waitresses but then find themselves forced into prostitution upon arrival to their destination. Many victims are unaware that their travel documents will be seized, they will have to repay an enormous debt, or that they will be subject to brutal beatings if their earnings are unsatisfactory. These victims do not know how to escape the violence or where to go for help. The victims generally avoid authorities out of fear of being jailed or deported, especially if they have fraudulent documents. Traffickers often move victims from their home communities to other areas -- within their country or to foreign countries -- where the victim is often isolated, unable to speak the language and unfamiliar with the culture. Most importantly, the victims lose their support network of family and friends, thus making them more vulnerable to the traffickers’ demands and threats.
c) The Users in ICTs Supported Trafficking
Actually, we limited the analysis of the users to collectors of child pornography, stalkers and buyers. Some of the distributors of pornography on the Internet started off as collectors, and then decided to profit from their collections. Other sex offenders such as pedophiles can engage children on many levels, from sexual talk to enticing
them into physical contact. Lastly there are those who buy women and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
1. Collectors of Pornographic Materials
Acquiring a computer and accessing the Internet enables to get satisfaction from images and fantasy and meet a virtual community of people who reinforce their behavior. They may develop a sense of confidence in themselves for their new computer skills and success at building a large collection. Most start out accessing adult pornography, and then move on to child pornography. They continually move up to more sophisticated technologies and more extreme forms of sexual exploitation of children, either in seeking more harmful, extreme images, or the physical sexual abuse of children. Collecting these materials is an important psychological process and is directly connected to acquiring new technological skills. The offender becomes increasingly “empowered” by the combination of a physical collection, sexual satisfaction, computer skills and a supportive online community.
2. The Stalkers
In fact the Internet has become a favored site for stalking children. Sex offender can engage children on many levels, from sexual chat to enticing them into physical contact. The many ways of disguising a person's identity has allowed many child sex stalkers to commit sex crimes against children with impunity. During a three year Internet law enforcement project, conducted by the Keene Police Department, New Hampshire, USA, 200 offenders were arrested who targeted male children. In this project, police officers entered chat rooms and newsgroups pretending to be boys. Forty-eight of those men were “travellers,” meaning they stalked boys online and eventually travelled to meet. They stalked boys online and eventually travelled to meet them. They ranged in age from 17 to 56, with a mean age of 35, and the following age distribution: 17 to29 (38%), 30s (25%), 40s (27%), and 50s (10%). Most, but not all, of these stalkers collected child pornography. Four of the men travelled internationally from Canada, Netherlands and Norway, and the others travelled from 10 different states in the United States. A few of the stalkers sent money, bus or airline tickets for the boys to use to run away and meet them.
3. The Buyers
Those who use the Internet to search for women trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation seem to be mostly traveling businessmen, local men reporting on local prostitution, or students. Some of them say they consult newsgroups or Web sites before they travel and even print out the information to take with them. Some of the men write about their experiences buying women for the purpose of sexual exploitation as a way of reliving the experience. Some include a lot of graphic details that indicate they are getting enjoyment out of reliving the experience through writing about it.
B) The Scope of the Phenomenon
Having defined the concept of trafficking in women, it becomes necessary to determine the scope of the problem. This involves examination of not only the number of human beings trafficked each year, but also their characteristics, what makes them vulnerable to being manipulated ,where they are coming from, and what conditions they suffer once in this situation.
1) Prerequisites of Trafficking
In fact, the main reasons for trafficking in human beings are economic. After the fall of the communist bloc, there were economic crises in most of the countries of South East Europe. The high number of unemployed caused great difficulties for families. They were in dire need for jobs and financial resources. Thus, the fell victims to trafficking of human beings. Secondly, there are educational reasons, especially the lack of an appropriate level of education. Most of the victims of trafficking are poor and not well educated. Today, women are mainly trafficked from South to North, from South to South and from East to West. The flows are from poorer countries to countries where the standard of living for an average person is relatively higher. The fact that lesser developed countries, populations are used for trafficking supports the recognition of a right to development as a human right. Trafficking is linked with forced prostitution that follows false promises of well-paid jobs. The seemingly economic hopelessness in the Newly Independent States, transitional economies opened what experts call the most lucrative market of all to Russian criminal gangs. Law-enforcement officials and relief groups all agree that Ukrainian and Russian women are now the most valuable in the trade. Although accurate statistics are difficult to find, the United Nations estimates that 4 million people throughout the world are trafficked each year.
2) The Magnitude of this Phenomenon
Concerning trafficking in children and women for sexual exploitation in Europe, two geographical areas merit a mention. The Western and the Northern parts of Europe, which serve as destination areas, and Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union which serve as transit areas and a source. In Western Europe alone, the International Organisation for Migration estimates that around 500,000 women per year are trafficked from poorer regions in the world.
- A recent U.S. Government estimate indicates that approximately 800,000- 900,000 people annually are trafficked across international borders worldwide and between 18,000 and 20,000 of those victims are trafficked into the United States. This estimate includes men, women, and children trafficked into forced labor and sexual exploitation as defined in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. This estimate does not include internal trafficking. The new figures were generated from a database that examined reports of specific trafficking incidents, counts of repatriated victims, estimates for victims worldwide, and victim demographics derived from analysis of information from press, governments, non-governmental and international organizations, and academic reports from 2000 to the present.
- In Europe, an increasing portion of the trafficked women comes from the former socialist countries. A growing amount of women who want to search for work abroad are deceived by traffickers into leaving their countries, believing that they will work as dancers or hostesses, or even as prostitutes, but instead end up living under slave-like conditions where their fundamental human rights are violated. For criminal groups, trafficking in women is very profitable with revenues more than seven billion dollars annually from trafficking in human beings.
- According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and the U.S. State Department, 700,000 to 2 million people, the majority of them women and children, are trafficked each year across international borders. Thirty-five percent are under the age of 18.
- According to the IOM, the majority of these victims come from Asia, with more than 225,000 arriving annually from Southeast Asia and more than 150,000 from South Asia. The former Soviet Union has become the largest new source of forced prostitution with 100,000 trafficked each year from the New Independent States. More than 75,000 are trafficked from Eastern Europe, 100,000 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and over 50,000 from Africa. Most of the victims are sent to large cities, vacation or tourist areas, or military bases in Asia, the Middle East, Western Europe, and North America.
C) The Use of New Technologies in Human Trafficking
The world’s transition into an information society is being marked by profound developments in all aspects of human life: in work, education and leisure, in government, industry and trade. The new information and communication technologies are having a revolutionary and fundamental impact on our economies and societies. The success of the information society is important for developing, competitiveness and employment opportunities, and has far- reaching economic, social and legal implications. Information and communication infrastructures have become critical parts of our economies. Nevertheless, the exploitation of ICTs for criminal activities is a Sid effect. These criminal activities may take a large variety of forms and may cross many borders. Although, for a number of reasons, there are no reliable statistics, there is little doubt that these offences constitute a threat to industry investment and assets, and to safety and confidence in the information society. The universal digital accessibility opens up new opportunities for the unscrupulous. There is scope for action both in terms of preventing criminal activity by enhancing the security of information infrastructures and by ensuring that the law enforcement authorities have the appropriate means to act, whilst fully respecting the fundamental rights of individuals. With respect to this impact of technology, a question that arises is to determine whether the concept of trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation necessarily involves physical movement, or also includes attention online exploitation of virtual images of people.
1) ITCs and Sexual Exploitation
In fact, various kinds of technology means can be used for the purpose of sexual exploitation - either by individuals for their own private use or by persons or groups using the Internet as a commercial tool, to promote and sell images or services. Technical aspects are crucial for the development of sites which exploit all the technical possibilities of the Internet. Often, the geographical location of the server exerts a negative impact on jurisdiction and legal issues. The, the main techniques that are used worldwide involve:
a) Mainstream Communications
Like cable TV, which can be used in connection with trafficking of women and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Images made using trafficked women may be transmitted to viewers through these venues. New cable Networks use satellite transmission to deliver hundreds of channels and pay-per-view delivers content on demand. Cable companies consider that the more sexually explicit the content the greater the demand.
According to Paul FISHBEIN, owner of Adult Video News “There are many outlets, that even if you spend just $ 15,000 and two days – and put in some plot and good-looking people and decent sex – you can get satellite and cable sales. There are so many companies, and they rarely go out of business. You have to be really stupid or greedy to fail”.
b) Scanners and Video Digitizers
They are nowadays used to change old pornographic images and videos into electronic format that can be accessed online. Digital cameras and recorders enable the making of images that do not need to be professionally processed, thereby eliminating the risk of detection. These new types of equipment also make it technologically easier for people to become producers of pornography. Digital media formats are no longer static. One format can be quickly converted into another. From one video, 200-300 still images can be captured and then uploaded to a Web site. According to an Adult Video Producer “Anyone, with a video camera can be a director – there are countless bottom feeders selling nasty loops on used tape. Whatever the equality or origin of a product, it can at the very least be exhibited on one of the 70,000 adult pay Web sites, about a quarter of which are owned by a few privately held companies that slice and dice the same held companies that slice and dice the same content under different brands”.
c) The Digital Video Disk (DVD)
Videos of sexually exploited and trafficked victims can be shot from multiple angles, and copied on DVDs for distribution and online accessibility. Viewers can interact with DVD movies in much the same way they do with video games, giving them a more active role. According to a producer:
“If a viewer wants something different, we give it to him. The viewer can go inside the head of the person having sex with [name deleted], male or female. He can choose which character to follow. He can re-edit the movie. It’s a great technology”.
Although technologies like this have many applications and enable creativity and interactivity, when used in pornographic films, these raise the question of the impact on people and expectations about relationships. A portion of men who practice the illegal trafficking in women do so either because their lack of social skills or their misogynistic attitudes prevent them from establishing relationships with their peers.
d) The Internet Applications and Services
This help in the transfer of files, images and videos across geographical boarders instantaneously in an undetected manner. Accordingly most acts are committed with the help of:
1. Web Sites
They are considered the main factor for the distribution of sexual materials online. Moreover streaming videos can be downloaded or viewed with Web browsers. The most recent versions of Web browsers come packaged with plug-ins. The only country for which there seems to be a decline in Web advertisements for sexual materials is Sweden. The new Swedish law has deterred public advertising for adult entertainment. A Web site registered in Denmark claims it to have the “world’s largest collection of real life amateur slaves”. Men are encouraged to “submit a slave to the picture farm”. Graphic descriptions of extremely violent acts are included in the advertisement. A Web site registered in Moscow advertises itself as “the best and most violent rape site on earth”. It claims to have “Several Hunders [sic] of rape pics”. Subscribers are offered 30,000 hardcore porn images, 500 online video channels, and 100 long, high quality videos.
2. Peer to Peer Networks:
They are mostly known under the brand of Napster. Within this application, the Peer-to- Peer networking concept is used to share files, i.e. The exchange of MPEG compressed audio files. However, Peer-to-Peer is not only about file sharing, it is also about establishing multimedia communication networks based on Peer-to-Peer concepts or resource sharing.
3. File swapping programs:
The file swapping programs are used to search files on the network. With the help of this program, the user designates one directory on his/her computer that will be open to the public and another for downloaded files. When the user logs onto the Internet, he/she will be automatically connected to all other people running the same program. All available files are indexed into a large searchable database. When keywords are entered the request moves from one computer to the next returning links to files. This has revolutionized how computers and people communicate with each other on the Internet.
4. File transfer protocol:
FTP and standard Internet protocol, are the simplest way to exchange files between computers on the Internet. Like the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, which transfers displayable Web pages and related files, and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), which transfers e-mail, FTP is an application protocol that uses the Internet's TCP/IP protocols. FTP is used to transfer Web page files from their creator to the computer that acts as their server for everyone on the Internet. It’s also commonly used to download programs and other files to your computer from other servers. As a user, you can use FTP with a simple command line interface (for example, from the Windows MS-DOS Prompt window) or with a commercial program that offers a graphical user interface. Your Web browser can also make FTP requests to download programs you select from a Web page. Using FTP, you can also update (delete, rename, move, and copy) files at a server. This technique of file exchange can be used by collectors of sexually explicit materials of trafficked victims.
5. Search engines:
They can contribute to the expansion of sexual exploitation. Search engines are becoming more sophisticated and powerful in indexing the content of cyberspace. As a result users seeking particular types of adult entertainment, women, children, locations, etc. can find it faster and with more precision.
6. Chat Rooms:
The most common means by which sexual predators contact children over the Internet is through chat rooms, instant messages and email. In fact, 89% of sexual solicitations were made in either chat rooms or instant messages and 1 in 5 youth (ages 10-17 years) has been sexually solicited online (JAMA, 2001). Considering that 25% of kids online participate in real time chat and 13 million use instant messaging, the risks of such children, either knowingly or unknowingly, interacting with a predator is alarming. It is estimated that there are more than 100,000 chat rooms available to users world wide. Moreover those seeking to buy women and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation use these rooms to exchange information about location and prices of enslaved women and children all over the world.
In one case, a thirty-seven-year-old German man living in Greece contacted a fourteen-year-old girl from Florida in a chat room. He followed her Internet communication with letters by mail and telephone calls. After a long time of corresponding, he convinced the girl to run out from Florida and to travel to Greece to work. A woman met her, gave her a programmed cell phone and drove her to a local airport. The girl flew to Ohio where a convicted child pornographer assisted her in getting a passport and leaving the United Sates. However, the Police were able to trace the girl by examining the e-mails saved on her computer at home. They found her in Greece where they also arrested the German gentleman. He was charged with abduction of a minor with malicious intent, sexual assault and exposing a minor to improper material. Investigation of his home revealed child pornography of other girls.
(7) Pornographic spam:
Spam, which is generally considered unsolicited commercial e-mail, makes up about half of all e-mail sent worldwide. Much of it is deceptive, and costs businesses billions of dollars each year.
II. Analysing the Existing Legislative Instruments and their Efficiency in Combating
Human Trafficking
In fact, many countries have legislations under which perpetrators, distributors and peddlers of sexually explicit material may be prosecuted, trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation can be fought, even when such offences are facilitated through the medium of the Internet. However, the fundamental right to free communication and the right to secrecy of correspondence are intangible, but all too often, criminals misuse these rights to disguise the real nature of their activities.
The authorities and the police will always find it difficult to distinguish between these cases, and the fact that this takes place on the Internet certainly does not make matters easier for them. Hence there is a persisting need to give investigators more technical and financial resources and provide sound training on the subject. Even at national level it is no easy matter to deal with criminals who use the Internet, and it is all the more difficult if they are operating from abroad. Sentences may be passed in certain cases, but are rarely enforced in the countries in which such persons are active.
In most cases, the sole means open to the police is to send the incriminating evidence to their counterparts in another country via the usual Interpol or Europol channels. If the laws of that country permit, and if the actions are punishable, the perpetrator may be prosecuted. Children under 18 cannot give valid consent, and any recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of children for the purpose of exploitation is a form of trafficking regardless of the means used.
Experts also underlined that there was a gap between cases concerning children and child pornography, clearly prohibited by most European laws, where Internet content providers had been asked to close Internet sites, and cases involving trafficked adults or mail order brides, where the laws were less clear and the actions taken less effective. Even with the preparation and adoption of adequate legislation, the importance of establishing adequate means of implementing such legislation, which otherwise would remain only a token gesture, remains crucial.
The difficulty in prosecution of crimes committed over the Internet is not so much an absence of specific legislation, but rather a difficulty in applying existing norms to a technology that did not exist at the time the legislation was drafted. The transient and intangible nature of the Internet, as well as the anonymity and secrecy that communications via the Internet permits make the identification of the author and/or intended recipient of an illicit communication, as well as the collection of evidence, much more difficult and elusive. This is one of the reasons why government authorities, especially in Belgium, France and the Netherlands, now tend to concentrate their legislative efforts towards adapting procedural and investigative tools to the specificities of the new technology.
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Conclusion
Human trafficking is a persisting international evil that transcends national boundaries in a manner that renders this form of organized crime a global concern. Human trafficking may take several forms including trafficking for forced labour, servitude, and organ removal. However, trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation is a major criminal activity and a blatant evil that should be effectively tackled on all levels. It has been seen that amongst the major reasons that facilitate trafficking are: economic, educational, and social conditions. Source countries are mainly low-income developing and under developed States, which renders human trafficking a manifestation of a larger development divide.
On a different note, the globalisation of technology and the revolutionary advancement of ICTs have impacted on criminal activity, especially human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Mainstream communications, video digitizers, Internet applications and services, and software and file transfer protocols are amongst the tools utilized by traffickers to commit their crime and promote their services. The increasing proliferation in usage of technology assisted criminal activity and trafficking merits further attention from the global community by enacting the necessary legislative provisions and implementing effective technological and enforcement tools that reduce ICT-facilitated criminal activities.
By and large, it is submitted that human trafficking should be subject to a global principle of public policy that aims at combating and preventing this form of organized crime through raising global awareness and increasing literacy rates, promoting economic development, improving social conditions in least developed source and transit countries, coordinating legislative efforts on national, regional and global levels, and establishing a high level global network of cooperation between national, regional, and international enforcement agencies and police forces.
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