Artificial Intelligence In Combating Child Trafficking And Online Exploitation: A Socio- Economic Offence Perspective
- IJLLR Journal
- Sep 20
- 2 min read
Prerna Puthela, Lovely Professional University
Jasdeep Kaur, Lovely Professional University
ABSTRACT
Online exploitation and child trafficking are some of the most serious socio- economic crimes of the twenty-first century, which feed on poverty, inequality, and digital vulnerabilities. The spread of internet and social media has given new avenues to this vice where traffickers find it easier to recruit and groom children and use them. Conventional policing systems which are usually reactive and resource limited fail to cope with the transnational and technologically advanced nature of such crimes. It is against this backdrop that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be seen as a disruptive technology, with its predictive analytics, facial recognition, online content surveillance, and cross-boundary data analysis features to pre-empt and counteract exploitation. Nevertheless, AI implementation in the considered sensitive field is not unproblematic. Problems of privacy, algorithm discrimination, protection of children rights, and adherence to constitutional protection need to be closely examined. It is in the framework of the socio-economic offence that this paper critically explores the opportunities and constraints of AI to combat child trafficking and online exploitation and locates it within Indian and international legal provisions. It interacts with the laws like; the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences act, 2012, and the Information technology act, 2000, as well as international law, like the UN Convention on the rights of the child and the Palermo protocol. Using the comparative-based experiences of other jurisdictions, including the European Union and the United States, the paper will justify the adoption of a middle ground; making use of the preventative power of AI without compromising ethical, legal, and human rights.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Child Trafficking, Online exploitation, Socio-Economic offences, Cyber Law, Privacy, Human rights, Law enforcement, India, International Law.
