From Street To Screens - The Digital Transformation Of The Global Sex Trafficking Industry
- IJLLR Journal
- 1 day ago
- 1 min read
Srishti Saxena, LL.M., University School of Law and Legal Studies, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University
ABSTRACT
Due to the high rate of digitalisation of the world communicative system, sex trafficking that used to be physically structured, geographically localised, and a limited crime, has now become a decentralised, borderless, and technologically advanced system. This study focuses on how traffickers use social media algorithms, encryption tools, cryptocurrencies, dark web marketplaces, as well as anonymity enhancing platforms, to recruit, groom, manipulate, and monetize victims. By examining the cross-border structures, national regulatory reactions, computer-forensic and platform responsibility, the research uncovers that the current regulations, designed with modern types of exploitation, find it challenging to compete with the pace and magnitude of online trafficking. United States, Philippine, Indian, European, and global dark-web takedown case studies indicate the flexibility of the trafficking rings and constraints of the existing enforcement systems. Digital permanence, online revictimisation and coercive technologies influence victims on a scale surpassing physical rescue. Finally, the paper suggests that successful anti-trafficking actions should incorporate technological capability, cross-border legal collaboration, platform accountability, and survivor-oriented digital security to deal with a crime that currently exists in screens and not streets.
Keywords: Sex trafficking; digital exploitation, grooming, dark we, crypto- payments, algorithmic recruiting, digital coercion, platform liability, human trafficking, cybersecurity, victim revictimisation.
