Fighting Horrors of Human Trafficking with Technology Marissa Dever - MediaFile
go to original December 6, 2016

WARNING: This is a virtual reality experience where you become a woman who has been trafficked into slavery. It contains scenes of threatened and actual violence and is only suitable for people over 18. This is the story of Maria, a single mother trafficked from Nicaragua to Mexico. For the next eight minutes you will become Maria. To watch 360 video you will need the latest version of Chrome, Opera, Firefox or Internet Explorer on your computer. On mobile – open the video in the latest version of the YouTube app for Android or iOS. You can move your device to control your view. Created by Charlie Newland and Owain Rich (BBC)

Technology, like most things, is never wholly bad or wholly good. Though it takes a lot of criticism for helping to facilitate human trafficking, it is also leading a variety ways to help fight the practice.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has stated that human trafficking “is the fastest-growing business of organized crime and the third-largest criminal enterprise in the world” as of 2011. Aiding the organized crime, Reuters explained, was how sex traffickers are quicker to pick up on new technology than the government and law enforcement has resources to combat as it is now.

“I’d actually say technology in the broad sense facilitates and perhaps even increases human trafficking overall from what existed pre-Internet. Like drugs and child porn, humans are bought and sold on the dark web (and sometimes the mainstream web), though humans have been bought and sold in some manner for many thousands of years,” said Jessica Hubley, co-founder and CEO of AnnieCannons, a nonprofit working to train survivors of human trafficking in computer programming, in an interview with MediaFile.

Ashton Kutcher, whose own foundationThornis focused on developing digital tools to fight exploitation, has even explained on the Today Show how human trafficking is happening easily online, “just like everything else now.”

The BBC created a 360 video (above) about human trafficking in Mexico, inserting audiences right into the “horrors.” They are taking advantage of new technological experiences to highlight the problem and what contributes to it.

All this is painting a dark picture of the technological world. But this humanitarian crisis, which the International Labour Organization estimates has 4.5 million people trapped into sex trafficking, is prompting innovation to provide light in the darkness.

The aptly named Beacon of Hope is taking advantage of the Internet of Things - when everyday items are hooked up to the internet - to allow victims of sex trafficking to alert law enforcement of their location. The technology allows a small beacon to be hidden in tampons and sanitary napkins available at places like gas stations, rest stops, stadiums and casinos. When activated, they alert local law enforcement to the victim’s location. They can easily hide the items in a bag, in their shoe, or somewhere else on their person to keep police aware of their location without tipping off their captors.

Read the rest at MediaFile

Related: Human Trafficking and Forced Labor: Slavery in the 21st Century (El Universal)

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