Dangers of Oversharing on Social Media

“A guy sends you a friend request. You don’t know him, but he’s got a cute profile picture, so you accept his friend request. It’s your baby girl’s first day of school. She looks SO cute in her new outfit you just have to take a picture and put it on Facebook so all your friends and family can see. You’re so excited dropping her off that you ‘Check in’ to her school on Facebook. Meanwhile, the mystery guy whose friend request you hurriedly accepted earlier this morning is saving that picture you posted of your daughter in her cute new outfit to his phone and texting it to 60 other grown men across the world with the caption –‘American Female, Age 5, Brown Hair, Black Eye, $5,000. Not only did you provide a picture of your little girl to a

child trafficker, you’ve handed him the name and exact location of her school on a silver cyber platter...” (0)
Human trafficking, a term many have probably heard and paid little to no attention too, simply undermining the topic as a problem that only happens in other countries.

Sex trafficking is the second largest and fastest growing illegal trafficking activity worldwide; America being one of the top trafficking destinations. Making known and bringing awareness the seriousness of sex trafficking reveals the disturbing truth that there is sadly, but clearly a demand for such barbaric criminality. This raises one of many questions as to what has created this culture in which so many men are willingly eager to buy women and children (both, girls and boys) for sex. Furthermore contributing to a $32 billion annual human trafficking industry worldwide with $9.5 billion annually in the United States. The majority of U.S. revenue is accumulated during machismo-driven events like the Super Bowl; which in its self is said to be the nation’s single-largest human trafficking event. In the last few years technology has made major advancements allowing us to now effortlessly access a variety of information from the palm of our hand. Social media, the internet, and other networking technology make available traffickers the capability to more easily exploit, target, and connect with potential victims; as well as having a role in said pornography and sex

addictions.
Today numerous, vulnerable adolescence have unlimited access to social media and other internet domains; many underestimating the dangers lurking beyond their screen. “Thirty-six percent of the internet industry is hard-core pornography;” (1) and nearly “twenty percent of all internet pornography involves children.” (1b) The pornography industry uses different, sometimes masked, tactics to attract viewers; with no way to differentiate between child and adult traffic. Seven out of ten youth have been accidentally exposed to hard-core pornography. The average age being eleven; consequently to exposure of such explicit material their underdeveloped brain becomes psychopharmacologically altered. (2) Likewise, having the same psychological effect as a drug, in which a greater or more extreme dose is needed to get the same “high” as once before. That alleged accidental viewing slowly turns into a full blown addiction; a dangerous and detrimental addiction. “Porn sites get more visitors each month than Netflix, Amazon, and Twitter combined, bringing in over $3,000 per second.” (3) According to Porn hub insights (Pornhub is the world’s largest pornography website) “teen” was the most searched term in the world, both in the year 2013 and 2014. “Child pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry and among the fastest growing criminal segments on the Internet.” (3b)
Pornography not only harms individuals and families, but it is fueling the demand for sex trafficking. Pornography is considered advertising for prostitution in which it “normalizes prostitution and commercial sexual exploitation.” (4) Pornography desensitizes an individual, in time deeming the overt material as acceptable and commonplace. “Researchers have found evidence that viewing pornography contributes to violence directed toward prostituted women,” as well as “the frequency of pornography use has been found to correlate with frequency of purchasing sex.” (7b) Some types of pornography actually are sex trafficking. The viewing of pornography can lead to potential dangers of child abuse and/or becoming “Johns”; both of which distinctly coincide.
Adolescents who have experienced abuse, an unstable home life, struggle with substance abuse, and/or have involvement with child welfare or foster care systems are at risk for recruitment by traffickers. “Forty-six percent of runaway and homeless youth reported being physically abused, and seventeen percent reported being forced into unwanted sexual activity by a family or household member.” (5) Traffickers target vulnerable adolescents and in time lure them into sex trafficking, using to their advantage the emotional and physical needs of portrayed youth. Traffickers also referred to as/and pimps, manipulate their victim by fabricating an apparent loving and caring relationship in order to gain the victims trust and ensure loyalty. “In eighty-two percent of online sex crimes against minors, the offender used the victim's social networking site to gain information about the victim's likes and dislikes.” (5a) These relationships begin online further developing into a real-life meeting; traffickers and predators are masterful at deception. “With the young girls, you promise them heaven, they’ll follow you to hell,” a pimp convicted of child sex trafficking. (6) Traffickers and pimps not only desire power and control but their primary purpose, driven by greed and selfish ambition is to sell women for money; keeping every penny for themselves. “A pimp can make $150,000-$200,000 per child each year; the average pimp has four to six girls.” (6b) Prostitution is more profitable than the drug and arms trade. These predators are most likely just as broken as their victims; perhaps coming from broken families and abuse themselves.