Internet
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Leading Child Protection Corporation Microsoft Donates Software to Fight Child Porn
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Everyone's On Facebook, Even Human Traffickers
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Where to Buy Fair Trade Winter Accessories
Japanese "Junior Idols": Child Porn in Disguise
Published January 29, 2010 @ 07:00AM PT
Lately, Japanese police are playing the incredibly squicky game "Is It Child Pornography." Here's how you play: you find a DVD marketed to adult men, and on the cover is a 10-year-old girl in a string bikini, posing with her legs splayed and the most come-hither look in her eye a kid of that age can muster. The DVD consists of videos of pre-pubescent and young teen girls having pillow fights, eating lollipops, and doing other activities in minimal clothing. Yet no one is naked, and no actual sex acts are happening. So is the DVD child pornography? Yes.
DVDs like the one described here are generally referred to as "junior idol" films, and according to Japanese law, they aren't child pornography because the kids in them are not nude. But the Tokyo police department is still worried, because the age of the children in "junior idol" photos and videos is steadily decreasing. Now, children as young as five are showing up regularly, wearing tiny bathing suits and bending over for the camera. And while only G-rated body parts are actually shown, the way the children are instructed to stand and look into the camera is overtly sexual most of the time.
Child advocates in Japan have called for a need to regulate these publications and create mechanisms to prevent parents from exploiting their kids in this way. Many argue that while a number of the children in "junior idol" videos are too young to realize what's happening, once they grow up enough to understand that images of them were used without their knowledge in publications meant to arouse, they might be traumatized. "Junior idols" might not be child porn to the law, they argue, but it sure is child porn to the victimized children.
Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher Launch Foundation to End Human Trafficking
Published January 25, 2010 @ 01:00PM PT
Freedom -- it's in our DNA.
That statement is both truth and a tag line. Specifically, it's the tag line for the Demi and Ashton Foundation (DNA), which was launched today. DNA's mission is to help raise awareness about and eventually bring an end to human trafficking, and it was created by Hollywood power couple Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher. You can check the website out here.
DNA is the next step in what has been a long and growing commitment of both Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore to bringing attention to modern-day slavery. Currently, the website is little more than a slickly-designed home page with some basic information, but the launch date is listed as today. So we can expect that DNA is in its nascent stage and will be growing soon.
One promising sign of such growth is a list of links to existing anti-trafficking NGOs, which I hope means that DNA plans to work with existing origanzations as a partner. And, in what has become Ashton's signature style, the site is thick with Twitterati and suggested people and organizations to follow on his favorite short-form communication tool.
But aside from being exceedingly social networking literate, what will DNA do? Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore are in the position to take their foundation in any number of directions. They could go the route that Lindsey Lohan took, blowing into India for a few hours and pronouncing all the children who braided her hair "saved" by the power of tea tree oil conditioner. But Ashton and Demi both have more substance than that. I think they have a mature understanding of human trafficking and are ready and willing to learn even more -- a valuable trait in a celebrity ally.
So what can DNA do for the abolitionist movement? For one, it can be a tool to channel the star power of its two famous backers into a number of worthy projects. Ashton has been vocal over Twitter about some of the scary truths behind prostitution, like the fact that the average age of entry is 13. He has the opportunity to be a role model for teens and tweens, both male and female, and help them understand the reality behind the commercial sex industry that is so often lauded in pimp culture. Demi, too, has the opportunity to use her status and career as a trendsetter. If she showed up at the Oscars wearing a piece of jewelry made by human trafficking survivors, what a run on that accessory there would be!
Human Trafficking and Money Laundering: Common Bedfellows
Published January 24, 2010 @ 03:00PM PT
Infamous mob boss Al Capone was finally nabbed and jailed on tax evasion charges -- not for the number of homicides, conspiracies, and other more serious crimes that he was wanted for at the time. Today, law enforcement agents who fight human trafficking are taking a tip from their forefathers who caught Capone and looking at creative ways to arrest slippery human traffickers. And one of the best tools for that job is finding and identifying money laundering, a crime which often occurs in conjunction with human trafficking.
Money laundering is exactly what it sounds like -- cleaning up dirty money. It's the name for the series of steps criminals take to make ill-gotten gains look legitimate. The term has often been applied to the profits of drug trafficking, but as the trafficking of humans grows in both scope and profitability, money laundering associated with the sale of people is growing as well. Traffickers need to turn the income they earn trafficking, like selling women in a brothel or exploiting the labor of farm workers, into cash they can legally spend and account for. So they use bank transfers, accounting tricks, bribes to public officials, and other tools to hide the source of their income. The good news is, all that laundry leaves quite a paper (or in these days, electronic) trail behind for law enforcement to follow.
For example, police brought down a trafficking ring of at least 21 people based in Austin, who were smuggling and then trafficking women from Central America into the United States. Law enforcement was able to charge 19 of the men involved (three are fugitives) with smuggling and forced labor, and they also used financial documents and information to charge them with money laundering. Having that information gave officers a reason to keep the traffickers off the street while they learned more about the forced labor and other rights violations involved in the case.
Want to Blog to End Slavery? Here's Your Chance!
Published January 08, 2010 @ 09:00AM PT
If you think you can do what I do here on Change.org every day ... well, you're probably right. That's because you're smart, committed, and savvy. And because blogging is, in many ways, the democratization of media. It's a platform for people who are passionate, whether about recipes or fly fishing or fighting human trafficking, to come together and share in a dialogue about what matters to them. And now, you can blog about human trafficking at the new We're Ending Slavery blog.
We're Ending Slavery is a human trafficking-focused, crowd-sourcing blog platform created by The New Abolitionist. Its goal is to provide a place for people who are working to end modern-day slavery to come together and share ideas, inspire each other with stories, exchange important information, and engage in a community of activists. And the best part is, anyone can be a blogger. All you need is a computer, a mouse, and something to write about. Whether you're a professional working with human trafficking survivors, a student just starting to learn about the issue, or a parent trying to engage with a group of peers, you're welcome to voice your experiences.
For the past year, I've felt really privileged to be a part of the fantastic and growing human trafficking blogosphere. However, compared to a lot of other social justice issues, there aren't as many human trafficking blogs as there could be. And while Change.org members have certainly used this blog to create some real and awesome change, we'll all be able to do more with extra information and a bigger Internet community.
So consider checking out the We're Ending Slavery blog and submitting something. Just click on the "Tell the World Here" button and start a writing. And I hope you all keep reading so I never have to answer that age old question, "If a blogger blogs and no one is there to read it, does it make an impact?"
Photo credit: katiescrapbooklady
The Rise of the E-Brothel
Published January 03, 2010 @ 03:00PM PT
Technology is changing industries all over the world faster than they can link their Facebook profiles to their Twitter accounts, and the commercial sex industry is no exception. Yes, prostitution is migrating online just like everything else. Say goodbye to the era of street corner pimps smoking outside Cadillacs while they keep watch on the women they sell. And greet the era of slick escort websites, carefully coded Craigslist ads, and online marketing of commercial sex. The brothel as a building, a bricks-and-mortar place to buy women and girls for sex, is crumbling. And from its ruins will rise the brothel of the coming decade: the e-brothel.
The migration to an online platform has affected each industry differently, from the boom it has brought for consumer electronics to the slow death of the newspaper industry. But what will it mean for the commercial sex industry, where the products are not iPhones or Sunday editions, but human beings? For one, there will be an up-swell in demand for commercial sex. The Internet radically changed the porn industry because it gave consumers instant and anonymous access to what previously had to be bought at a store or through the mail. I predict that the rise of the e-brothel will do the same for prostitution. People who wouldn't be comfortable driving to a brothel can now order women online to be delivered to their home, car, or hotel room, just like a pizza. And if this uptick in demand for commercial sex doesn't coincide with an increase in women willing to provide these services, you can bet traffickers will fill the gaps with children and women they force into prostitution.
Buyer Beware: Designer Impostors Fund Human Trafficking Rings
Published December 04, 2009 @ 02:00PM PT
If you've been trolling the Internet for deals this holiday season, you might have found some pretty unbelievable ones -- like Tiffany and Co. jewelry for $30 or Ugg boots for $20. But buyer beware! These designer impostor web malls are doing more than ripping off you and and some high-end corporate brands. They're funding human trafficking rings with cash from online bargain-hunters.
Yesterday, Scotland Yard shut down over 1,000 online shopping websites, claiming to sell a range of designer products at deeply discounted prices. The sites were run by a network of Asia-based gangs who offered online deals that were literally too good to be true. When a customer bought Burberry or Tiffany online with a credit card, they'd sometimes receive cheap counterfeit jewelry and sometimes nothing at all. As a bonus, the gangs stole the identities of some of their customers. But the true criminal kicker in this scam was that revenues from these sites were going to fund the gangs' other activities -- specifically, human trafficking and drug smuggling. Who would have thought that the Gucci handbag you got on "sale" for $50 would fund slavery in Asia?
End Human Trafficking's Top 10 Greatest Hits
Published October 29, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
In celebration of End Human Trafficking's 500th blog post this week, I've complied a list of End Human Trafficking's Top 10 Greatest Hits -- the ten most popular posts. It's interesting for me to see what you, the readers, have enjoyed engaging in the most. I hope to provide you with more of what you like. I would love your thoughts on this list and any suggestions you have for making the next 500 posts on the End Human Trafficking blog even better.
10. Sex Slave Training Video Game For Sale Under New Euphemism: I find a whole lot of disturbing nooks and crannies of the Internet in my research, but this has to be one of the most egregious ones. It's a video game that actually teaches young men how to train women as sex slaves. I wish I was making this crap up.
9. "Slave Next Door" Exposes U.S. Gov't Sanctioned Slavery: If you think the government stopped sanctioning slavery in the 1800s, you haven't read this book yet. And you should. The Slave Next Door tells many compelling stories of modern-day slavery in America, including one about U.S. government contractors using trafficking victims to build structures for the military in 2003. If you paid taxes in 2003, then that was your money they used to support slavery.
8. Children Are Sold for Sex in America's Capitol: My good friend and colleague, Melissa Snow, points out the disturbing fact that in Washington, DC, the capitol of the U.S., children as young as 12 are being sold for sex on the street, just blocks from the White House. President Obama, this is literally slavery happening in your back yard. It's time to do something about the taint of modern-day slavery in the U.S.
7. 7 Ways to Fight Slavery at the Grocery Store: Human trafficking seems like a huge and daunting issue, but we can make a serious impact as abolitionist with the small decisions we make every day, like what to buy at the grocery store. I list seven common items that are often tainted with slavery somewhere in the chain of production and alternatives to those items which are better for workers. The choices we make make the difference.
