"Virtual" Victims, Part Two: Promoting & Purchasing

By Marissa Brownell, Care Coordinator - Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Minors Specialist

In the second part of this blog series, we cover how victims are sold online, the most common apps and websites traffickers use and what you can do to educate and protect your children.

Both traffickers and victims represent all demographics, socioeconomic status, ethnicities, genders and races. For the purpose of this blog series, ESTN uses the pronoun he and him when referring to the “trafficker” or “predator” and she or her when referencing the “victim.”

Tiffany’s story (continued from part one)

After the first time Tiffany was sold for sex, she felt horrible and did not want to do it again. But at that point Chris and Lisa turned on her. They told her this is what she would be doing for them from now on and that if she tried to run, they would go back to Tennessee and kill her family.

Chris held a gun to her chest and told her that he wouldn’t hesitate to use it if she didn’t do what he told her. He took photos and videos of her and advertised her online using different apps, dating sites, webcam sites and “hookup” sites in order to maximize the number of clients per day.

He coordinated every deal, and she was forced to comply out of fear for her life and her family’s safety. They drove her through several states, making her live in motels and have sex with 10-15 men per day. This went on for four months until police caught them, and Tiffany was taken back to her family.

Currently predators seek minor victims online more than any other means. It is a quick and easy way to access numerous potential targets with little to no risk for the trafficker. Once they narrow down their target and acquire a victim through grooming, coercion, manipulation and trapping, they move on to exploiting them. After pursuing and acquiring their victims from various online platforms, the traffickers use other (or sometimes the same) websites and apps to instantly start selling their victims.

How does this happen?

There are ample online avenues traffickers use to exploit victims, and these platforms are always changing and evolving. For years, Backpage was the largest online U.S. marketplace for sex trafficking. It was a quick and easy platform that traffickers used to easily post advertisements and sell their victim. Thankfully, it was shut down in 2018. However, other platforms quickly took Backpage’s place. Instead of one main site to advertise, they have spread out amongst countless websites and apps, making it harder for law enforcement to monitor this illegal activity.  

Before posting advertisements online, traffickers generally take photos and videos of the victim, change their name and sometimes their appearance. Then they create an advertisement or profile that appears like the victim has willingly advertised herself and/or is looking for sexual partners. The trafficker manages the communication and the exchange of money, while the victim is sold over and over again against their will to buyers who are led to believe that these are willing participants.

Some of the more common websites currently used (based on conversations with local law enforcement and recent survivors we work with) are video sharing sites such as Onlyfans, Younow and Imlive. Sites like these allow anyone to appear live on camera (no age verification required) and strangers can watch them and, in some cases, even tip them. Traffickers use sites like these to force victims to perform sexual acts online and to profit from them. They can also use them to preview the victims for live buyers that may later pay to see and abuse them in-person.

Skipthegames and Megapersonals are a couple of the “hookup” sites that traffickers may use to post advertisements portraying their victims as willing and consensual adults. Again, there are no formal age verifications required on these sites, so minors are easily advertised by traffickers who claim that they are adults.

Dating sites such as Plentyoffish and Tinder are also used. Traffickers will create a fake dating profile and then arrange paid hookups. Other times traffickers find victims on dating sites through “online relationship recruitment.” I personally have known several victims who met their “boyfriend” on a dating site who later trafficked them.

Proceed with caution…

I recently spoke with an investigator that specializes in working with trafficking victims, and I asked him what sites are commonly used to target and traffic victims. Surprisingly, he said that the most popular social media sites (Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat) are also the most frequently used by predators.

This goes hand in hand with a report by Polaris, a nonprofit, that works to combat and prevent human trafficking and operates the national human trafficking hotline. Polaris states, “Among those most commonly mentioned in reports to the National Hotline are Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Kik, Plenty of Fish, OKCupid, and Tinder. In fact, in 2017, nearly eight percent of active federal online sex trafficking cases prosecuted in the United States involved advertisements for sex on Facebook. Other mainstream dating sites used in escort services referenced on the National Hotline include Meetme, Grindr, Adult Friend Finder and SeekingArrangement.com.”[1]

These are not underground websites. They are popular sites and apps and many of them are used by us and our children daily, without giving a second thought to who might be lurking in the virtual shadows.

What can you do?

The #1 thing you can do to protect your kids is to limit their online access and monitor their use.  

You may think your child is safe online, but do you really know what they are doing on their phone or who their “friends” are on social media? Are you familiar with the apps they use? Do you know who they are private messaging?

Just to highlight the realities:

  • We have had a client as young as 8 years old that was solicited online using an app geared towards children that their parents (and the average person) thought was harmless.

  • One client scheduled a meeting with someone she connected with online who she thought was a peer, but a 40-year-old man posed under this profile and arrived to the in-person meeting instead.

  • Another client ran away with a “friend” from Facebook who offered a place to stay, not knowing he was a pimp that would later exploit her.

  • One client went on a date with a stranger they met through a dating app and then was drugged and raped.

Sadly, there are countless more stories like these unfolding daily across the country. The easy access that predators have to youth online is horrific and much worse than most people would believe. I highly recommend viewing the video resource below that was produced by Bark, a parental control phone monitoring app that aims to keep children safer online. This gives parents and caregivers a better idea of predators on social media that target youth, and what it actually looks like when it unfolds.

Recently, Bark gifted End Slavery Tennessee with 10 yearly memberships for clients and their caregivers. We are excited to add this extra layer of protection for our youth! There are several monitoring programs available to you, and some are even free. We suggest you utilize one of these apps to help protect your kids and prevent the unthinkable from happening.

In addition to using monitoring software, having ongoing and open conversations with your child about predators and the dangers online will ensure that they can identify red flags and will seek your help early at the faintest glimpse that something is not right.

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