Cybersex trafficking, live streaming sexual abuse, pp. 1–4. webcam sex tourism/abuse or ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies)-facilitated sexual exploitation is a cybercrime involving sex trafficking and the live streaming of coerced sexual acts and/or rape on webcam.
Cybersex trafficking is distinct from other sex crimes. Victims are transported by traffickers to 'cybersex dens', which are locations with webcams and internet-connected devices with live streaming software. There, victims are forced to perform sexual acts on themselves or other people in sexual slavery or raped by the traffickers or assisting assaulters in live videos. Victims are frequently ordered to watch the paying live distant consumers or purchasers on shared screens and follow their commands. It is often a commercialized, cyber form of forced prostitution. p. 43. Women, children, and people in poverty are particularly vulnerable to coerced internet sex. The computer-mediated communication images produced during the crime are a type of rape pornography or child pornography that is filmed and broadcast in real time and can be recorded.
There is no data about the magnitude of cybersex trafficking in the world. The technology to detect all incidents of live-streamed crimes has not been developed yet. Millions of reports of cybersex trafficking are sent to authorities annually. It is a billion-dollar, illicit industry that was brought on with the Digital Age and is connected to globalization. It has surged from the world-wide expansion of telecommunications and global proliferation of the internet and smartphones, particularly in developing countries. It has also been facilitated by the use of software, encrypted communication systems, and network technologies that are constantly evolving, as well as the growth of international online payment systems with wire transfer services and cryptocurrencies that hide the transactor's identities.
The transnational nature and global scale of cybersex trafficking necessitate a united response by the nations, corporations, and organizations of the world to reduce incidents of the crime; protect, rescue, and rehabilitate victims; and arrest and prosecute the perpetrators. Some governments have initiated advocacy and media campaigns that focus on awareness of the crime. They have also implemented training seminars held to teach law enforcement, prosecutors, and other authorities, as well as NGO workers, to combat the crime and provide trauma-informed aftercare service. New legislation combating cybersex trafficking is needed in the twenty-first century. pp. 201-203.
Terminology Cyber-, as a combining form, is defined as 'connected with electronic communication networks, especially the internet.' Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, including sexual slavery. Victims of cybersex trafficking are trafficked or transported to 'cybersex dens,' which are rooms or locations with a webcam. The cybercrime also involves the transporting or streaming of images of the victims' bodies and sexual assaults in real time through a computer with a webcam to other computers connected to the internet. It thus occurs partly in the physical or real world, as the sexual assault is real, and partly in cyberspace.
Victims Victims, predominantly women and children, are abducted, threatened, or deceived. Others are drugged. They are held captive and locked up in rooms with covered or no windows and a webcam. They experience physical and psychological trauma. Gang rape has occurred on webcam. Some are coerced into incest. Victims have been denied food, deprived of sleep, and been forced to perform when sick. They have contracted diseases, including tuberculosis, while in captivity. A number are assaulted or tortured.
Victims can be exploited in any location where the cybersex traffickers have a computer, tablet, or phone with internet connection. These locations, commonly referred to as 'cybersex dens,' can be in homes, hotels, offices, internet cafes, and other businesses, making them extremely difficult or impossible for law enforcement to identify. The number of cybersex trafficking victims is unknown. Some victims are simultaneously forced into prostitution in a brothel or other location.
Rescues involving live streaming commercial sexual exploitation of children by parents often require a separation of the minors from the families and new lives for them in a shelter.
Some victims are not physically transported and held captive, but rather victims of online sextortion. Minors are threatened, webcam blackmailed, or bullied to film themselves committing online sexual acts. Victims have been coerced to self-penetrate, in what has been called 'rape at a distance.' Others are deceived, including by phony romantic partners who are really rape or child pornography distributors, to film themselves masturbating. The videos are live streamed to purchasers or recorded for later sale.
Those who are of a lower class, discriminate race, minority, or other social disadvantages are at an increased risk of being victimized. The cybersex trafficking and or non-consensual dissemination of sexual content involving women and girls, often involving threats, have been referred to as "digital gender violence" or 'online gender-based violence.'
Victims, despite being coerced, continue to be criminalized and prosecuted in certain jurisdictions.
Perpetrators
Traffickers Perpetrators transport victims to locations with webcams and live streaming software. They or assisting assaulters then commit and film sex crimes to produce real time rape pornography or child pornography materials that may or may not be recorded. Male and female perpetrators, operating behind a virtual barrier and often with anonymity, come from countries throughout the world and from every social and economic class. Some traffickers and assaulters have been the victim's family members, friends, and acquaintances. Traffickers can be part of or aided by international criminal organizations, local gangs, or small crime rings or just be one person. They operate clandestinely and sometimes lack coordinated structures that can be eradicated by authorities. The encrypted nature of modern technology makes it difficult to track perpetrators. Some are motivated by sexual gratification. Traffickers advertise children on the internet to obtain purchasers. Funds acquired by cybersex traffickers can be laundered.
Overseas predators seek out and pay for live streaming or made-to-order services that sexually exploit children. They engage in threats to gain the trust of local traffickers, often the victims' parents or neighbors, before the abuse takes place.
Consumers The online audience who are often from another country, may issue commands to the victims or rapists and pay for the services. The majority of purchasers or consumers are men, as women who engage in cybersex prefer personal consensual cybersex in chat rooms or direct messaging.
There is a strong correlation between viewing/purchasing child cybersex materials and actually sexually abusing children; cybersex materials can motivate cybersex consumers to move from the virtual world to committing sex crimes in person.
Internet platforms
Cybersex trafficking is partly an internet-based crime. Perpetrators use social media networks, videoconferences, dating pages, online chat rooms, mobile apps, dark web sites, and other pages and domains. They also use Telegram and other cloud-based instant messaging and voice over IP services, as well as peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms, virtual private networks (VPN), and Tor protocols and software, among other applications, to carry out activities anonymously.
Consumers have made payments to traffickers, who are sometimes the victim's family members, using Western Union, PayPal, and other electronic payment systems.
Dark web Cybersex trafficking occurs commonly on some dark websites, where users are provided sophisticated technical cover against identification.
Social media Perpetrators use Facebook, Instagram, and other social media technologies.
Traffickers use fake job listings in order to lure in victims by creating fake job agencies to get victims to meet with them. These fake job listings typically take the form of modeling gigs. Spam friend requesting is a strategy used by perpetrators to initiate contact with the victim. Social media gives perpetrators the platform to hide their identity. Therefore, perpetrators use fake accounts to get victims attention. Most perpetrators pose as an attractive person who is living a lavish life. This is used to attract vulnerable users who desire those luxuries. Furthermore, younger people are more likely to be victims to cybersex on social media due to their lack of awareness. In addition, they are less likely to detect when their security is at risk. Perpetrators fake a romantic relationship with the victims on social media to exploit them.
Perpetrators will convince victims to perform sexual acts. They can perform these sexual acts through tools such as webcams. More common on social media is to send pictures or videos. Victims send explicit pictures or videos because they trust the "friend" they have on social media. The victims will do it out of "love" or naiveness. Others do the performances out of fear. They can be threatened with information they previously shared with the perpetrator when they befriended them. However, it becomes an endless cycle when they perform the sexual acts once. After victims do these sexual acts, perpetrators use it as leverage. Perpetrators threaten them to do more sexual acts or they will share to their family and friends what they already have of them.
Videotelephony Cybersex trafficking occurs on Skype and other videoconferencing applications. Pedophiles direct child sex abuse using its live streaming services.
Activities by region
Australia and Oceania The Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigates cybersex trafficking crimes domestically and in the Asia-Pacific region.
In 2016, Queensland Police Service officers from Task Force Argos In 2016, Queensland Police Service officers from Task Force Argos executed a federal search warrant at a 58-year-old Australian man's residence. The Australian man pleaded guilty to numerous charges, including soliciting a child for sex and having sex with a child under 16 years of age outside of Australia. Using Skype, the man conducted "live remote" sexual abuse, exploiting two young children in the Philippines while making payments to their mother. The exploitation began when the children were only two and seven years old, and the abuse continued for nearly five years. In May 2019, according to the Australian Federal Police (AFP), numerous cases were also uncovered related to Australians allegedly paying for and manipulating child sexual abuse. In November 2019, Australia was alerted by Child Sexual Abuse live streaming when AUSTRAC filed legal action against Westpac in relation to over 23 million suspected violations of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth).