Cybersex trafficking

Victims are frequently ordered to watch the paying live distant consumers or purchasers on shared screens and follow their commands.

[42][43] 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;[16] protect, rescue, and rehabilitate victims; and arrest and prosecute the perpetrators.

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.

[9] These locations, commonly referred to as 'cybersex dens,'[11][12][13] can be in homes, hotels, offices, internet cafes, and other businesses, making them extremely difficult or impossible for law enforcement to identify.

[10][15][28] Traffickers can be part of or aided by international criminal organizations, local gangs, or small crime rings or just be one person.

[9][15][31] They engage in threats to gain the trust of local traffickers, often the victims' parents or neighbors, before the abuse takes place.

[65] They also use Telegram and other cloud-based instant messaging[57] and voice over IP services, as well as peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms, virtual private networks (VPN),[40] and Tor protocols and software, among other applications, to carry out activities anonymously.

[78] Using Skype, the man conducted "live remote" sexual abuse, exploiting two young children in the Philippines while making payments to their mother.

[79] In November 2019, Australia was alerted by Child Sexual Abuse live streaming when AUSTRAC filed legal action against Westpac Bank in relation to over 23 million suspected violations of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth).

[80] Jacob Sarkodee, CEO of IJM Australia, noted that this new legislation recognizes the contribution of Australians to the growing demand for online sex trafficking of children.

[81][80] Under the proposal made by the IJM, the new legislation specifies that those who watch live streaming of child cybersex trafficking will receive the same penalties as those who manipulate and direct the sexual abuse of children themselves.

[82][83] In March 2020, South Korean news agencies reported some details about Nth room case: in crypto-messaging apps such as Telegram and Discord, "at least 74 women and 16 minors performed "sex shows" online for global audience of thousands who paid for cryptocurrency".

[86] Girls as young as 9 years old were abused and exploited in "sex shows" that are broadcast live online to a paying audience, many of them are believed to be Korean men.

[86][87] According to Korea Future Initiative 2019, an estimated 60 percent of North Korean female refugees in China are trafficked into the sex trade.

[90] The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) investigates and spreads awareness about live streaming sexual abuse.

[93] The great Internet freedom[94] and low web hosting costs[95] make the Netherlands one of the countries with a major market for online sexual exploitation.

[96] In the 2018 annual report,Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has said that about 79 percent (82803 out of 105047) of the URLs for materials of child sexual abuse are in Europe, with the vast majority of them are Netherlands-based.

[94] IWF has reported that over 105,047 URLs were linked to illegal images of child sexual abuse, with the Netherlands hosting 47 percent of the content.

[11] The Office of Cybercrime within the Philippines Department of Justice receives hundreds of thousands of tips of videos and images of sexually exploited Filipino children on the internet.

[13][61] Rancho ni Cristo in Cebu is a shelter devoted exclusively to rehabilitating children of live streaming sexual abuse.

The Royal Thai Police's Internet Crimes Against Children (TICAC) task force combats cybersex trafficking in the nation.

[59] Authorities, skilled in online forensics, cryptography, and other areas,[32] use data analysis and information sharing to fight cybersex trafficking.

[39] Flagging or panic buttons on certain videoconferencing software enable users to report suspicious people or acts of live streaming sexual abuse.

[36] The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO-INTERPOL) collects evidence of live streaming sexual abuse and other sex crimes.

[16] Multinational technology companies, such as Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, collaborate, develop digital tools, and assist law enforcement in combating it.

That said, according to attorney Joshua T. Carback, it is "a unique development in the history of sexual violence"[8] and "distinct in several respects from traditional conceptions of online child pornography and human trafficking".

[8] The main particularization is that involves victims being trafficked or transported and then raped or abused in live webcam sex shows.

[8][102][41] The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime identified the cybercrime involving trafficked victims on webcam sex shows as an emerging problem.

[107] Terre des hommes is an international non-profit umbrella organization that combats the live streaming sexual abuse of children.

[36][28][108] The Korea Future Initiative is a London-based organization that obtains evidence and publicizes violations of human rights, including the cybersex trafficking of North Korean women and girls in China.