Law enforcement in modern culture is greatly enhanced by technology; it would seem that criminals have no chance. Unfortunately, the same technology that dazzles the business world has a dark side…it can be used just as successfully to do harm.

Parents are aware of the dangers lurking near or around their children. Parents have security systems installed in their homes, children are almost always in plain sight, many practically do background checks on families who invite their children to play even for an hour, and while a parent may consider leaving a group of teenagers in a mall, you wouldn’t think of letting your child wander through a mall alone; these are just some of the precautions the nation has grown accustomed to. Amazingly, after taking all these precautions, the parents inadvertently allow the criminal element to sneak into their home.

“An estimated 10 million children use the Internet unsupervised. By 2015, approximately 77 million children will be online. With so many children online, today’s predators can easily find and exploit them. For predators, the Internet is a effective and more anonymous way to target and groom children for criminal purposes, such as producing and distributing child pornography, contacting and stalking children for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts, and exploiting children for sex tourism for personal and commercial purposes. a $13 billion per year global industry.”

Human trafficking refers to the transportation of people for forced labor, sexual exploitation, or other illegal activities. It is estimated that more than 1 million people are trafficked annually worldwide; some experts say it could be double.

Human trafficking has become a global business that generates huge profits for traffickers and organized criminal groups. Because everything is secret, getting reliable statistics is a challenge.

But even so, it remains true that many women and children, especially those from abroad, are lured into trafficking, pornography, or prostitution with the false promise of economic opportunity: a job, an income, a role in a movie, or even a spouse or a position as a nanny. Job offers are very easy to post online. People desperately looking for a job or even a temporary income are vulnerable; Sometimes parents have fixed the situation thinking that they are taking their child away from a bad situation in which the child can excel. Many of those who accept these offers from what appear to be legitimate sources find themselves in situations where their documents are destroyed, they or their families are threatened, or they are bound by a debt they cannot possibly repay.

Now, online predators increase their actions with less effort while staying hidden. Traditionally, people who place their sites on children as prey would have to search for susceptible children in public areas: parks, schoolyards, libraries, or shopping malls. It took a long time to commit to “winning over” these potential victims. This can be accomplished much faster and easier on the web. Children usually know to stay away from a stranger (and have a concept of what a stranger will look like); but the Internet allows predators to hide your identity in such a way that children fighting for their independence from mom and dad find it attractive. Children cannot see that the perpetrator is not another child, and many children are naturally trusting, inquisitive, or independent. These traits have always contributed to the predator’s success; but the information is easier to collect anonymously. Despite conferences at home AND at school, kids readily provide personal information in a chat room or in instant messages who don’t realize it can be quickly and easily traced back to their town…and eventually to them. Physical contact may never occur, but perpetrators have learned to lure children into the service in many ways.

Advances in home furnishings make every home a target and anyone a predator. A predator doesn’t have to be a sleazy rat hiding in a dark room with a computer. Anyone can start an online business. College students across the country do it every day. A minimal amount of technology is needed; the school often provides the rest.

Most pornographic SPAM is sent without regard to who can open the file. A survey completed by the University of New Hampshire specifically for the Crimes Against Children Research Center showed that “one in 5 young people received a sexual advance or solicitation over the Internet in the past year… [and that] one in 4 young people had unwanted exposure in the last year to images of nude people or people having sex.” of selling child pornography leads to another set of Internet-related businesses. Many aspects of technology contribute to the success of crimes on the Internet, some of these include:

Encrypted websites. Anonymous browsing allows you to search without leaving a trace of your browser, your computer system, your country, IP address, etc. You can achieve this by entering the address (URL) of the site you want to go to on the free anonymous browsing proxy site, and that site will retrieve the page for you and present it to you. The site you visit will not receive any information because the proxy will not have transmitted anything to it. People who want to buy porn can go undercover.

Web-enabled video streaming: With streaming video or streaming media, a Web user doesn’t have to wait to download a large file before seeing video or hearing sound. Instead, the media is sent in a continuous stream and plays as it happens.

Misleading domain names: These domain names are designed to trick minors into visiting an obscene website. Some examples include whitehouse.com (instead of gov) and hummer.com; these sites explode with pornography when children accidentally click on them.

Email Address Lists: SPAMers frequent chat rooms specifically to collect users’ email addresses (and one advantage is that they can learn about specific interests). Many may legitimately or illegally purchase listings and then obtain them from online profiles or yellow pages. Obscene or sex-related SPAM is then sent to minors and adults… but minors are less likely to check their email before opening it and be surprised or intrigued by the images.

The issue is sensitive to both sides of the trafficking and smuggling issue: the countries of the victims and the perpetrators. No country wants either side to be publicized. This secrecy contributes to the lack of stored data and the inability of law enforcement agencies to record patterns and catch criminals. The criminal side doesn’t care about this stigma, easily sharing information within their circle…gaining big gains on the good guys.