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Women and Children: Online Hot Ticket Items? Introduction Today, the buying and selling of women and children for sexual purposes is one of the most profitable criminal activities in the world. Each year, an estimated one million children enter the global sex trade. On the Internet, child pornography and enticement of children for sexual purposes are the most significant cyber crimes, and distribution of obscene materials is the most under prosecuted cyber crime. Tolerance of the sex trade around the world has resulted in increased prostitution, sex tourism, and ubiquitous pornography. These forms of sexual exploitation have devastating consequences for the health and well being of millions of women and children. Victims suffer from physical injuries, psychological trauma, addictions, and infectious and sexually transmitted diseases. For the majority of victims their survival is at risk. (Dr. Donna M. Hughes, professor at the University of Rhode Island) webct.uri.edu/public/WMS490_Hughes/ The trafficking of women and children on the Internet is of important ethical concern. According to a report in 2000, more than 40,000 sex-related sites exist on the Internet. Moreover, pornographic sites bring in the most revenues: "Adult materials account for 69% of the $1.4 billion pay-to-view online-content market, far outpacing video games (4%) and sports (2%)" ( Koerner, US News and World Report). In fact, some analysts believe that the growth of the Internet has happened because of the immense sex consumption taking place on the Internet, especially in pornography, sex tourism, and mail-order bride Web sites. In countries in economic crisis, governments are enticed to participate in the business of promoting women and children for export within the global sex industry and receiving the profits of their labor. Due to the fact that governments, traffickers, and Web sites are profiting handsomely from these atrocious online activities, there is currently little regulation and little interest in regulating these activities. Furthermore, the anonymity of the online perpetrators makes it difficult to punish those who are seeking these services. Major Issues The sex industry is promoted and facilitated by the Internet in different ways. There are four major issues surrounding the sex industry and online users. These issues include:
Customers of the sex industry use chat rooms, newsgroups, and email to share information about where to buy prostituted women and children, post pornographic pictures and videos, and broadcast sexual assault in real time. Pimps and criminal syndicates use the Web to advertise and display various forms of sexual violence, including sex tours, live strip/sex shows, pornographic images and movies, and escort/marriage services, and to recruit unsuspecting women for these purposes. http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/vaw02/mod3-2a.htm U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell discusses her concerns about the Internet promoting the sex industry in her testimony in front of the Foreign Relations Committee July 13, 2004: These online communities have been created without any community intervention or prevention of the violation of women's human rights. Before, men had to leave their communities to access prostitutes, pornography, or meet their future wives. Now, from their home, anonymously, with a click of the button, and often free of charge, they can view very violent pornography, purchase a mail-order-bride, and find out where to access cheap prostitutes who probably have come to the United States through the sex trafficking industry. The booming business of the sex industry on the Internet is linked to increasing rates of violence towards women and children. However, currently men are not being made accountable for their participation in the violation of women and children's human rights. Pornography and prostitution are not even recognized in most communities as crimes against women and children. A 2001 report by the Coalition Against the Trafficking of Women found: Eighty-six percent of U.S. women, and 53 percent of the international women reported being physically abused by pimps and traffickers. One-half of the U.S. women and 1/3 of the international women described frequent, sometimes daily assaults. Eighty-eight percent of U.S. women and 47 percent of international women reported psychological abuse. Ninety percent of the U.S. women and 40 percent of international women reported being sexually assaulted in prostitution at the hands of pimps and traffickers. As evidenced from the context of interviews with women, the research team believes that these findings represent underreporting of the actual violence perpetrated, especially against international women by pimps and buyers. http://action.web.ca/home/catw/attach/sex_traff_us.pdf Ways to Deter the Sexual Commodification of Women and Children on the Internet Patricia Hynes and Janice Raymond provide an important framework from which solutions can be considered. They present four fronts of response to the grievous abuse of human rights in the sex industry: 1. Investing in women's economic development and women's human rights to create alternatives for women. 2. Exposing the sex industry and its harm to women and children, while also providing services and protection from deportation for trafficked women (and children). 3. Aggressively punishing the crime of sex trafficking, not by criminalizing the women, but the recruiters, traffickers, pimps and buyers of women and children.
Rather than accepting prostitution as a job that some women need to survive economically, we can question why prostitution is the only place where mostly women can turn when all else fails. Rather than assume that men need prostitutes and pornography, we can question why so many men participate in a business the exploits, harms and risks the survival of so many women and children. We can continue to work across nations for women's right to sustainable work. Many government agencies and non government agencies invest in short term solutions for women in the sex industry that encourage women to stay in the sex industry, like negotiating for safe-sex conditions, passing out condoms, and HIV/AIDs testing. However, women deserve the right to humanitarian assistance out of prostitution and pornography rather than humanitarian assistance to keep them in. With this money, we can participate in creating measures that provide alternatives to sex-trafficking and prostitution for women and children. Furthermore, Haynes and Raymond suggest that women should receive fair, sustainable, and possibly legally mandated compensation as waitresses, receptionists, dancers, singers, bar workers, entertainers, artists, and GROs (guest relations officers) so that there is less economic pressure to engage in prostitution and pornography. Some important resources suggested by Hynes and Raymond that can be provided to women by governments and non-governmental organizations are access to credit, micro-lending programs, enterprise training, and other needed services.
There is a need for more medical care, shelters, voluntary counseling, and educational programs for women and children who have been harmed by sex trafficking and prostitution. A women's prior sexual history and immigration status should not be used against her. We can further expose the industry in developing classroom curriculum, discussions on emails, and by putting more information on Web sites regarding the human rights violations in this area. Currently, Dr. Donna Hughes offers an online course to learn more about sex trafficking which can be found at https://webct.uri.edu/public/WMS490_Hughes/. Another Web site put together by graduate students at Harvard Law School provides important information about pornography and sex trafficking that is called "Violence Against Women on the Internet" http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/vaw02/. A web site put together by Anti-Slavery International (based out of London) that offers excellent curriculum for the classroom can be found at: http://www.antislavery.org/homepage/resources/educational.htm#link2 People are using the Internet to organize efforts to raise support survivors, raise consciousness about what is happening globally when it comes to the use of the Internet for the trafficking of women, and call people to action. An important organization that promotes women's human rights by working internationally against sexual exploitation in all its forms is the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women http://www.catwinternational.org/ The site has information in ten different languages. CATW is currently working with NGOs in a human rights documentation project in Asia and Russia. They also have an online Library with many resources regarding sex trafficking. Two other important organizations working against sex trafficking are Anti-Slavery International http://www.antislavery.org/ and the Global Alliance Against the Traffic on Women (GAATW) http://gaatw.net/ The GAATW site is in four different languages, Chinese, Spanish, Russian and English. On the "Using the Internet to Fight the Global Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Women Violence Against Women on the Internet" site http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/vaw02/mod3-3a.htm, different ideas are discussed and several groups are referenced that are active in exposing, critiquing and taking action against the sex industry. Because of these campaigns, a site called "Welcome to Rape Camp" was shut down by the Thai authorities. Also, people have been able to track down the sites using credit card numbers; "One of the unique aspects of sex trafficking is how easy it would be to track down the traffickers through the information given over the Internet. By seizing, for example, the Internet files of a trafficker, law enforcement could easily track the people who used the services through their credit card information." http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/vaw02/module4.html Another site that lists different strategies for combating prostitution and sex tourism is http://www.arches.uga.edu/~haneydaw/twwh/traf.html#health Furthermore, men are also active in the movement. A list of men's groups can be found on http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/vaw02/module4.html.
More and more the industry is being exposed at the national and international levels. Currently,the following documents denounce sex trafficking: the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, and a supplement to that called the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, and the United States document Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000. The supplement to the UN document states that based on human rights, all women who are trafficked should be protected, not just those who can prove they have been forced. It is recognized that children do not "consent" to participating in this industry because they are under 18. However, for women, the issue of consent is not easily agreed on. Some people believe that women in prostitution and pornography is fine when they have "consented". These women should then take responsibility for their actions, which may been going to jail or being deported. Recent efforts in the addendum to the United Nations document argue that human trafficking is the recruitment and transport of persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation regardless of whether or not they have "consented" to the trafficking. Also problematic is the legal notion of "consent" is important in the creation of legislation. When women and children are being exploited and their lives are at risk, is "consent" a relevant ethical concern. Or is the primary ethical concern the violation of basic human rights? When brothels are discovered, are women treated as criminals and deported? What do the authorities do with the undocumented girls they find in these brothels?
Haynes and Raymond encourage governments to use the following elements in drafting and implementing policy at the national, regional, and international levels:
Current U.S. government efforts condemning the trafficking of people can be found at http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/46618.htm. A very recent report (June 3, 2005) by the US government shows maps with regional statistics of prosecutions, convictions and new legislation: http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/46611.htm. An organization that has put together information on sites dealing with different forms of violence against women is the American Prosecutors Research Institute (APRI), a non-profit research and program development resource for prosecutors at all levels of government. Information on different groups dealing with and documenting violence against women in the United States can be found at: http://www.ndaa-apri.org/links/violence_against_women_links.html#Anchor-INTERNE-18275. Interestingly, the Coalition Against the Trafficking in Women is developing a prevention project in Mexico that largely involves educators to address the problem of the trafficking of children from Mexico. The project consists of the following:
On the Internet, through emails, in our classrooms, and informal conversations with family and friends we can discuss the magnitude of the sex industry, the ways the Internet promotes it, and encourage people to think about the ethics of this industry. We can continue to update our knowledge on the three Web sites mentioned above for the Coalition Against the Trafficking of Women (CATW), the Global Alliance Against Traffic on Women (GAATW), and Anti-Slavery International. As more and more people understand the human rights violations committed in the sex industry, we can collectively take action on different fronts to stop it. Some of the fronts suggested by Haynes and Raymond are through legislation, economic development, and exposure of the industry. They provide many ideas about the direction of possible solutions. Furthermore, education serves an important role in exposing and encouraging critical thinking about the exploitation of women's and children's bodies in the sex industry. Informing our students about the sex industry may also lead to prevention of their involvement as abductors or as perpetrators when they get older. As educators, we serve an important role in engaging our students in discussions and action regarding one of the most profitable industries promoted and facilitated by the Internet. What can we do as educators? As educators, what can we do to engage issues of accountability? Unfortunately, in the educational setting, as well as in many other settings, subjects that deal with violence and sex are avoided and often silenced. Educators may not know how to discuss it, not know at what age to address the subject, and in what depth to expose it. However, silencing the discussion may have severe consequences such as: -women and children being more vulnerable to sexual exploitation because they are not prepared to defend themselves, -women and children not knowing who they can talk to about sexual assault, -the perpetrators of violence are not accountable for their actions because the abuse is silenced. The traditional and online classrooms are places where people can be engaged to think critically about how the Internet is being used to expand the sex industry. Professors and teachers can discuss the ethical importance of creating curriculum that addresses human rights violations against women and children globally. Teachers may also see themselves as having a role in preparing children to defend themselves from traffickers. In learning more about the sex industry, students become better prepared to participate critically when they are invaded by porn pop ups or pressured by peers to view the XXX Web sites. Also, children may feel better able to speak up in their communities about the violence they are experiencing or witnessing. Talking about violence helps students recognize the violence, and not be isolated in experiencing violence. Breaking the silence may also lead the environment to be safer because the violence is no longer hidden. Students can consider whether there should be pressure for certain groups to be more accountable than others. For example, how does culture, socioeconomic status, and access to the Internet define who participates as purchasers of the sex industry (largely marketed to the United States and Europe)? How does access to the Internet affect the women and children most exploited in the sex industry? Who has access to create the images that are being marketed? Educators can also consider with students how to work as a community, both locally and globally, to change the economic conditions that make women and children more vulnerable to exploitation in the sex industry. In the current context of globalization, how can women be provided more opportunities for employment that pay living wages so the sex industry is not the only viable option? How can families survive on living wages so that they are not tempted to sell their children into sexual slavery? The sex industry raises many questions regarding the ethics of accountability. Rather than avoid this discussion because it deals with violence and sex, educators can break the silence around important issues regarding how the use of the Internet has real life consequences. Considering accountability in the sex industry engages questions around the use of filters, invisible tracking, censorship, and access. Because of racial, sexual and economic exploitation in the sex industry, accountability cannot be discussed without taking into account race, culture, gender and economic status. Further examination leads to questioning whether criminalizing is the answer to make people accountable or pressure for more fundamental economic change globally. Considering the sex industry on the Internet allows for a critical analysis that is concrete, meaningful, urgent and very relevant.
Annotated Web Sites Resources for Adrian section (Freedom of Speech):http://antivirus.about.com/od/securitytips/a/plainttextemail.htm "Plain Text Email is Safer", About.com. http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/civilliberties/cipaweb/legalhistory/Law.PDF "Children Internet Protection Act" American Library Association. http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/civilliberties/cipaweb/legalhistory/remarkskranich.htm)
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/12/03/china.internet/index.html "China Blocking 10 Percent of Internet", CNN archives online. http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/09/24/china.clinton/index.html "China Rewrites Clinton's 'History'", CNN archives online. http://epic.org/ EPIC, civil liberties website. http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hilden/20030701.html "A Recent Supreme Court Decision Allowing the Government to Force Public Libraries to Filter Users'Internet Access is Less Significant Than Might First Appear", FindLaw.com http://www.getnetwise.org/ GetNetWise.com http://www.lawforkids.org/speakup/view_question.cfm?id=415&page=2, Law For Kids Website. http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/index.cfm Media Awareness Network Online http://www.radio.cz/en/article/39674 "New Internet Ethics Code to Change Czech Web",Radio Praha Online Newspaper Website. http://www.teenadviceonline.org/archive/ Teen Advice Online. http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. http://www.fincen.gov/hr3162.pdf Financial Crimes Network/U.S. Department of the Treasury-Patriot Act Information. http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women http://www.catwinternational.org/factbook/usa1.php Global Alliance Against the Traffic in Women http://gaatw.net/ Statement from Washington State Senator Maria Cantwell on a bill to address sex trafficking called the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act (S. 1455): http://cantwell.senate.gov/news/releases/2004_07_13_mob.html Dr. Donna M. Hughes website for the online class on sex trafficking (professor at the University of Rhode Island) https://webct.uri.edu/public/WMS490_Hughes/ |