Volume XXII
Issue
3
Date
2021

Traffickers’ “F”ing Behavior During a Pandemic: Why Pandemic Online Behavior Has Heightened the Urgency to Prevent Traffickers from Finding, Friending, and Facilitating the Exploitation of Youth Via Social Media

by Nicola (“Nicky”) A. Boothe, Esq.

PROLOGUE “The guy was reaching out to a lot of girls all day long, one girl who is actually in a youth home, she had access to the internet, and he connects with her on a social media platform. He drives all the way up from Columbus to Toledo, picks her up at her foster home and drives her back down to Columbus, and then trafficks [sic] her here in Columbus. You know, 25, 30 years ago he would have never been able to connect with her, but, because of social media that connection was immediately made in over a few hours. . .He found out where she was and she told him, ‘yeah please come get me I want to get out of here. Footnote #1 content: Ohio Anti-Trafficking Professional, 2018; as reported in Ryan Kunz et. al, Social Media & Sex Trafficking Process from Connection and Recruitment, to Sales, UTOLEDO, 4 (2018), https://www. utoledo.edu/hhs/htsji/pdfs/smr.pdf (emphasis added).

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