EU – Risks of Trafficking in Humans on Sexual Services Websites – OSCE

December 1, 2023

Direct Link to Full 40-Page OSCE 2023 Report: 555441.pdf (osce.org)

Criminals misuse technology during all the stages of the human trafficking crime. One of the most frequent examples is the use of online platforms to advertise victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation at scale. Traffickers advertise victims on a variety of platforms, but the most commonly used are websites offering sexual services, escort services, and massage services, as well as broader ‘classifieds’ advertising platforms, advertising aggregators, hobby boards , and sugar daddy sites. Since trafficking in human beings is a financially motivated crime, online platforms play a central role in the human trafficking criminal operations because of their capacity to spread information to a wide audience and attract an enormous number of buyers of sexual services, which in turn leads to increased illegal revenues.