Facebook became a major platform for sex traffickers to recruit victims in US, says Federal human trafficking report

The Human Trafficking Institute has published its annual Federal Human Trafficking Report on the anniversary of the enactment of the Trafficking Victim Protection Act (TVPA), which made human trafficking a crime in the United States.

In 2020, 59 per cent of sex trafficking recruitment took place on Facebook, rising to 65% involving children. After Facebook, another platform Instagram and Snapchat popular among teens is being used to recruit children for sex trafficking. On the anniversary of the enactment of the Trafficking Victim Protection Act (TVPA), which made human trafficking a crime in the US, The Human Trafficking Institute has published their annual Federal Human Trafficking Report. Reports say most of the recruitments happened online in 2020, where 59% of the online recruitment in active sex trafficking cases occurred on Facebook. Facebook is becoming a more common platform for sex traffickers. 65 per cent of child victims recruited on social media were recruited through Facebook compared to just 36 per cent of adults. After Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat were the most frequently cited social media platforms for recruiting child victims accounting for 14 per cent and 8 per cent of child recruitment, respectively among adults; other top platforms were WeChat (43 per cent) and Instagram (7 per cent).