On a recent trip to a foreign
country, I had the opportunity to meet with a leading law enforcement official of
a major city who provided a glimpse into a typical “global ground zero” problem
– a poverty racked slum area where drugs and sex intersect with the vulnerable
poor of the world. This location was one
of countless other locations around the globe that are incubators feeding
organized crime and terror. Here, the buildings were ramshackle, itinerant
men and woman, mostly young, mingled about in the shadows as drug and sex were
sold in a virtual open market environment.
From a security camera we were
able to observe in a matter of moments a potentially violent sexual act about
to occur in a public area. Police were
called in and the two were arrested.
But this small incident is one of hundreds occurring every day. Law enforcement can do little but standby and
contain the area and address only the most egregious of situations. In that moment, I had a realization. These areas of abject poverty are merely a
reflection of a greater disturbing global reality. This city in a far-away place was connected to
the US, and we connected to it in profound ways. It is
the money generated from the sale of illicit drugs, human trafficking and
pornography that is undoubtedly financing the continuing growth of increasingly
complex and interconnected global criminal and terror organizations. These organizations have worldwide reach and shadow
connectivity through the power of the internet.
Perhaps this is not a major revelation given that it has been printed
elsewhere, but it takes on a new meaning when directly faced with the reality
of poverty from the eyes of law enforcement.
For most, slums are not areas
visited by tourists, and in most instances great efforts are made to keep
tourists from “unsafe” areas and likewise to keep inhabitants of these from
secure tourism areas. This is done for
good reason, but in another way it does a great disservice because it hides from
the eyes of the well to do the reality of the rising criminal exploitation of global
poverty. Simply put, whether it is
drugs, prostitution or pornography, these seemingly victimless vices are hardly
that. They are fed by the exploitation
of the poor at ground zero.
After my visit, I conducted a few
simple Google Searches. The first search
was the name of the subject country plus the search term “woman”. This search returned numerous “dating” and “marriage”
sites aimed at foreigners. It seemed
rather obvious that these sites, for the most part, were thin veneers for sex
tourism. Any business man or tourist on a visit could seemingly
be easily arranged with a young woman for a “date”. I next conducted a search with the country
name in question coupled with the not overly explicit term for a woman’s chest –
a rather basic search that would be performed by any overly inquisitive male
youth in Anytown, USA. Google images returned literally thousands of explicit
images most of which were considerably more graphic than the search term implied. A quick
review of the search displayed several disturbing things. A subjective assessment of the first two
pages of Google’s image returns suggested that as many as 20% of the images could
contain young woman of questionable age – meaning a reasonable person might
question whether the subject’s age is over majority or the images were intended
to convey youthfulness. [Notably, Google
has listed several image removals in the return footer, but by clicking on the notice,
all were for DCMA copyright violations…from other image owners].
Following one Google return image
with a young woman and a man in an explicit act, Google forwarded me to a web
site which purported to be a blog. The site
titles were explicit and referred to “teens” from the geographic area in
question. I chose not to investigate any further. Rather,
I chose to pursue the underlying blog platform provider. But as I encountered this, it became clear
that young woman throughout the world offer an endless supply of victims for
this insidious industry and the poor are incredibly vulnerable. [Editor
Note: After a lot of researching to find
a way to report objectionable material to Google, I found that the Google
linked to the National Center for Missing Children (NCMC) -http://www.missingkids.com/home. I did report my concerns about the site in
question. But, this editor wonders why
it is so difficult to report offensive images.
I discuss this further below.]
Beyond the presence of the material
on the blog, the blog itself struck me for what is was in relation to the
problem at hand. It is a rapid web page creating,
editing and posting technology that provides a means to pump out illicit materials
quickly and make them globally available in an instant. Once
out on the internet, images are copied, reposted and linked to in many ways,
and automated search engine crawlers quickly find, index and make them available
in search returns. A review of the underlying
sex blog platform revealed it was created several years ago, and its express
aim is to allow for the rapid creation of sex oriented blog sites which cannot
be created or maintained on popular blog sites (A simple footer at the bottom of
the blog site contains a button to report complaints, at best a token effort to
avoid complicity with those spawning pornography). This blog platform is likely one of a great
number available. While blogging technology
is no longer deemed cutting edge, a glimpse into the power of technology is offered
in its ability to enable large scale illicit activities with relative ease. With new social technologies like Twitter,
Facebook and Instagram which allow photos and videos to be posted immediately
to the internet and subscribers to view them, the power to proliferate
pornography is virtually unlimited and uncontrollable. In a recent conversation with a board member of
a private Christian school and I was shocked to learn that there was a problem
with 6th graders and “selfies”.
Apparently, there were a large
number of young girls sending out unsuitable photos of themselves to friends using
Instagram. One
would expect a Christian private school to be an environment that encourages self-control,
moral behavior and boundaries, but the presence of internet connected camera
phones makes it so easy to produce explicit photos and share them, there are no
longer any barriers and in their absence even those inculcated with morals and
ethics feel free and empowered to abandon them.
It would seem axiomatic that for
every woman exploited on the internet, there are equal or greater numbers still
that are being abused through local prostitution, sex tourism, and human trafficking.
The presence of drugs serves to addict, undermine
and enslave the poor, not only taking what little money they have but serving
as vehicle to a criminal lifestyles controlled by their masters in exchange for
the next fix. For other innocents, the entry into this world
is not their own doing. They are forcibly
taken or fraudulently induced into captivity through friends and associates
working on behalf of local criminals often connect to larger criminal
enterprises. Often, the prospects of apparently
legitimate employment opportunities in the hospitality and retail industry are
used to attract low skilled workers only to find out later there is no real job
and they are to be held against their will and placed into prostitution. Using the stigma of sex slavery and also illegal
immigrant status, these young victims feel trapped in hopelessness, being ashamed
to contact family and friends and afraid to contact law enforcement.
So, what can we make of
this? The notion that pornography and
illegal drugs are victimless crimes seems to be fundamentally wrong. There is a clear nexus between criminal drug
activity, sex crimes and pornography.
Where one is, the other is likely to be found. The sources of these victims are found in places
of poverty around the globe. The victimization
is global in nature not only because the internet allows for global distribution,
but because internet connectivity and global commerce enables affiliations of criminal
and terror groups that can work in concert over large distances. The means, methods and opportunities are all
present with little to no barriers, and detection is difficult.
With respect to the United States,
the demand and use of illegal drugs and the unlimited access to pornography and
ability to shop for prostitutes via the internet serves to fuel these
destructive organizations. The internet
has placed the poor in far-away places in the cross hairs of web sites and search
engines and there are plenty of bad actors willing to exploit this at the
expense of the ultimate victims - the poor, young and helpless trapped in grinding
poverty.
While efforts have been focused
on making voluntary search filters available to users, it seems that the
problem is bigger than selective search filters. For example, Google’s “safe search” can be
applied and it will filter out explicit and obscene material with generally
good results. However, it is as simple
as changing a setting with one click to remove the protection. More
problematic still is that while we wish to avoid censorship and promote free expression,
the ability to embed potentially unlawful images in web sites and return them
in searches is a major concern, especially with respect to the exploitation of underage
children. There is simply no means
available to validate whether an image is the product of exploitation, whether it
involves minors, unlawful imprisonment, coercion or other unlawful conduct. Thus, as a general question, we must ask
ourselves whether the content has any real value or legitimate public interest
when weighed against the risks and harms present to victims.
One possible means of beginning to
control this problem is by blocking key words associated with images that are
intended to convey or suggest illegal content.
This would require search engines and ISPs to challenge the propriety of
content with a presumption that it should not be published if there is a
suggestion of illegal content. Another
means of controlling proliferation of illicit content would be for search
engines to establish a database of illicit images and video content, and to
provide the public with a prominent way to report illicit or suspect
content.
Overall, general awareness is an important
aspect of reigning in this global exploitation problem. While pornography has become increasingly accepted
and common place in our society, it has gained acceptance in the absence of
awareness of the human toll upon its victims in far-away places. Perhaps for those search engines that really desire
to make a difference, their advertising platforms could be harnessed to provide
counter-messages regarding exploitation, missing woman and other compelling
social messages that would make viewers think twice. It
would seem that technology has created a supply side problem and it is fueling
demand and consumption. The ability to
empower users to turn away by volition (through both blocking and informative technology)
will begin to put a dent in the global syndicates that derive financial reward from
these activities. Doing so is on our best interest because these global criminal
organizations and their increasing association with terror groups are ultimately
a threat to our own security.
