Though some reports point to an uptick in human trafficking around the Super Bowl, experts are increasingly denouncing the statistic as a “myth” that detracts from a reality in which the crime is a problem year-round.
And on any given day, that crime is largely happening online. Research suggests the majority of human trafficking activity takes place digitally. A 2012 report by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimated that 76 percent of trafficking transactions for sex with underage girls started on the Internet, World Pulse pointed out. Those findings go hand-in-hand with a 2014 study that discovered 70 percent of child trafficking survivors surveyed were at some point sold online.
–
“Overall the introduction of these bills is a step in the right direction,” he told TIME. “We just wish Congress would include labor trafficking in their efforts to combat trafficking worldwide.”
Learn more about what you can do at the Polaris Project.
