Behind the screens: Analysis of human trafficking victims' abuse in digital surroundings

Origi­nal post from Atina here

Report Behind the scre­ens

For orga­ni­sa­tion Atina, it is of utmost impor­tance that the voices of girls and women with the expe­ri­ence of traf­fic­king are heard. And not only heard but unders­tood and appre­ci­a­ted as well. That is why we crea­ted this docu­ment Behind the scre­ens: Analy­sis of human traf­fic­king victims’ abuse in digi­tal surroun­dings, which inclu­des expe­ri­en­ces of 178 girls and women who were using Atina’s support and protec­tion programs in the period from 2015 until 2020.^[1] Such a number of respon­dents in the field of human traf­fic­king victims’ protec­tion is an extre­mely impor­tant sample, and it should be noted that data collec­tion process was marked by excep­ti­o­nal moti­va­tion of these girls and women to parti­ci­pate in it. It is also impor­tant to point out that this analy­sis was carried out during the pande­mic, when a large part of global commu­ni­ca­tion moved to the digi­tal space, and the risks of violence and exploi­ta­tion incre­a­sed.

The results of this analy­sis confirm high preva­lence of abuse in digi­tal surroun­dings these girls and women have been expo­sed to prior, during and after the traf­fic­king situ­a­tion. Speci­fi­cally, 42% of respon­dents survi­ved some form of digi­tal violence (such as cyber­bullying, venge­ful distri­bu­tion of expli­cit/porno­grap­hic content, imper­so­na­tion, etc.), while for 31% of them digi­tal violence was directly rela­ted to the traf­fic­king situ­a­tion, both for the purpose of recruit­ment and exploi­ta­tion. Of the total number of respon­dents, 65% were also expo­sed to digi­tal thre­ats, which were most often aimed at inti­mi­da­tion in order to change or with­draw a testi­mony or state­ment in crimi­nal proce­e­dings (a total of 59%). In addi­tion to the high frequency of violence in a digi­tal sphere, the analy­sis also shows that this speci­fic type of violence has become an almost indis­pen­sa­ble form of coer­cion used by perpe­tra­tors of violence and traf­fic­kers to black­mail, thre­a­ten, belittle the victims, unaut­ho­ri­zedly record, or distri­bute porno­grap­hic mate­rial inclu­ding chil­dren. In this regard, the purpose of the analy­sis is to prevent digi­tal abuse from beco­ming a «new normal» and a pheno­me­non to which the public, due to its frequency, beco­mes indif­fe­rent to, under the slogan – virtual is less real, and there­fore less impor­tant.

The main preten­sion of this analy­sis, which Atina’s team consi­ders to be intro­duc­tory, and repre­sents a current situ­a­tion in prac­tice, is that the fight against violence and abuse in digi­tal surroun­dings in the context of human traf­fic­king should become a prio­rity on the agenda of all actors who are a part of offi­cial mecha­nism for support and protec­tion of human traf­fic­king victims in Serbia. The docu­ment itself is inten­ded for inter­es­ted and profes­si­o­nal public, repre­sen­ta­ti­ves of state insti­tu­ti­ons working in this field at the nati­o­nal and local level, as well as civil soci­ety orga­ni­za­ti­ons, private sector, media and the gene­ral public. And not only that, from Atina’s point of view it is neces­sary for this topic to finally take its own place in all the rele­vant nati­o­nal docu­ments that will be crea­ted in the coming period, parti­cu­larly in the future Nati­o­nal Stra­tegy for Comba­ting Traf­fic­king in Human Beings, and accom­pa­nying Action Plans, consi­de­ring that this topic does not have such a place in the current stra­tegy. It is also our wish for this analy­sis to serve as a basis for further, more exten­sive rese­arch on the topic of abuse in digi­tal surroun­dings in the context of human traf­fic­king in Serbia, and to shed a light on many of the concepts this paper has only touched on.

Bearing in mind that termi­no­logy is crucial in deli­be­ra­ting this sensi­tive topic, its deve­lop­ment should corres­pond to the essence of pheno­mena being descri­bed, and empha­size the respon­si­bi­lity of perpe­tra­tors, i.e. those causing them. In this regard, it is impor­tant, both in our country and beyond, to invest parti­cu­lar efforts in deve­lop­ment of termi­no­logy that accom­pa­nies this topic, and thus stop the use of archaic, inac­cu­rate and incor­rect terms that do not corres­pond to the essence of the pheno­me­non, such as "child pros­ti­tu­tion and porno­graphy”, consi­de­ring that a child cannot volun­ta­rily parti­ci­pate in such a thing, and that those cases are a matter of sexual exploi­ta­tion and abuse of chil­dren, persons under 18 years of age; thus, in this parti­cu­lar case, it would be more correct to use the terms abuse of chil­dren in pros­ti­tu­tion, and exploi­ta­tion of chil­dren for porno­grap­hic purpo­ses.

We beli­eve that many of you will come across terms in this docu­ment that explain vari­ous pheno­mena rela­ted to abuses in digi­tal surroun­dings you have not heard before. For this reason, sligh­ter known forms of abuse in digi­tal context, such as doxing (targe­ting), catfis­hing (luring) and others, are explai­ned in detail hoping they will find use within profes­si­o­nal and gene­ral public, and contri­bute to the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, repor­ting and provi­sion of adequate assis­tance and support to the victims. We hope that this analy­sis will encou­rage profes­si­o­nals to further recon­si­der their roles in the process of victims’ protec­tion in the context of digi­tal abuse, and that this topic will become an obli­ga­tory part of the appro­ach to the pheno­me­non of gender-based violence.

Jelena Hrnjak, programme mana­ger of the orga­ni­sa­tion Atina

In Belgrade, Octo­ber 2020

^[1] Orga­ni­sa­tion Atina has, since 2003, been imple­men­ting a program of long-term social inclu­sion of human traf­fic­king victims, as well as victims of all forms of gender-based violence and exploi­ta­tion, that is based on respect for human rights and conduc­ted with full parti­ci­pa­tion, consent, and coope­ra­tion of the bene­fi­ci­a­ries.

 Behind the scre­ens Analy­sis of human traf­fic­king victims’ abuse in digi­tal surroun­dings.pdf