As soon as our team found the TikTok video, they sprang into action.

The sexually explicit video depicted two children, just 11 and 7 years old. Investigators quickly identified the children, found their physical location, and collaborated with law enforcement to rescue them. But when they tried to identify the trafficker who exploited the kids, investigators discovered something shocking.

There wasn’t one.

There was no nefarious criminal behind their exploitation. In fact, there was no negative personal influence on their lives at all.

But that doesn’t mean they weren’t influenced.

The curious kids had come across pornographic material online and decided to act out a scene they’d watched. Unaware of the implications, they recorded their actions and posted the video to TikTok.

Their parents were horrified. They never imagined that their devices could let such darkness into their home. They only wanted the children to have reliable communication and some harmless distraction while they worked. All kids had smartphones; it’s simply the way the world works now.

Unfortunately, bad influences trump good intentions.

Hunted

Since the COVID pandemic, the time children spend online has skyrocketed, while online safety measures haven’t kept pace.

Children can see and do things with a few taps that would take immense intentional effort in the “real world”. As the parents in the case above discovered, unbound freedom combined with innocent, naive minds can lead to disastrous results.

But when a malevolent actor enters the picture, things get even worse: predators and traffickers have moved from scouting schools and playgrounds to browsing Instagram, Discord and Roblox.

We recently interviewed some of our rescue agents and asked them what they
wish parents knew about online threats. Here are the tips they shared:

The fox in the coop

The first step is recognising that there is no safe online space.

Because of rapid brain development, adolescents are primed, through no fault of their own, to seek social rewards. Traffickers and predators leverage this instinctive desire for social affirmation to manipulate children into doing what they want.

That’s why online interactions are just as impactful as real-life ones. “We’ve had teens disappear after meeting someone from social media,” Criselda, one of our rescue agents in the Dominican Republic, said. “Parents only realised after the child was gone. Routine conversations and checking apps may have prevented it.”

On top of traffickers using social media to devastating effect, agents have reported an increase in offender activity on online gaming services like Minecraft or Roblox. There’ve even been reports of traffickers using major music platforms to groom children. It’s a reality many adults are still struggling to fully understand.

“Some (parents) think online time is safer than the streets, but they don’t know the risks. I wish every parent knew that danger often hides behind ordinary screens and friendly profiles. Criminals use games, social networks, messaging apps and fake personas to build trust with children. What starts as a ‘friendly chat’ can quickly become grooming, sextortion or sexual abuse. Parents should understand that online spaces are not private and that criminals are actively looking for vulnerable children.”
— Criselda, rescue agent in the Dominican Republic

For predators, these target-rich environments are the perfect places to blend in.

Becoming what they need

“Perpetrators… study their victims, assessing their weak points,” Bortz, one of our burn agents, said.

Traffickers often work in teams to distort a child’s perception of reality, creating the illusion that deviant behaviour is socially acceptable, since multiple people are acting the same way.

After learning all about their targets’ interests and insecurities, the trafficker then develops an online persona. “Social media allows the perpetrator to… change their identity as they work the victim. They can literally become anyone that fits the bill and chisel away at the victim’s vulnerability [even using AI chatbots to groom children],” Bortz said.

In short, parents must come to grips with the fact that their children are being actively, intentionally hunted by bad actors. “The only way to explain it is that there truly is evil in this world,” Xander, our Director of Operations in the Philippines, said. “It’s not ignorance; it’s evil, pure and simple.”

Sharenting: An Ethical Dilemma With Dire Consequences

Monitoring online relationships and limiting screen time will undercut traffickers’ attempts to get to children, but there is another group that puts kids at risk online….

Parents.

“Sharenting,” the practice of excessively posting children’s photos on social media, is rife with ethical debates.

With a few well-meaning taps, proud parents make private moments public, rarely asking (or able to ask) for their child’s consent in the process.

Beyond using AI to create explicit deepfakes, traffickers can use image location data and background clues to learn a child’s exact location, routines, interests and vulnerabilities. Traffickers can easily use publicly shared images on platforms such as Facebook or Instagram to stalk children from the safety of their homes before making a move in person.

A simple post about the first day of school can tell a trafficker where your child attends school, be mapped for facial recognition, provide clues about daily habits and be studied for insight into family finances.

These fairly new possibilities, in combination with the age-old adage, “once information’s online, it’s there forever”, can lead to challenging decisions for a parent.

The good news is, parents aren’t helpless in the fight to protect their children. Along with this article, we’ve released a sister post with tips for practical ways to protect your kids online.

Thousands upon thousands of children don’t have an advocate at home fighting for their protection. Will you be their advocate? Fill out the form below to rescue a child today.