NCJ Number
198334
Journal
Hastings Women's Law Journal Volume: 13 Issue: 1 Dated: Winter 2002 Pages: 1-20
Date Published
2002
Length
20 pages
Annotation
Focusing on the sexual exploitation of women and children, this paper discusses the ways that new communications and information technologies are making such exploitation possible.
Abstract
Highlighting the sexual exploitation of women and children as a global human rights crisis, this paper addresses the ways in which new communications and information technologies are making the sexual exploitation of women and children an issue of local, national, and transnational concern. Focusing on the combining of old and new technologies including television, cable, the Internet, and Web TV, the author argues that Digital Video Disks (DVDs), which provide high quality videos that may be later added to CD-ROMs, are but one example of the way that new technologies are making the dispersal of sexually explicit and exploitative materials available to mainstream audiences. Discussing Usenet newsgroups, Web sites, chat rooms, file transfer protocol, live video chats, and peer to peer networks and file swapping protocols, the author maintains that the development and use of ever improving computer technologies is allowing the sexual exploitation of women and children to advance globally at a rapid rate. Suggesting that anonymity and disguise are critical for individuals engaging in both criminal activity and sexual exploitation, the author argues that the use of mobile phones, wireless networks, and Web TV are making it easier for individuals to find ways to avoid the police and to prevent the tracing of illegal and immoral phone conversations. Describing techniques such as “page jacking” and “mouse-trapping,” or the misdirecting or trapping of people onto pornographic Web sites, the author argues that the illegal sex industry utilizes various new technologies and techniques in order to aggressively misdirect users so that they will mistakenly enter pornographic Web sites.