It was very interesting and informing reading about how human trafficking has increased dramatically over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are many reasons that were brought up that explain how the pandemic causes teens and children to become more vulnerable to human trafficking. One reason that is that because of the economic hit, due to the Corona Virus, Many children and families became homeless. Also, because of schools shutting down children have been way more active online, and in the article, COVID-19 and Human Trafficking- the Amplified Impact on Vulnerable Populations, Jonathan states that “The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children noted an increase from 2 million to 4.2 million reports of online exploitation from March to April 2020”.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2770536/
Wow! I never heard of this, but I’m not surprised. I can even remember when I was a child on the internet. Besides unknowingly downloading viruses on my computer; I definitely was curious about chatrooms and could’ve easily been in a similar situation as some of these children.
I’ve never heard of this. I knew sex trafficking was still happening, but I didn’t know it had to do with covid. There was a text message going around where people texted you a message related to a dating app, and I thought it was real at first. I showed my friends and they let me know it was sex trafficking. It’s scary knowing how believable the messages are.