Covid and Human Trafficking: How the Covid Pandemic Continues to Change Human Trafficking

Between 20 million and 40 million people world wide are victims of human trafficking a modern form of slavery that involves the use of force, fraud or coercion to obtain labor or sex.

As Covid continues to grip the nation, and world, human trafficking and child predators are changing their methods in order to lure more victims. The Coronavirus, or Covid 19, is not only resulting in an increase in child abuse and neglect, there are also fears that the pandemic will also result in a future increase in child pornography and child sex trafficking.

“We are seeing a big uptick in the amount of predators online, you know, talking to children,” according to the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Ariana, Fajardo-Orshan. “Parents are preoccupied, getting their work done, and kids are being left off to kind of fend for themselves and this is a predator’s dream to have these kids home on the computer all day.”

The number of children being contacted by sexual predators online during Covid is disturbing and astounding at the same time. Approximately one out of every seven children is sexually contacted, or solicited, by a predator while online. Furthermore, many of these children are seriously pursued online by these predators, singling out…