Sex Trafficking of Children Online

An impressive, scholarly, and meticulously researched book that enriches the discourse on online offenses of children for sexual exploitation. This in-depth analysis covers online practices in the context of non-commercial exploitation that make this book intriguing, and such discussions cannot be found in other reference works. This well-written book presents, inter alia, the need to enhance the legal protection of children against these new offenses, the standard of due diligence, new challenges for law enforcement, including the illegal use of the Darknet and anonymity tools, the vulnerability of children, and a wide range of types of cybercrimes. Therefore, it provides guidance and strategy to address cyber trafficking at national and international levels. This book is an invaluable resource for scholars, policy-makers, prosecutors, judges, lawyers, law enforcement, social services, and students engaged in the areas of human rights law, sex trafficking, and cybercrime. It will provide invaluable insight and information for anyone with an interest in the area.

-- Hortensia Núñez, Florida International University

The book Sex Trafficking of Children Online: Modern Slavery in Cyberspace by Beatriz Uitts is a must-read to all interested in understanding one of the calamities of our time and the positive efforts to resolve the problem. The idea of people enslaving others in modern times is mindboggling. The chapters of the book masterfully present the human trafficking problem concerning cyberspace. Beatriz Uitts ventures into the difficult terrain of child exploitation in cyberspace, seeking a solution. In this case, the Internet user is the center of the story and the author offers advice for the security of the world’s children. The largely unprecedented nature of the problem means that new legal standards are necessary to provide a comprehensive framework to protect children from the otherwise disastrous consequences of abuses online and offline. The author suggests a solution based on a new treaty. This approach is practical when considering the evolving nature of new technologies. Educators, law enforcement officers, prosecutors, students, parents, and the general public will find this book engaging and thought-provoking. The content of this book is not merely about crimes online; it is, in essence, a call to awareness and further action at the intersection of cyberspace and human rights. Beatriz Uitts has become one of the leading authorities on the subject of online sex trafficking of minors, and no doubt, her book will offer a valuable vehicle for its suppression.

-- Roy Balleste, Stetson University College of Law

Sex Trafficking of Children Online: Modern Slavery in Cyberspace is a timely and groundbreaking book. It is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary reference on the links between human trafficking, modern slavery, and online child sexual exploitation. The book presents the significant legal challenges for the international protection framework and national legislation for combating these new and continuously evolving criminal activities. Based on a holistic human rights approach, it provides recommendations for investigating and prosecuting offenders and ensuring child victims’ protection and support. I recommend it to academics, policy-makers, practitioners, and undergraduate and graduate students interested in international law, criminal justice, and child protection.

-- Ivon Mesa, Assistant Director of the Community Action and Human Services Department, Miami-Dade County

Dr. Uitts’ book reflects an impressive degree of mastery of the subject-matter, exhaustiveness of research, an excellent command of research methods, analytical depth, good writing style, cohesion in arguments, novelty and creativity in approaching one of the most challenging problems of our time, the social phenomenon and the crime of human trafficking. The fruit of her labor is particularly important, because it focuses on human trafficking of children in the era of galloping developments in technology and communications, a risk that our society cannot afford to ignore. It advances knowledge in this new field of law –cyber trafficking of children--, and it will undoubtedly carry a significant impact in the work of multiple professionals that address human trafficking both in the physical world and in cyberspace.

-- Roza Pati, St. Thomas University College of Law

At the cutting edge of research, this book offers urgently needed, thoughtful recommendations on the scourge of the trafficking of children in cyberspace.

-- Siegfried Wiessner, St. Thomas University College of Law

In this study of online child sex trafficking, Uitts, a human rights lawyer and researcher, offers a human rights and jurisprudential analysis of the internet “as a facilitating instrument for cybercriminals to develop forms of exploitation” (p. ix). The fundamental problem is that the internet allows criminals to conduct crime unrestricted by national borders and under the veil of hidden identity and motivation. The book first documents the significant size of the problem of online child sex trafficking, and then in three sections it examines existing law and legal principles, different forms of online child sexual exploitation, and a jurisprudential framework for change that relies on the principle of inviolable human dignity. The book ends with a draft international agreement on preventing and responding to this form of online exploitation. The content of this book is timely, given that the United Nations is in the early stages of negotiating a global cybercrime treaty, which will undoubtedly include the protection of children from online exploitation. This book is recommended for undergraduates through faculty, practitioners.

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