Blurred Lines: Impact of Digital Technology in Child Sex Trafficking and Online Child Sexual Exploitation - Critical Issues for Practice and Research

Historically, child sex trafficking (CST) and online child sexual exploitation (OCSE) have been seen as distinct crimes requiring different research, different practitioners, and different responses. Both are global issues with lasting effects on children, families, communities; yet responses typically fail to comprehensively address multi-level factors contributing to their exponential growth. Experts including those with lived experience, note that the increasing role of technology has blurred the distinction between groups of victims: in the past, CST victims were not typically also victims of OCSE. New methods of luring, tracking, selling, abusing and exploiting children are almost always facilitated by technology and perpetrators are increasingly able to commit these crimes from a distance and continuously adapt and diversify their methods, especially as technology rapidly evolves. Perpetrators seek child victims both to exploit a very high demand for sex with children and because younger victims are easier to manipulate and control. In Canada, individuals at greatest risk of CST and OCSE include children, particularly young girls, and members of vulnerable or marginalized groups such as: Indigenous and Black girls; migrants and new immigrants; 2SLGBTQ+ youth; children with cognitive disabilities; children in the child welfare system; street-involved youth; and those who are socially or economically disadvantaged. The way forward requires improved responses to CST & OCSE, and increased access for all youth regardless of race, sexual and gender identity, class/socio-economic status, and ability, as well as policy development that supports improved and equitable access to services. A cross-sectoral, international, and multidisciplinary response is critically needed if we are going to even begin to reduce these crimes, protect potential victims, and help those who have been directly impacted already. In this presentation, two new programs in CST and OCSE - an international executive leadership program and an international graduate degree program – will be discussed.