More than 300 cases of young people in Connecticut were victims of sex trafficking last year, according to the state Department of Children and Families.
Isolation and the increased use of technology during the COVID-19 pandemic are to blame, according to law enforcement and state agencies who are trying to combat human and sex trafficking.
“Technology's like a blessing and a curse, right? It produces a lot of things that are great and useful for us,” said Christa Rider, the department’s clinical program director.
She said the number of reported cases keeps increasing because of the use of technology.
“It also has, like a dark side, an opportunity for folks to misuse it. We use the word groomed online,” Rider said. “So, they think they're playing a game or talking to a peer or possible significant other. When they’re really speaking to someone who is looking to exploit them and/or victimize them.”
Human and sex trafficking generates $150 billion each year globally. It is the second largest and fastest growing criminal enterprise worldwide, according to the nonprofit Polaris Project, which runs the national human trafficking hotline in the US.
Since 2020, the pandemic has had an isolating effect on young people. Because they couldn’t go to school or see their friends, they were drawn to using their smartphones, computers and social media as a way to stay in touch.
Special Agent Wendy Bowersox, the coordinator for crimes against children at the Connecticut FBI’s Human Trafficking Task Force, said in 2018, federal authorities took down Back Page, a website that traffickers flocked to after Craigslist closed down its adult services section in 2010 due to prostitution advertising complaints.
“So now Skip The Games is currently the most widely used internet site in Connecticut,” Bowersox said. “But there are also other numerous apps on phones and even, you know, social media accounts and things like that, that are used now to traffic individuals which has become harder for us to try and then locate victims.”
Rider said many of the victims are young women but also men, as well as those identifying as LGBTQ. Bowersox said victims are as young as two years old to adults in their thirties and forties.
“The population of the LGBTQ folks that we have are at very high risk of being victimized,” she said. “And we don't have a lot of good data to support what that looks like. But we do know that they are a vulnerable population.
She points to hotspots like the state's two casinos in eastern Connecticut, which draw large crowds of people to shows and events — a perfect fishing ground for traffickers and those willing to pay for sex.
But they also have to monitor other areas of the state.
“The airport where people might be flying in, maybe having some sort of long layover again, might be willing to pay for sex,” she said. “Also, along the I-95 corridor and the highways. So, they like the hotels that are sort of right off the highway that they can sort of get to quickly. They don't want to draw a lot of attention to themselves.”
Employees at transit hubs like Bradley International Airport, as well as Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos, receive regular training to identify sex trafficking.
Bowersox and Rider are also part of a larger organization in the state called HART, the Human Anti-Trafficking Response Team, which together with local police departments and nonprofits, meet regularly to exchange intelligence and work to reduce the trafficking of minors.
Rider and others know the challenges they’re up against, and in the last several years, they have successfully arrested hundreds of traffickers in the state. They can only hope that more victims come forward to help law enforcement break an industry fueled by the darker side of technology meant to bring people together.
If you are a victim of sex trafficking or know someone who is, call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888 373 7888 — or call 211 in Connecticut to be put in touch with a specialist or local police department.
