Logroño, Apr 29 (EFE).- Social networks have facilitated the recruitment of adolescents as victims of trafficking for sexual purposes, which is no longer a crime that only affects vulnerable women in a situation of poverty, the doctor and sexologist Ana Rosa Jurado.
Jurado, president of the scientific committee of the XIII National Conference on Gender Violence Updates that are held in Logroño, explained that the pandemic has made it difficult to detect victims of trafficking, so that this number has decreased from the 400 detected in Spain during 2019 to 114 in 2021, of which 93 were for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
“This data means that we are doing something wrong. In addition, the pandemic has modified the forms of recruitment through new technologies and it is more difficult to identify the victims, ”said this expert.
According to their data, some of the victims of trafficking networks for the purpose of sexual exploitation are currently university students or adolescent girls of any social class and without financial problems.
An investigation by the International Academic Network for Studies on Prostitution and Pornography (RAIEPP) reveals that the recruitment of minors for sexual exploitation through Facebook has increased by 125 percent and on Instagram by 95 percent and, “other networks still need to be analyzed ”, he has warned.
“whores and pedophiles”
Thus, it has verified that minors, when they use a mobile device, “without doing an active search, they get advertising for phenomena” such as “Sugar Daddy”, and they are detailed about the money they can earn if they have sex with adult men. or they offer them the “OnlyFans” subscription application, with which they charge money if adolescents post their erotic photos or videos.
In this sense, he has warned that “very succulent” amounts of money are offered to minors if they provide images of sexual content through the adult platform ‘OnlyFans’.
He has stressed that the prostitution and recruitment system for victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation uses terms to “normalize” this crime and has advocated “calling things by their name.”
In this way, he has rejected the “romanticization” of the figure of the “Sugar Daddy”, “who should be called a whorehouse and if he wants minor girls, a pedophile”.
He has indicated that “it is very common for girls to start sharing photos with men and that can lead to them starting to sexually exploit them, out of fear or threats.”
COMPREHENSIVE SEX EDUCATION
This member of the Spanish Academy of Sexology and Sexual Medicine has demanded to carry out “comprehensive sexual education” in all schools, but also focused on families.
It has stressed the importance of parents being able to have “a minimum of control over access to the Internet and social networks by minors.”
Jurado has stressed that “this type of practice, which is still invisible, must be put on the table as a first step to also be able to act legally.”
He has concluded that, “as always, crime is ahead of the law, so there is still a lot of work to do.”
Rebecca Palacios