By Reetika Gupta, Contributing Writer
Ever heard of the Silk Road?
The Silk Road was an ancient network of trade routes that connected the East and West from the second century to the 18th century. The Silk Road trade played a significant role in the development of the civilizations in those regions, opening long-distance political and economic relations among them.
Wondering why we are talking about it here?
The Silk Road collapsed in the 18th Century. However, it began to operate again in 2011. This time, though, the Silk Road operated as a darknet market—a platform for selling illegal drugs.
Ross Ulbricht, founder of this new Silk Road, was caught and arrested in 2013; however, Silk Road 2.0 emerged afterward. After the FBI shut it down, there was Silk Road 3.0.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are multiple operational marketplaces on the darknet. You can hire assassins or sell drugs, arms, sex and humans. That’s right—you can sell humans on the darknet!
Human trafficking is such a major issue, and yet one of the prominent platforms where it takes place is hidden from everyone's eyes on the darknet.
This platform is widespread throughout the country. In fact, in the U.S., 2 out of every 3 children sold for sex are trafficked online. It is estimated that 50,000 people in the U.S. alone access the darknet for the sole purpose of trading child pornography.
What is the darknet?
As Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania explains, the darknet is a part of the deep web where the websites are really hard to find, if not impossible. It is used by people who are intentionally trying to hide their identities using specialized software, such as Onion Router or TOR, that hides their Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.
Instead of making direct connections, these software programs allow users to access and communicate using virtual tunnels so that their true locations cannot be identified.
And because identities remain anonymous and untraceable, illegal activities like human trafficking or drug dealing take place unchecked on the darknet.
Using the darknet is not illegal. It is often used to shield classified government activity and protect reform agents, such as human rights activists and journalists, opposed by oppressive foreign regimes.
However, it has emerged as a fully functional marketplace for hidden criminal activity.
Human trafficking activities on the darknet
Criminal organizations have taken to human trafficking on the darknet because it is easy and inexpensive to buy and exploit vulnerable children there. What adds to the misery is that the chance of detection and prosecution of those who are involved in this technology-facilitated human trafficking business is extremely low.
Undoubtedly, the darknet has become a safe haven for human traffickers and pornographers because of these circumstances.
One of the most notorious human trafficking groups, the Black Death Group based out of Eastern Europe, operate on the darknet. Involved with selling sex slaves to Saudi Arabia, it also hosted virgin auctions of girls as young as 15, advertising them by their age, hair color and measurements.
The starting price of an auction can be as high as $762,789. Their disclaimers state they “do not sell girls that are terminally ill, pregnant, have STDs, or are young mothers.”
Black Death Group also abducts their victims. They have been accused of kidnapping a 21-year-old British glamor model and mother of one Chloe Ayling, who claimed to be drugged, handcuffed and stuffed in a suitcase while being held captive for six days. Ayling recounted the horrors she experienced to news reporters. She was warned that she would be auctioned to buyers on the darknet and then fed to tigers when they grew bored with her. She was later told she would be auctioned as a sex slave for $354,780.
The darknet’s connection to child pornography
Not only a safe haven for human trafficking, the darknet is the safest and perfect place for child pornography. Many websites allow hundreds of thousands of pedophile members to connect and share tactics on targeting, seducing and engaging in sexual attacks on children.
Efforts to shut down the darknet
The darknet is the perfect platform for criminal activity. Host to anonymous, password-protected sites, the darknet offers anonymity to illicit vendors and customers to conduct their business online, which makes policing this online space complicated.
Despite the best efforts of the government, the intricate nature of the deep web makes it very difficult to trace users. Though law enforcement agencies have been continuously working to stop these activities, there are huge numbers of people who operate on the darknet, which makes it difficult for the agencies to investigate and prosecute them.
As decent human beings, it is our duty to show empathy toward one another. If someone today is being exploited, then tomorrow it may happen to us as well. It is important that we join hands to help each other, educate each other and take steps to end human trafficking. To read more about this issue and learn how you can help abolish child sex trafficking, read more of our blogs and share them with your family and friends.
Resources and Further Reading
Human trafficking on the dark web
'Revealing research exposes business practices on the dark web'