Investor’s Business Daily recently profiled the Center on Communication Leadership & Policy’s research project on human trafficking. CCLP’s Research Director Mark Latonero shared his expertise on communication technology and trafficking in persons as well as some of the highlights from his August fact finding trip to Thailand and Cambodia and the research that has been undertaken so far by CCLP.
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Tech Gets Enlisted In The War Against Human Trafficking
By Shelia Riley, for INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY
The fight against human trafficking is using a few new weapons: texting, iPhone apps and smarter passports.
An estimated 12.3 million adults and children around the world are trafficked — compelled in a variety of ways to work against their will — the U.S. State Department says.
“It’s basically modern-day slavery,” said Mark Latonero, research director for the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Center. “It’s a pernicious and widespread global problem.”
The term “trafficking” covers a wide area.
“It’s not just forced prostitution, it’s also forced labor — people working in slavery-like conditions on farms, fishing boats, in nail salons, whatever,” Latonero said.
He’s working on a project to make it easier to get help for trafficking victims via cell phone.
The Technology and Trafficking in Persons Research Initiative will allow concerned citizens, potential trafficking victims and possibly victims themselves to text information to a hotline. The project is led by the Annenberg Center.
Texts will be sorted by a computer and sent to appropriate agencies that could help, Latonero says.
The initiative focuses on the Mekong region in Southeast Asia: Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, southern China and Burma.
“This part of the world is a major source, transit and destination region for men, women and children forced into labor and prostitution,” Latonero said.
The original article can be found on Investor’s Business Daily.