This week, a bombshell report in The Guardian accused Facebook and Instagram of still harboring tons of child sex traffickers despite promises to clean up the problem. According to a 2020 report from the nonprofit Human Trafficking Institute, Facebook was by far the most widely used platform to recruit children into sex trafficking, with 65 percent of these cases involving the social media giant. To make matters worse, activists and experts say that the company is slow to respond when it has been notified about trafficking content.

“I even have law enforcement calling me up asking, ‘Tina, can you get Instagram to do something?’” said Tina Frundt, an advocate who runs a shelter for victims of sex trafficking. “If I can’t get Instagram to act, what hope is there for anyone else?”

On the legal side, attorneys agree that Facebook is difficult to work with on this issue, and that the company’s stubbornness can lead to devastating consequences for the victims.

“We get a higher rate of rejected warrants from Facebook than any other electronic service provider,” a Washington state prosecutor said. “What I find frustrating is that the exchange can delay rescuing a victim by a month.”

Of course, Facebook defended itself by pointing to its success removing millions of traffickers from its platform. However, it’s clear that this is still an issue for the company, and it needs to do even more to protect its young users.

Recommended Resources

Choose what the experts use: award-winning cybersecurity you can trust and rely on.

Surf the web truly incognito. Try Bitdefender Premium VPN, the ultra-fast VPN that keeps your online identity and activities safe from hackers, ISPs and snoops.

System Mechanic 14 – Make your computer run like new. Winner of 200+ Editor’s Choice awards!