A review of the current state of the online ecosystems serving the underground commercial sex economy (UCSE) and their import for sex trafficking in the United States. Session will cover:
- Quantifying the decline in demand for sex online
- Identifying signals that suggest a decline in supply for sex online
- Observing scale and reach of online ecosystems where sex is bought and sold online, including advertising websites, hobby boards, and sugar daddy websites
- Measuring the increase of spam and scam advertising in these ecosystems
- Observing changes in price dynamics nationwide
- Inferring import for sex trafficking
Objectives or Takeaway Ideas:
- Current state of online ecosystems serving the commercial underground sex economy in the United States
- Effect on sex trafficking in the United States
- Future dynamics to watch in this economy
SPEAKER BIOS:
Rob Spectre
Rob Spectre is a Brooklyn-based technologist building childsafe.ai, the artificial intelligence platform protecting kids from predators online. He is a 13-year veteran of software startups, such as Boxee and Twilio. Before founding childsafe.ai, Rob spent a year as a technical consultant for counter human trafficking units across the United States. Learning from the wisdom and experience of those law enforcement partners, Rob creates machine-learning software that starves the macroeconomy fueling modern slavery of its wealth, anonymity, and distribution.
A programmer by trade and a historian by training, Rob also serves youth organizations HackNY and DoSomething.org as an advisor, plays in a punk rock band, and is the loudest Red Sox fan in New York.
Marian Hatcher
Marian Hatcher has been with the Cook County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) for 13 years where she is the Senior Project Manager for the Office of Public Policy and the Human Trafficking Coordinator. She coordinates several of CCSO’s anti-trafficking efforts, such as the “National Johns Suppression Initiative,” a nationwide effort with over 100 arresting agencies and more than 200 total partners targeting the buyers of sex as the driving force of sex trafficking and prostitution.
Ms. Hatcher is a national expert on combating the demand, sitting on numerous boards and facilitating trainings on trafficking and prostitution for various law enforcement groups, including the F.B.I. and U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She has traveled the country, speaking at various events and conferences, shedding light on the prevalent issue of trafficking, and telling her own story as a survivor of sex trafficking and domestic violence.
Over the past 13 years she has been featured in the Oprah Winfrey Network Documentary: “Prostitution: Leaving the Life,” Midwest Emmy-winning INK 180 Documentary, Shared Hope International Gang Trap Series, Nick Kristoff’s “A Path Appears,” and most recently, “I AM JANE DOE.”
She is a recipient of numerous awards, including the 2014 Shared Hope International Path Breaker Award, presented to individuals who have dedicated themselves to tackling the demand that drives domestic minor sex trafficking. Most recently, Ms. Hatcher was awarded the 2016 Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award for Volunteer Service from President Obama.
Ms. Hatcher received her BS from Loyola University in 1985, concentrating on Finance. Her previous experiences include working at three major corporations. On August 2015, she received an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity, Ambassador-At-Large and Chaplaincy from CICA International University & Seminary, an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
This presentation was given at the 2019 Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation Global Summit: EndExploitationSummit.com
