False job offers and social media fuel human trafficking recruitment
Anti-trafficking expert Karen Menkveld warned that young people are being targeted online through fake job opportunities at the Human Trafficking Awareness event in Buccleuch.
The growing threat of human trafficking in the digital age took centre stage at a Youth Day event in Buccleuch, where experts warned that traffickers were increasingly targeting young people through social media and online platforms.
The Human Trafficking Awareness event was hosted by Village Safe Haven in partnership with A21, a non-profit, non-governmental organisation that works to fight human trafficking, and the Shotokan Karate-do International South Africa Association on June 16.
Read more: Youth Day event in Buccleuch equips young people to fight human trafficking
The event brought together young people from Village Safe Haven, John Wesley Child Care Centre, Shalom Children’s Ministries, and Boikhutsong Safety Home.
Speaking at the event, Karen Menkveld, leader of the A-Team Gauteng Awareness Team for A21, highlighted the growing role of social media in human trafficking and exploitation cases involving young people.
“We are facing a huge problem with our teenagers because of social media. The biggest way that traffickers recruit their victims nowadays is through false job opportunities and also social media,” Menkveld said.
“Traffickers will hang out on all the social media platforms, identify a child who looks vulnerable to them, and then they will start the grooming process, eventually, to exploit them sexually via the online platforms. Our children are vulnerable because they do not know how to protect themselves against these dangers.”
Menkveld added that traffickers no longer need to physically kidnap their victims to exploit them.
Also read: Buccleuch community works to put a stop to human trafficking
“Traffickers don’t have to kidnap a child anymore to exploit them. Social media and AI made it so much easier for them to exploit young children. Online sexual exploitation has increased with 30% from last year.”
She also taught children practical safety measures, including protecting their personal information, avoiding interactions with strangers online, strengthening privacy settings and recognising suspicious behaviour.
She also encouraged parents, teachers, churches and community organisations to become more informed about human trafficking and online safety.
“The more children we can teach about the dangers of social media, the more children we can protect against online sexual exploitation. Share awareness and teach prevention skills,” Menkveld said.
Susan Harris from the Village Safe Haven said education remains one of the most effective tools in the fight against human trafficking.
“Most of the youth here today are from disadvantaged backgrounds and have landed up in children’s homes, places of safety,” Harris said.
“We felt that with today’s technology overload, it’s very necessary to equip our children with the necessary knowledge to fight this human trafficking and to teach them to fight it themselves.”
The event concluded with self-defence demonstrations by the Shotokan Karate-do International South Africa Association, giving young people the opportunity to learn practical techniques.
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