The beginning of the end for the online American slave trade

A girl on an empty street corner. A dirty massage parlor. A backroom in a nightclub.

This is how we imagine the commercial sex industry. But like so many other American industries, technology has transformed this market, moving sex trafficking from the streets to the Internet. Today, the majority of underage victims are advertised or sold online. In recent years, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has witnessed an 846 percent increase in suspected child sex trafficking reports. Of these reports, 81 percent concern online trafficking, facilitated by websites that help traffickers post advertisements.