Entry 8 - Tech Firms Help Fight Human Trafficking

https://polarisproject.org/resources/2015-hotline-statistics

Topic:

Terminology

Human Trafficking - a form of modern-day slavery in which traffickers use force, fraud, or coercion to control victims for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex acts or labor services against his/her will.[1]

DARPA - Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

While a large number of people fail to recognize how prevalent human trafficking still is in the world today, many organizations are trying to help in the fight against this form of modern-day slavery in many ways. Historically, many cases of trafficking have been difficult to prosecute because victims are too afraid to testify or there is insufficient evidence to support the allegations. However, as more and more human trafficking rings operate through the Internet, data science is becoming a particularly useful tool in successfully identifying and prosecuting the leaders of these operations. In 2015, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) received a $3.6 million dollar research grant from DARPA to develop machine-learning code aimed at identifying potential cases of human trafficking on the web.[2]

Relation to Computer Science:

Human Trafficking relates to the field of computer science because of the technologies used in order to try and stop/prevent human trafficking. The work being done at CMU incorporates many aspects of computer science. The algorithms being developed there are helping scan the Internet and identify advertisements and other postings that may be related to human trafficking. These computer programs generally operate by identifying keywords and certain aspects of images and flagging them for law enforcement officers to review. Machine-learning is especially helpful because as certain users or patters are noticed, the algorithms are able to tailor their searches and process information even more quickly than humans. 

 National Human Trafficking Resource Center 1 (888) 373-7888

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[1] "Human Trafficking." National Human Trafficking Hotline. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.

[2] Harris, Derrick. "DARPA-funded Research IDs Sex Traffickers with Machine Learning." Derrick Harris. Gigaom, 13 Jan. 2015. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.