5 New Technologies That Help Pimps

by Amanda Kloer · 2009-03-09 12:15:00 UTC
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You may think that pimping is a low-tech crime, but some of the emerging technologies we use every day are the same ones that make a pimp's job- exploiting women and kids- so much easier.  Here are some technologies you may be familiar with, and the ways they help pimps:

1. Cell Phone: Especially the pay-as-you-go kind, cell phones provide an electronic leash that connects the victim to the pimp.  She is on-call 24 hours a day, even when she's being bought.  Cell phones are powerful tools of physical and emotional control for pimps.

2. Online Marketplaces: Craigslist has recently been in the news as the largest facilitator of pimping in the U.S.  In fact, online marketplaces like Craigslist make it easy for pimps to market victims around the country and move them in response to the demand for commercial sex.

3. Social Networking: Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook allow pimps to seek out and target vulnerable kids and young women they may not have had access to before.  Pimps' false profiles are set up to target teens with low self-esteem or troubled homes.

4. Digital Camera: Child pornography is so much easier now that pimps don't have to risk those pesky photo developers butting in.  They can upload underage models directly to the web without finding a trusted middleman.  Plus, it's cheaper!

5. Desktop Publishing:No, pimps aren't printing their own newsletters on Microsoft Publisher, but they are using Photoshop and other graphic and publishing applications to make better fake IDs for their victims.  Instantly, 15-year-old Sunita from Bangladesh becomes 18-year-old Susan from Baltimore.

Remember, if it makes your job easier, it probably makes the pimp's job easier too.  Can you think of technology you use in your daily life which pimps may find helpful as well?

Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic
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