Behind the Super Bowl Jose Medrano-Santos Professor Thomas Fox | ENGL 130P

Human Trafficking  According to Human Trafficking and Smuggling in China, Human trafficking is defined…  A report by the Department of the State of the United States “estimated that about 800, ,000 people were trafficked world-wide.

Human Trafficking

Super Bowl  The Super Bowl is a huge event for both the football players and the media.  This year it was reported that for 30 seconds of air during the Super Bowl, it would cost advertising companies about $1.5 million.  This shows just how big this sports event can get.

Super Bowl  The Attendance at this previous Super Bowl was 103,219 people present at the Cowboys Stadium.  This year we are at Super Bowl 46 in Indianapolis, Indiana.  million viewers, making it the most-watched television program in U.S. history, according to NBC Universal.

Human Trafficking During the Super Bowl  According to Deena Graves, “law enforcement officers and advocacy groups rescued approximately 50 girls during the previous two Super Bowls.”  During the 2009 Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida, the Department of Children and Families took in 24 children trafficked to the city for sex.”

Human Trafficking During the Super Bowl  This year, many protesters and adults that are concerned about the Human Trafficking and in particular parents have stepped up and tried long and hard to protect the children this year.  The State of Indiana passed laws regarding Human Trafficking in order to reduce the amount of people that have been trafficked. The laws that Indiana passed are strict against Human Trafficking, which is defined as the following: “for anybody to arrange for a person to participate in any forced sexual act.”

Human Trafficking During the Super Bowl  The law also makes it easier to prosecute and press charges on anyone that sells children into sexual slavery regardless of the minor’s age or location.  Alongside the law, there were recommendations by S.O.A.P. (Save our Adolescent from Prostitution) to “train hotel employees and taxi drivers with information that will help them spot red flags for victims that are being trafficked”.

Human Trafficking During the Super Bowl  These are some of the changes done this year to reduce Human Trafficking.  Two big social media sites, Twitter and Facebook, are more than just social media, they might be the key to help end human trafficking.

Human Trafficking During the Super Bowl  At the moment, Twitter and Facebook are becoming a hub where ads for sex trafficking can be found.  Within these social media sites, key terms are being tracked such as “Super Bowl Special”, etc. to see if human trafficking is going unnoticed within these social media sites.

Human Trafficking During the Super Bowl  While using Twitter, researchers would use a term and search it and count how many times it would appear.  For example, the word “escort” would be searched and the database would come back with how many times it has found it on Twitter during a specific time span.

Human Trafficking During the Super Bowl  When using “escort” as their key word, they found that it appeared a lot and for different reasons that didn’t lead them them to their answer.  Using a word cloud, they were able to find that the word “escort”, as in adult escort service, appears about 315 times which limits where the pimps or “johns” can be located because they could be tracked by their IP Address.

Human Trafficking During the Super Bowl  A word cloud is essentially a cloud complied of words that are trending at a specific time (the words are presented in the shape of a cloud). The bigger the word looks compared to the rest, the more it appears in Twitter.  While they are still trying to lower the number of traffickers out there, they can’t assume that by using Twitter, most of the key terms they find are actually about human trafficking.

Human Trafficking During the Super Bowl  For now, using the keyword search has helped law enforcement officers try to find these pimps and reduce the instances of human trafficking.  Media in general helps and hinders the tracking of exploiters, because it gives the offenders an IP Address where they can be found by law enforcement officers, and arrested.

Human Trafficking During the Super Bowl