Online Human Trafficking: The Impact of Social Media Used
Siti Nurbayani, Neng Siti Mulyani and Nindita Fajria Utami
Sociology Education Study Program, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia.
Keywords: Human trafficking, social media, and education level.
Abstract: This paper examines the human trafficking victims caused by the rapid flow of information as a result of the
technology. The purpose of this paper is to discover the negative impact of technological development
resulting in human trafficking victims. This research was conducted using a qualitative method by
interviewing victims who had experienced human trafficking in Cianjur Regency, West Java. The results of
this study indicate that women who were involved in human trafficking had low education. As a result, they
were unable to filter the rapid flow of information well, and thus made them the victims of human trafficking.
Social media have encouraged women to be tempted to work and earn money to meet their needs so that they
were trapped in human trafficking.
1 INTRODUCTION
In this era of modernization, the ability to use
technology is considered important. Technology
provides benefits to people's lives, either urban
communities or villagers. One of the benefits of
technology is to make it easier for people to obtain
information and interact with others in different parts
of the world.
Technology can generate positive and negative
impacts (Andari, 2011). This study reveals that one of
the negative impacts of social media is making a
person unsatisfied with himself (Perloff, 2014).
Facebook is an application that provides chat feature;
even users can upload photos and all activities on
Facebook and can be seen by everyone. Social media
could give a direct impact on a person who is
dissatisfied with oneself, especially to adolescent
girls or adult women (Perloff, 2014). This causes
women in rural areas who do not have jobs because
of having low educational want to have a job to meet
their needs, especially to meet their lifestyle.
Low education and economic limitations make
these women trapped in human trafficking; the
victims of human trafficking got a job offered through
Facebook which eventually lead to human trafficking.
The low level of women's education has caused the
women in the village unable to filter the information
properly so they can be easily tempted to fake offers
by the human trafficking syndicates (Muflichah,
Wintoro, Rahadi Wesi, 2009).
Poverty or the feminization of poverty which is
the main factor of human trafficking victims is easily
deceived. Women in villages who are unskilled and
are lured by large amount of money are the targeted
by human trafficking crime syndicates (Muflichah;
Wintoro; Rahadi Wesi, 2009). Human trafficking has
existed long ago, globalization has transformed and
increased human trafficking for sexual exploitation
about ten times and gained enormous profits (Chi &
Chung, 2009).
The problem of human trafficking occurs in many
countries. In Brazil, for example, girls are trafficked
from rural to urban areas to work as prostitutes. In
china, girls are trafficked as poor brides for sale from
rural areas to urban areas (Feingold, 2005).
There have been many studies that reveal about
human trafficking, and the impact of social media.
The study revealed that globalization has caused
many problems one of which is human trafficking
(Andari, 2011). Another study conducted by
Muflichah, Wintoro, Rahadi Wesi (2009) found that
human trafficking is caused by poverty and becomes
an easy target for women in the village because it has
been deceived by invitation to work with a high
salary. Study by Chi and Chung (2009) also revealed
that culture contributes to human trafficking, e.g.,
women's culture in Asia who wants to meet the needs
her family financially. Social media can make a
person become unconfident and has a sense of
dissatisfaction with himself because he sees others
(Perloff, 2014).
82
Nurbayani, S., Mulyani, N. and Utami, N.
Online Human Trafficking: The Impact of Social Media Used.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 1, pages 82-85
ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

This study aims to investigate human trafficking
caused by social media. The victims cannot filter
information well enough so that they can be easily
deceived by human trafficking crime syndicates.
2 METHODS
This study was a qualitative research with descriptive
analytic method chosen based on the problems
studied. This research tries to describe the cause of
human trafficking victims caused by the seductive
lifestyle which resulted in trapped in human
trafficking.
This research was conducted in Cianjur Regency,
West Java Province. The participants in this research
were five people. Four of them were human
trafficking victims and one was the employee of
Integrated Service Center for Women and Children
Empowerment (P2TP2A) in Cianjur Regency. Data
were collected through in-depth interview to the
participants. The data were then analysed using
content analysis.
3 RESULT AND DISCUSION
Based on the results of interviews conducted to the
P2TP2A officer, technology can affect the case of
human trafficking. This is because technology such
as the Internet can be used as a medium to convey the
message of recruiting victims of human trafficking.
In addition, the syndicates use technology as a tool to
communicate with other actors residing within the
country and abroad because this case involves not
only one country but also several countries. The
victims were usually sent to other cities in Indonesia,
such as Batam, and to other countries, such as Saudi
Arabia and Malaysia.
The case of human trafficking in Malaysia can be
found in the study of Niko (2016) describes the
Indonesian people experienced economic constraints
so that they are employed as domestic servants and
even become servants of lust in discotheques in the
Sarawak region, Malaysia.
The officer added that the victims were falling
into human trafficking cases because of their lack of
knowledge so that they were easily exposed to the
sydicates. The majority of the victims were primary
and junior high school graduates, and only a small
percentage of those went to senior high schools.
Based on the fact, the researcher concludes that one
can be involved in human trafficking case because
they have less qualified knowledge.
Related to that, Farhana (2012) mentioned the
factors that cause human trafficking include
materialism, poverty, family destruction, out-
migration network, lack of education and
information, insensitivity and gender injustice,
official corruption and collaboration. Meanwhile,
Sylvia (2014) describes poverty and low formal
education can cause human trafficking. Truong
(2006) explains that poverty and lack of opportunity
are considered as contributing factors to the problem
of trafficking. Based on these opinions, it is revealed
that one of the causes of human trafficking case is a
lack of education and information. It is clear that
women in Cianjur Residence who are lack of
knowledge and use the internet can be easily deceived
by fake information.
Another informant, Nina, revealed that she was
invited by his friend via Facebook account to work in
Singapore. At that time, about five people were sent
to Singapore. They were offered jobs as
administrative employees with a promising salary.
However, after arriving in Batam they were examined
related to their identity and destination. The officers
saw no indication of fraud, then called P2TP2A
Cianjur and returned the five girls from Cianjur.
P2TP2A has cooperated with Batam police
government because there are many cases of human
trafficking sent to Batam. When there are victims
from Cianjur, they directly report to P2TP2A. Then
after the suspect was caught, who was the father of
one of the five victims. He acknowledged that the
purpose of sending the five girls was not to be an
administrative clerk, but for other purposes.
Another informant, Ani, has experienced to apply
for a job found on her friend’s Facebook page.
Because she was unemployed, she immediately sent
a message via Facebook to the person who wrote the
status. Then, they met somewhere and finally she was
invited to go to work in Surabaya. Finally, she was
trapped in the case of human trafficking. She did not
know that the job was not actually a café waiter, but
as a prostitute. After she started working and felt
reluctant to continue the work, she finally escaped
and reported to the police.
Another case was experienced by Eni, a 15-year-
old student, who was initially invited by someone to
work but was later trapped as a prostitute in the
Cianjur area. Based on her confession, she had to
serve a man in a villa or hotel and her employer was
waiting for her during she served men. After more
than a month of working, she contacted her friend
over the phone to offer work with a reason that she
Online Human Trafficking: The Impact of Social Media Used
83

was tired of working alone and needed friends to
work with her. After she met her friend, but her friend
did not accept to work as a prostitute, she finally
reported to his parents and reported to P2TP2A
Cianjur. As a result, Eni, who was earlier initially as
a victim, became entangled as the perpetrator for
recruiting her friend to be involved in the case of
human trafficking.
Then, another informant named Nia was invited
by someone to work at a café in Batam. Seeing her
friends on her Facebook page with a modern style
encourages her to get a job with a higher salary. She
was curious to see other areas and want to feel what
it feels like to board the plane. Flight experience,
according to her, can be a pride and also can increase
her confidence to be exposed to others. It made her
accept the job offer. However, after being in Batam,
she was then sent to Malaysia to serve as a
housemaid. However, she eventually escaped to the
Indonesian embassy in Malaysia. Then, she returned
to Indonesia even without her salary.
Technology can indeed be a scary thing when
faced with those who have lack of education resulting
in social problems such as human trafficking.
However, this is not entirely the fault of the victims
because those who participate and play important
roles in this case are the traffickers who abuse
technology for their personal advantages. Thus, the
negative thing that arises as the impact of rapid
technological development is not coming from the
technology itself but from the users who are
irresponsible.
The existence of social media such as Facebook
can connect individuals with other individuals in
different areas. They can add a lot of friends with
people who were previously unknown. In correlation
with the results of current study, recruitment of
human trafficking victims was not only done by
agents, but it can start from the introduction through
social media Facebook. In the beginning, individuals
meet each other on Facebook, and then invite to meet
each other. This becomes a great pride for some
people because they can know and meet other people
in different areas. The meeting then led to the job
offer with promising salary, so that in the end
individuals are trapped in the case of human
trafficking.
Technology could be a disaster for the community
if someone lacks of the necessary education and
information. It makes some women in Cianjur
District easy to be influenced through the job
vacancies offered in the social media. Job offers with
high salary are difficult for them to refuse. People
with extensive knowledge will rethink when they are
offered a job with an irrational salary, while those
with less informed conditions accept the offer without
re-thinking or seeking further information related to
the job offered.
Facebook can be an intermediary medium for a
person to communicate then culminate in the
recruitment of individuals to become victims of
human trafficking. On the other hand, Facebook also
provides benefits to be a media for victims to report
or ask help to their Facebook friends that they were in
a dangerous condition or persecuted as victims.
Finally, the victim can be helped for reporting to their
friend. Then the victims are handled by the authorities
and P2TP2A institution. Therefore, through this
technology, the crime of human trafficking case can
be revealed.
Related to that, as delivered from the research
result of Nurbayani, et al (2015) the positive impact
of social media is easy to get information and
communication, and to add friendship. All the human
trafficking victims were informed that they accepted
the job offer because they wanted to be successful like
other friends. They see the phenomenon through
social media Facebook based on posts from their FB
friends (Perloff, 2014).
If it is associated with Roucek and Warren's
(1963) description of the characteristics of rural
communities, one of which is that the village
community is homogeneous in terms of livelihoods
such as farmers. However, at present, these
characteristics have changed. The facts in this study
show that people only want to get jobs outside the
farm, and they even intend to go outside the region or
abroad.
All victims of human trafficking victims can be
considered as poor families. This is proven at the time
researchers did the observation. Many people live in
slum areas, and most of them want to change their
lives. Unfortunately, they are not aware how to get
appropriate jobs, and use social media to get
information related to job vacancy. Due to their lack
in knowledge, they could be easily trapped by the
syndicate of human trafficking.
In relation to the feminist theory described by
Saptari and Holzner (1997, p.47), it is the idea of
awakening the low position of women in society, and
the desire to correct or change those circumstances.
In this case, the women must realize to get their rights
to improve their living condition. Their desire to
change their destiny is emancipation.
The informants in this study accepted the offer of
job to earn more money. Seeing Facebook postings of
people who have achieved success have pushed them
to try their luck overseas. This is a critical mindset
ICSE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education
84

that women not only stay at home but also have to
seek for a change.
4 CONCLUSION
Based on the findings and analysis of the data
presented in this study, it can be concluded that the
technology that is developed so rapidly and so
sophisticatedly can cause a disaster for a community
if the community has a low level of education and
literacy. The information provided through the
internet, such as social media, will be easy to spread
and difficult to block. Those who are lack of
information, tend to take it for granted without
capturing the information disseminated through the
internet. As a result, they are easily trapped in the case
of human trafficking. However, the technology also
provides many benefits. The results of research show
technology, particularly social media, can move
women to work outside. By seeing postings from
friends on Facebook who post about luxurious
lifestyle, for example, women are motivated to get a
similar status so they are looking for a better job.
There are changes in people's thought that women
should work to change lives, so that they are not only
fixated on domestic work. Their decision to work is
emancipation. Unfortunately, sometimes their strong
motivation is not equipped with sufficient knowledge
and literacy skills so that for some women,
particularly from rural areas, limited knowledge can
lead them to negative things such as human
trafficking case. Thus, education becomes very
important in the advancement of technology and
information.
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