HUMAN TRAFFICKING

By Debbie Bulloch




If you do a search in Second Life (SL) search using terms such as “slave,” “master,” “slavery,” “kidnapping,” or “force” you will probably get hundreds, if not thousands of hits. In your search results you will find SL sites catering to all sorts of slave-master roleplaying sims, you will find stores selling slave-master paraphernalia as well as “auction houses” where avatars are freely bought, exchanged, rented or sold.

The ready-availability of slave-master activities in SL parallels similar availability in Real Life (RL). If you do a Google search using the terms described above you will find thousands of websites catering to the fans of slave-master/BDSM. Some of the activity depicted on these sites is clearly consensual and it involves nothing more than people exploring a side of their personalities. Others, however, are far more sinister and do not appear to be of a consensual nature.

The recent case of Jaycee Lee Dugar the California girl who was kidnapped at age 11and then forced to spend the next 18 years of her life as the sex slave of convicted sex offender Phil Garrido, has sparked renewed focus on the subject of sexual slavery and human trafficking. Although Jaycee was abused “only” by her kidnapper (and “only” in this context is a very relative term), thousand of other girls face a far worse fate as modern-day victims of human trafficking.

The United Nations defines human trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons by improper means (such as force, abduction, fraud, or coercion) for an improper purpose including forced labor or sexual exploitation.

The U.S. Government defines human trafficking as:

• Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age.

• The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

This modern slave trade is a threat to all nations. A grave human rights abuse, it promotes breakdown of families and communities, fuels organized crime, deprives countries of human capital, undermines public health, creates opportunities for extortion and subversion among government officials, and imposes large economic costs.

Human trafficking is a largely hidden crime that has only recently gained the attention of law enforcement, human rights advocates, and policymakers.

Research conducted by United States Department of Justice has uncovered several key findings:

• Source countries for human trafficking often have poor economies; women are often unemployed and victims are easy to recruit.

• Most traffickers are the same nationality as their victims and usually have no criminal records.

• Trafficking victims are most likely to be young and reasonably healthy people from poor, but not necessarily the poorest, backgrounds.

• Recruitment is particularly effective when traffickers rely on victims whom they have turned into loyal enforcers or recruiters. Recruitment is also effective when the potential victim's family members are involved.

• In the United States, law enforcement agencies reported encountering more female (81 percent) than male (18 percent) victims. When victims were asked what type of trafficking was represented in their cases, the majority indicated forced prostitution, followed by domestic servitude, and agricultural labor. Whether this is the result of trafficking trends or training is not yet clear.

At Between Homes (BH) we are firmly opposed to any and all forms of human trafficking and slavery. This includes any form of real or imagined slavery or human trafficking in RL or SL. We are morally and philosophically against any kind of activity where humans (or their avatars) are abused, mistreated, humiliated or treated as chattels.

All humans (and by extension their SL avatars) are created equal and are each endowed with a soul. Slavery is the very antithesis of equality; it has a corrosive effect on the soul of the slave as well as the soul of the so-called master. Humans are not chattel, to be bought and sold at auctions; humans are not mindless automatons to be kept down on bent knees; and humans are definitely not put on this world (SL or RL) to be beaten and abused. This is as true in a virtual environment such as SL as it is in RL.

We understand that many treat SL as a game, where people can play out fantasy scenarios (I leave it up to each of you to decide for yourselves whether fantasizing about enslaving other humans is right or wrong). Some, however, have a difficult time establishing the line of demarcation between reality and fantasy. I know, from talking to many of you, that there are individuals who are liable to take SL fantasies a tad too far, thus blurring the lines between what is real and what is not. When this happens, people are bound to get hurt – what may start out as a “walk on the wild side” can end up having disastrous effects on the physical, mental and spiritual well being of individuals.

At BH we stand for the proposition that slavery, real or virtual, is wrong. Accordingly, from this moment on, any sort of activities, simulated or otherwise, that may be directly or indirectly related to human trafficking or slavery will no longer be permitted at BH. Anyone caught participating in these types of activities while on BH property will be summarily evicted and permanently banned from the group.

There are plenty of sites in SL where these activities are not only tolerated but are actually actively encouraged. We cannot control what the rest of SL does; we can, however, control what happens within the limits of our small community.

Our aim is not offend those who may find pleasure in these types of activities. I know many persons, and their SL avatars, who engage in the consensual exploration of slave-master and BDSM scenarios. We do not wish to interfere with the right of adults who engage in consensual activity – we do not aspire to becoming the thought police. Too many of our sisters, however, are the real victims of real human trafficking. We cannot stand silently by while our sisters (and brothers) suffer unspeakable abuse. It is in solidarity with their RL plight that we have made the decision to ban all slave-master/BDSM activity from Between Homes.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.