Degree Name
Master of Science
Graduate Program
Mass Communication and Media Arts
Advisor
Bridget Lescelius
Abstract
The increasing use of social media enables predators to seek out and recruit victims through social networking sites. The overall goal is to outsmarting their manipulation of users by understanding and exposing their techniques to families and communities.
Social media networks, in particular Facebook, are a feeding ground for sexual predators with the use of media as a tool to lure, recruit, and control victims. Knowing the process of recruiting for online sex trafficking will protect users and be more aware of the dangers of social media. With a sex trafficking lawsuit pending against Facebook, the social media network needs to be more proactive in providing better security for its users or risk legal ramifications.