{"id":500,"date":"2021-01-29T05:27:09","date_gmt":"2021-01-29T05:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mtch.com\/?p=500"},"modified":"2025-05-11T09:59:43","modified_gmt":"2025-05-11T13:59:43","slug":"1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/match-group.dd-nyc.co\/jp\/single-trust-and-safety\/1\/","title":{"rendered":"Note from Polaris for National Slavery and Human Trafficking Awareness Month"},"content":{"rendered":"

About this Series<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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This is the first in a series of posts from our partners on the Match Group Advisory Council. These posts focus on safety topics that are important to our partners, our company, and our users. We have asked Match Group Advisory Council Members to contribute their expert insights to our Trust and Safety Center to increase awareness among our members and amplify our collaborative work to improve safety both on our platforms, and in our greater community.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI love you, baby. I just need you to have sex with a few guys so we can get enough money to buy a house together. If you really love me, you\u2019ll do this for us both\u2026\u201d \u2026said no one who loves you, ever.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Now at first read, this may seem pretty obvious, if you are in a healthy relationship, or if you know what a healthy relationship looks like, or feels like. But at Polaris, a leading anti-human trafficking organization, conversations like this are all too familiar. Polaris is leading a data-driven social justice movement to end sex and labor trafficking. As part of that work, for more than a dozen years we have operated the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline. That experience has put us in contact with thousands of survivors of trafficking and we have learned, from survivors, that manipulating the concept of love is one of the most powerful weapons in a human trafficker\u2019s arsenal.<\/p>\n

This comes as a surprise to many who believe trafficking \u2013 particularly sex trafficking \u2013 generally begins with kidnapping or other forceful, violent means, but the reality is that most people who wind up in sex trafficking situations know and trust \u2013 and very often love \u2013 their traffickers. Trafficking by an individual \u2013 generally a pimp or an intimate partner \u2013 often begins with the trafficker and potential victim building a relationship online. Contact and ensuing conversations take numerous forms but generally follow patterns.<\/p>\n

The pattern we know the most about is so called \u201cRomeo\u201d pimps \u2013 generally men who very purposefully form romantic relationships with victims and then push them into prostitution or other sexual commerce. Traffickers will appear at first like the perfect partner, or the date of your dreams. They\u2019ll promise the world. Then they will ask you to do something that no one who loves you would ever ask \u2013 to perform a sexual act, for money.<\/p>\n

Online recruitment may begin with commenting on potential victims\u2019 photos and sending direct messages, carefully building the rapport and intimacy needed to entice victims into a false sense of trust. The next phase is often \u201cboyfriending\u201d \u2013 manipulations such as feigned romantic interests, extreme flattery, promises of gifts or other financial assistance, assurance that they, and they alone can care for the potential victim, or even perceived salvation from domestic violence or child sexual abuse. In these cases, the online relationship will generally culminate with the trafficker purchasing travel tickets for the potential victim in order to finally unite face-to-face.<\/p>\n

In a slightly different and accelerated version of this recruitment model, geography is factored in before the online relationship begins. Traffickers can connect with potential victims using location-based apps. Victims use these apps for their intended purpose, to seek out a potential romantic partner. Traffickers, recognizing that legitimate desire, can step in and say all the right things, but with all the wrong intentions.<\/p>\n

As part of National Slavery and Human Trafficking Awareness Month, we want to remind those who are seeking relationships online that human traffickers are out there too, looking for vulnerable people to manipulate and exploit. Since human trafficking can happen through manipulative and unhealthy relationships, it can also be prevented through awareness.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to educate yourself so you know\u00a0how the crime actually manifests<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 to protect yourself against potential exploitative relationships and to help your friends and family who may talk about their own experiences with you. The best defense against a human trafficker who poses as a romantic partner is knowing your own intrinsic value. That\u2019s not easy, but remember: \u201cI want you to have sex, for money,\u201d \u2026said no one who loves you, ever.<\/p>\n

Safety Tips<\/strong><\/p>\n