{"id":377406,"date":"2017-11-25T11:00:57","date_gmt":"2017-11-25T11:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=377406"},"modified":"2017-11-25T12:47:23","modified_gmt":"2017-11-25T12:47:23","slug":"chatbot-taking-seattles-sex-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/11\/chatbot-taking-seattles-sex-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"The chatbot taking on Seattle’s sex trade"},"content":{"rendered":"
Its creators say the bot is most effective when it poses as a 15-year-old girl.<\/p>\n
You can find “her” number within fake messages placed alongside real ads on websites popular with those looking to buy sex.<\/p>\n
Naive and innocent, the bot will tell you she is nervous and check that her age is “cool with you”.<\/p>\n
If you say yes, that’s when it’s revealed: you’ve been talking to a chatbot, and buying sex is a crime that harms women the world over.<\/p>\n
It’s a message designed to shock the recipient into reconsidering their actions, says Robert Beiser from Seattle Against Slavery.<\/p>\n
“For someone who thinks they’re anonymous, who thinks they can go on the internet and buy another human being, it’s a big wake-up call.”<\/p>\n
‘Forgotten’<\/strong><\/p>\n The tool is part of groundbreaking efforts in Seattle to fight sex trafficking, an industry that like many others has moved online, and in doing so has become acutely difficult to prevent.<\/p>\n Men no longer need to go to the dangerous and unpredictable red light district. Instead, these digital curb crawlers can buy women using a smartphone.<\/p>\n It’s a safer system, but only for the men.<\/p>\n “It was very violent,” remembers Stephanie Harris, a former sex worker turned advocate for ending the trade.<\/p>\n