Published figure

75%

Of minor sex-trafficking survivors who entered “the life” in 2004 or later were advertised online, up from 38% among those who entered before 2004. Street advertising fell as the internet took the market.

What this number is

In this survivor sample, the advertising channel shifted. Those who entered after 2004 were far more likely to have been advertised online. The street did not disappear; the market moved.

Caveats

This is recall among survivors in one study, not a complete history of every market. Online ads are a method. They are not proof that every listing is a trafficking case.

What the 90% is for

Investigators and aftercare groups now work a digital marketplace. Funding that only imagines a van and a raid is funding the wrong decade. The 90% is for the work that actually finds children where they are sold.