On April 18, 2025, an expert online discussion was held on the topic “Contemporary Challenges in Addressing Online Sexual Exploitation”. This is the second event in a series of discussions organized by the CSO “Democracy Development Center” at the initiative of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, in cooperation with the Public Council under the inter-factional association “Equal Opportunities” of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the National Agency of Ukraine for Civil Service Issues, the Higher School of Public Administration, and with the support of UN Women in Ukraine. українською
The event was opened by:
- Maria Dmytrieva, Program Director, Democracy Development Center;
- Representative of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine;
- Representative of the Higher School of Public Governance;
- Oleksandra Novikova, European Network of Migrant Women (ENoMW).
The experts were invited:
- Tarana Baghirova, Programme Assistant, OSCE — “Risks and Responses to Trafficking for the Purpose of Online Sexual Exploitation”;
- Taina Bien-Aimé, Executive Director, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW), USA;
- Vasyl Filonenko, NGO “Stop Sexting”, Ukraine;
- Luba Fein, Voices of Israeli Sex Trade Survivors, Israel;
- Tatiana Kotlyarenko, Independent Consultant on Human Rights Issues, Switzerland.
The topics of discussion are part of Ukraine’s international obligations — in particular, the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), UN Security Council Resolution 1325 “Women, Peace, Security”, and are important in the context of adapting Ukrainian legislation to European Union norms and obligations to other international structures. These topics are becoming even more relevant in the context of full-scale war, increasing vulnerability of women, and increasing gender-based violence.
At the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, women-refugees to European countries and their children became targets of those who create criminal sexual content, including with minors. This was confirmed by independent consultant on human rights issues, expert on gender-based violence and human trafficking Tetyana Kotlyarenko (Switzerland). According to her, when considering this problem, it is especially necessary to pay attention to the situation of Ukrainian women-migrants.
“I would like to go back to the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, when, as an advisor on women’s and children’s rights, I interviewed those who left Ukraine. These women and children were hunted by those who intended to create sexual content, including with minors, of an illegal nature. Vulnerable Ukrainian women and their children became the target of online sexual exploitation, the demand for which is very high online, because the pornography that is produced is also exploitation. “The fact that these people are refugees already makes them much more vulnerable. We conducted trainings for those who work with refugees from the war in Ukraine, and even during the training they were approached with such proposals,” said Ms. Tetyana.
According to her, it is necessary to talk about the nature of online exploitation, because current laws focus on the traditional idea of exploitation and human trafficking, even though a lot of recruitment now takes place online.
“Criminals contact online, they don’t even need pimps, they use people via the Internet. There are many technical methods. It is also important to talk about the changes that are happening through technology. There is a lot of talk about artificial intelligence now. It can be used for good purposes, but human traffickers are expanding their activities with its help. “They quickly find vulnerable women and children, use them for grooming, it’s like a “technical pimp.” The evolution of technology is expanding the exploitation of women and children, even children who are now in Ukraine, because they can be contacted via the Internet,” the expert explains.
It is significant that now they are talking about protecting children from Ukraine, but in the same countries they are criminally exploiting children from Ukraine. About 300 children were taken from such situations, they were dragged into sexual exploitation via the Internet. There is still an understanding of different models of what is the effectiveness of prevention. Normalizing online communication, says Tetyana Kotlyarenko, is a model of equality, or the Swedish Nordic model. It can protect women and children, if it is implemented, then all vulnerable people who are involved in sexual activity should be protected, and those who exploit them should be punished. Today, any woman and child in Ukraine is vulnerable, and pornography is a huge driving force that pulls this whole train of sexual exploitation.
Oleksandra Novikova, who heads the European Network of Migrant Women (ENoMW), confirmed that migrant women are the most vulnerable group abroad due to lack of funds, often due to debt, language and cultural barriers. Women are afraid to contact the police, lest they lose some of their rights or be deported. Women are victims of threats and manipulations that involve them into sexual exploitation. According to Olexandra Novikova, when a woman goes to another country, she is immediately attacked online from the service where she registered her address. They offer to do “modeling work” or send photos. To avoid this, she needs to know where and how to seek help, and we also need to develop policies against violence.
Programme Assistant OSCE Tarana Baghirova stated that technologies are a two-sided phenomenon: on the one hand, they are useful for educational purposes, on the other, they have become a conduit for online sexual exploitation. The scale is terrifying: according to research, the bulk of Internet technologies are supporting criminal structures. Technologies are used at all stages, from recruitment to control of victims. Control of victims, a significant part of whom are underage girls, can take various forms. This can include threats to make their content public. The victim is physically free, but is being blackmailed. There are cases where rapists videotape the victim and threaten to harm her relatives in some way.
Also, since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the risks of victims being involved in sexual exploitation online and offline have increased significantly, disguised “job” ads are a sign of crime. In 2023, the UK passed a law that makes various online platforms directly responsible for the content they post.
Executive Director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women CATW (USA) Taina Bien-Aimé clarified that the terminology “sex work” etc. was invented to normalize prostitution and trafficking of women. According to the Palermo Protocol, prostitution is trafficking of people, one cannot consent to one’s own exploitation, and the presence of consent does not make the crime a legal act. All these international documents oblige Ukraine to combat the sexual exploitation of women and girls. In June 2024, the UN first stated that prostitution and pornography are human rights violations. Pornography is the filming of prostitution, the conversion of people into commodities by online pimps: the Onlyfans platform earned $6.6 billion in revenue in a year. Providers helped traffickers better distribute their advertising, and the laws were written in such a way that they were not responsible for the content.
Luba Fein, who represented the organization Voices of Sex Trafficking Victims in Israel at the event, also noted that the sexual exploitation industry is rapidly adapting to the digital age. Laws are not keeping up with reality, and pimps are already launching online applications. According to her, a network of human trafficking and prostitution was previously established between Israel and the former Soviet countries. The victims and pimps shared a common language and culture, which created trust, but in the country itself the women were defenseless, because the pimps had citizenship and knew the country, and the victims didn’t. The introduced law against human trafficking limited all this, but since 2022 everything has started to develop again.
In recent years, three networks of trafficking of women have been stopped in Israel, they were exploiting Ukrainian women fleeing war abroad. This industry is disguised, but its essence remains violence and control. They are parts of a single system that destroys the lives of Israeli and foreign women. All positive camouflage is false. Online accounts of victims of sexual exploitation are maintained by pimps, there is a lot of evidence of this. Prostituted women can receive up to $150 per month, the vaunted super-profits belong to the pimps. Telegram is a separate darknet, there are a lot of groups promoting prostitution. The consequences of prostitution are terrible long-term injuries. According to a survey of 854 people in 9 countries, 27% of them had psychiatric hospitalization, 37% had suicide attempts, eating disorders, and were also treated for infections. 71% of those surveyed experienced violence in prostitution, 63% were raped, 68% had PTSD. On the Internet, prostitution becomes even more horrific because it is recorded on video and constantly repeated. Israel has already passed specialized laws against it, but they are weakly effective. In Ukraine, according to Luba Fein, they want to disguise pornography as the country’s recovery. The income of the involved women is small, and it is unknown how much will be spent on their rehabilitation. “The sex industry is not some collection of women who supposedly want a lot of sex. No economy works like that, supply always is created by demand. Those who make a profit organize everything. Ukrainian feminists are incredible, even going through the war, they are fighting it in this difficult time,” Luba Fein thanked for participating in the online meeting.
Vasyl Filonenko, a representative of the Ukrainian public organization “Stop Sexting”, said that currently seventh-graders at school know how to buy drugs via Telegram, especially since they have access to pornographic content and can easily become victims of online human trafficking themselves. Porn content is a normalization of violence, it has a detrimental effect on children’s brains. The creation and distribution of porn content is a criminal offense, which is not understood by people who do not see the crime in distributing their own photos and videos. Similarly, violence against a child often begins with online contact.
Gender expert Maria Dmytrieva clarified that in the 11 years since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the east and Crimea, the number of criminal videos featuring children in the occupied Ukrainian territories on the darknet has increased. Up to 1/3 of videos featuring child rape were filmed there.
The events of the CSO “Democracy Development Center” are held as part of preparations for the development of a new State Targeted Social Program to Combat Human Trafficking for the period until 2025. Hearing the voices of experts from different countries is critically important for the qualitative renewal of Ukrainian policy and taking into account both new challenges and innovations in international laws and norms in response to these challenges.