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54 Vand. J. Transnat'l L. 495 (2021)
Pornography-Based Sex Trafficking: A Palermo Protocol For for the Internet Age

handle is hein.journals/vantl54 and id is 511 raw text is: Pornography-Based Sex Trafficking: A Palermo Protocol Fit for the Internet Age ABSTRACT* The United Nations Palermo Protocol provides an international framework for regulating human trafficking with aims of increasing perpetrator prosecution and victim rehabilitation. Signatory nations implement this resolution through domestic legislation. Discrepancies across these statutes result in dangerous jurisdictional gaps and chaotically varied law enforcement approaches. Though legal scholarship rarely addresses the topic, pornography-based sex trafficking provides a clear example of this trend. The unique digital features of the internet compound these challenges. This Note seeks to close procedural gaps and alleviate policing frustrations through a proprietary examination of the Protocol's exploitation definition and suggests an amendment to the Protocol that uniformly criminalizes coerced pornography across all signatory nations. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION .............................................................. 496 II. BACKGROUND ................................................................ 502 A. The Evolution of the Pornography Industry and Its Role in Modern Life .................. 502 1. Distinctions between Professional and Amateur Pornography Production ..... 503 2. Dangers of the Pornography Industry .............................................................. 5 0 5 B. The Connection between Sex Trafficking and Pornography ......................................... 507 C. The United Nations Palermo Protocol.. 508 * This Note is dedicated to my late father, brilliant attorney John Watson, who finished reading it a few days before his passing in August 2020. Beginning with this publication, may my service in the legal profession be a perpetual eulogy to the gifts he gave me: a passion for the law, years of wise counsel, and ceaseless, unconditional support. He spent his life analyzing and leveraging government systems in an effort to elevate the most vulnerable among us. I hope, in some small way, this Note does the same. 495