Most people associate human trafficking with an outside threat: Shadowy international groups preying on minors.

But Denna Hays, director for the county's Alliance for Children, said the reality is the threat is very close at hand.

“A lot of people have this misconception that children are kidnapped from a van,” Hays said. “But what mostly happens is children are in their home and the trafficker is interacting with them through their phone on social media, and then the trafficker will meet them in their community.”

Hays' organization helps authorities conduct forensic interviews with minors who have been victimized. They also offer forensic medical exams to check on the child's health, and they help connect families to services such as counseling and legal representation. As with other authorities, Hays' experience with human trafficking differs greatly from the common image of kidnapped people being smuggled around the world. Like other aspects of life, smartphones and the internet have made human trafficking easier.

“Sometimes children will make videos to the trafficker under threat that the trafficker will tell the victim's family what they're doing,” Hays said. “It's actually pretty common.”

Confronting the problem can be hard for parents, especially those who are not as tech savvy as their digitally inclined children.“It's continual learning,” Hays said. “The (social media applications) that children and perpetrators use is constantly changing. We might not be aware of an app until it appears in a case, and then we learn about that app as quickly as we can.”Often, Hays said, the trafficker will pretend to be the victim's boyfriend or girlfriend.“And so they trust the trafficker, and they don't realize the manipulation is taking place,” Hays said. “We've seen victims who struggle emotionally going forward because there's a lot of victim shaming in their communities. People tend to not understand how they could get into those situations.”For parents or guardians, the situation might come as a surprise.“Parents are often totally blindsided in their own home,” Hays said. “They don't realize that this is happening right in their home. It's because people have a false perception. They think children are being kidnapped in a white van. That does happen, but much more common is online solicitation.”

Tim Wolford, supervisory special agent with the FBI, also noted another misconception about human trafficking.“One misconception people have is that it's a crime against a border,” Wolford said. “You don't need a border. It's a crime against people.”Wolford supervises a task force in Pittsburgh that focuses on crimes against children and human trafficking in the region.He also said that not all human trafficking is sexual in nature.“There's sex trafficking, but there's also labor trafficking,” he said.As for determining who might be vulnerable to traffickers, Wolford said it's not always easy to do.He said that both girls and boys can be victimized, and that often victims are more susceptible to trafficking if the children have low self-esteem, come from a broken home and have substance use issues.“Traffickers look at these things as ways to exploit them,” Wolford said. “When young females get addicted, they're more vulnerable into being pushed into it. It's also used as a way to exert control over women. It's common to see these girls have substance issues.”Rather than the van pulling up and perpetrators grabbing random victims, Wolford said, “Sometimes they just compliment girls at the supermarket and hit on girls and ones that responded will get picked up.”

But more often, Wolford said, the preying occurs online.“It's really manipulating and playing with a girl's emotions,” he said. “Sometimes they believe their trafficker is their boyfriend or someone who loves them. So, they tell the victim, 'If you love me, I need you to do X, Y, Z.'”The crime is also made harder to track because there is no set profile available to authorities on who is most likely to commit these crimes.“It's criminals who look for targets of opportunity,” Wolford said. “It's just people who try to work outside the legal system to make money.”Wolford said that these crimes are usually brought to his attention through local police departments.But even then, the alleged crimes can be hard to prosecute.“A lot of these girls try to protect their traffickers, and they're not looking to be rescued,” Wolford said. “There's a lot of shame involved. And they already have a mistrust of law enforcement because they often come from backgrounds of people who try to avoid the law enforcement.”Successful prosecution requires “a very victim-central approach to fight trafficking,” with resources such as the county's Alliance for Children, Wolford said. He said it's difficult to prosecute such a crime without a victim's cooperation.“Our focus is the well-being of the victim. We want to make sure they're safe and get out of this lifestyle,” he said. “I hope that with more education and awareness, we can see a reduction of trafficking, but it's a problem that's been around for a long time. It's just part of human nature, unfortunately.”But families can prevent their children from getting involved, he said.“If you look at things that make people vulnerable to trafficking, it starts in the home,” he said. “So, you have to have healthy homes and parents who are active and aren't abusing drugs themselves. Focusing on creating a stable family and home life where children's needs are met would definitely help and prevent.”

Because of the resources and awareness needed to successfully prosecute these cases, U.S. Attorney Scott Brady, whose term ended in February, announced last year the creation of Operation T.E.N. (Trafficking Ends Now).The operation is an umbrella coalition for law enforcement, community and nonprofit partners in the 25 counties in the Western District of Pennsylvania led by the United States Attorney's Office for the district. The state's Attorney General's Office participates in the operation and investigates human trafficking through its organized crime section, according to Brian Zorello, who heads the section.The creation of such intra-agency groups and focus on working with victims represents a complete change in how law enforcement handles human trafficking.“Women use to be arrested for prostitution and that was the end of it,” said Summer Carroll, a senior deputy attorney general. “There would be no investigation on why she was doing that. A lot of times women are prostituting not because they want to, but because somebody is forcing them to do that.”Carroll, Zorello and others with the office note that outreach and awareness are important to helping prosecute and end human trafficking. Ultimately, they said, “the best way to prevent is to educate all the people on the ground level.”