Despite considerable concern about how human trafficking offenders may use the Internet to recruit their victims, arrange logistics or advertise services, the Internet-trafficking nexus remains unclear. This study explored the prevalence and correlates of a set of commonly-used indicators of labour trafficking in online job advertisements. Taking a case study approach, we focused on a major Lithuanian website aimed at people seeking work abroad. We examined a snapshot of job advertisements ( n = 430), assessing both their general characteristics (e.g. industry, destination country) and the presence of trafficking indicators. The vast majority (98.4%) contained at least one indicator, suggesting certain "indicators" may in fact be commonplace characteristics of this labour market. Inferential statistical tests revealed significant but weak relationships between the advertisements’ characteristics and the number and nature of indicators present. While there may be value in screening job advertisements to identify potential labour trafficking and exploitation, additional information is needed to ascertain actual labour trafficking. We conclude with an outlook on automated approaches to identifying cases of possible trafficking and a discussion of the benefits and ethical concerns of a data science-driven approach.

中文翻译：

---

网上贩卖人口招聘的“征兆”：探寻针对农民工求职者的广告特点

尽管对人口贩运罪犯如何利用互联网招募受害者、安排物流或为服务做广告感到相当担忧，但互联网贩运的关系仍不清楚。本研究探讨了在线招聘广告中一组常用的劳动力贩运指标的普遍性和相关性。采取案例研究方法，我们专注于立陶宛的一个主要网站，该网站针对在国外寻求工作的人。我们检查了招聘广告的快照（n = 430），评估了它们的一般特征（例如行业、目的地国家）和贩卖指标的存在。绝大多数 (98.4%) 包含至少一个指标，表明某些“指标”实际上可能是这个劳动力市场的常见特征。推断性统计测试揭示了广告特征与现有指标的数量和性质之间存在显着但微弱的关系。虽然筛选招聘广告以识别潜在的劳动力贩运和剥削可能很有价值，但需要额外的信息来确定实际的劳动力贩运。最后，我们对识别可能的贩运案件的自动化方法进行了展望，并讨论了数据科学驱动方法的好处和伦理问题。