Research by Utrecht University and Rotterdam police has shown that so-called loverboys find 50 percent of their victims via the internet.

Loverboys are pimps who seduce naive young girls and force them into prostitution and other forms of exploitation. The researchers say the loverboys are increasingly resorting to scouring social networks, online communities and chatboxes for susceptible teenagers.

The way loverboys operate on the internet closely resembles that of paedophiles. They are using search engines to select potential victims by age, gender, address and level of education. The Utrecht researchers say girls have a tendency to reveal a lot about themselves on the web, sometimes even literally, enabling the loverboys to blackmail them. The girls are then exploited in several ways, including drugs trafficking and borrowing money in their own name for the loverboy. The men appear not to focus on people trafficking only, but opt for whatever brings in the most money.

(Graphic: Tina.nl, edited)