The San Francisco Bay Area, host of the 2016 Super Bowl, is both a hub for human trafficking and the source of some of the best ideas for how to respond to the problem of modern day slavery.
The Super Bowl may not be the human trafficking hotbed some have claimed it to be, but the annual football championship game, seen by over 100 million people, has become a platform for activism to draw attention to sex trafficking and other forms of modern slavery.
More than 20 million people are enslaved throughout the world — in sex trafficking, domestic servitude, child labor and other forms of slavery. Anti-trafficking groups work every day — not just on Super Bowl Sunday — to identify and prosecute traffickers, and tech entrepreneurs from places such as Silicon Valley have helped develop new weapons that are aiding in the fight.
About the author
Catherine Cheneycatherinecheney
Catherine Cheney is the Senior Editor for Special Coverage at Devex. She leads the editorial vision of Devex’s news events and editorial coverage of key moments on the global development calendar. Catherine joined Devex as a reporter, focusing on technology and innovation in making progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. Prior to joining Devex, Catherine earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale University, and worked as a web producer for POLITICO, a reporter for World Politics Review, and special projects editor at NationSwell. She has reported domestically and internationally for outlets including The Atlantic and the Washington Post. Catherine also works for the Solutions Journalism Network, a non profit organization that supports journalists and news organizations to report on responses to problems.