LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When Nicole was aged 17 and her mother was sent to prison for white collar crimes, she met a man on Facebook who offered to take care of her.
But instead of looking after her, he sold Nicole to men across the United States from Texas to Washington D.C.. It was only when she was in her early 20s, after being badly injured in a vicious rape, that she was finally able to escape sex work.
Nicole's experience is not unique.
Traffickers worldwide are increasingly using social media to contact vulnerable teenagers and sell them into sex work, quick to adopt the latest online platforms popular with teenagers that has created new challenges for law enforcement agencies.