‘If Instagram didn’t exist, it wouldn’t have happened’: a mother’s search for her trafficked daughter

Four years after Robyn Cory's daughter was groomed at 15 on Meta's platform and sold for sex by a gang, she is still missing

Robyn Cory's daughter Kristen was 15 when she was allowed to open her own Instagram account. We thought we'd been responsible and done everything we could to make it safe," says Cory. Months later, Kristen disappeared from the family home after being groomed on Instagram's direct message service by a criminal gang, who then sold her for sex on the streets of Houston.

Her daughter never recovered from her ordeal, Cory says. Kristen returned home but has since gone missing after being trafficked again. Her mother does not know if she is still alive.