Human trafficking (HT) has been described as modern-day slavery. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime defines HT as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of people through force, fraud, or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit. Men, women, and children of all ages and from all backgrounds can become victims of this crime worldwide. The traffickers often use violence or fraudulent employment agencies and fake promises of education and job opportunities to trick and coerce their victims. This article mainly focuses on the devastating mental health consequences of trafficked individuals. Unfortunately, the number of people, including children, being trafficked has risen exponentially, within countries and across borders universally. This alarming worldwide increase is fueled by multiple factors, including an increase in organized crime; however, multiple agencies and governments are working hard to combat this terrible plague. [ Psychiatr Ann . 2021;51(8):369–372.]
The internet, especially in the form of social media, provides an avenue for dissemination of unusual and fixed ideas. Recently, the role of conspiracy theories (CTs) in perpetuating myths about the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has attracted the attention of mental health practitioners. While extreme CTs may carry some similarities to delusions and may occur in similar socioeconomic groups, some distinctions can be made in the clinical setting. There is little evidence that social media use or gaming with virtual-reality tools on the internet cause psychotic illness, although the internet does promote CTs. Nevertheless, individuals with psychotic illness are overrepresented among internet users and this may allow for greater exposure to unusual beliefs. Future immersive experiences on the internet such as virtual reality and the metaverse may present challenges for people at risk of developing fixed beliefs, but research will be needed on this subject. [ Psychiatr Ann . 2023;53(4):171–174.]
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