Maya Lahav

Doctorate Researcher | Oxford University
Online Exploitation • Tech & Crime

About

Doctorate researcher in Criminology at the University of Oxford, focusing on the role of digital platforms in enabling human trafficking. Former lead of Human Exploitation Team at a high-tech intelligence company and later served as Head of Section in Denmark’s Ministry of Defence, Department of Cyber and Information Security. Additionally, trafficking mitigation work with NGOs in South Asia. Currently a Visiting Fellow at the University of Sydney Law School and a 2025 International Strategy Forum Fellow.

Research

Sex trafficking was a crime once operating in the shadows of society, but it now flourishes on social media. This shift relocates risk into everyday technologies and exposes gaps in how we govern digital environments. We need evidence that explains why traffickers choose particular platforms, why they change tactics when products or rules change, and why current approaches often arrive too late. My research responds to that need by explaining the mechanisms that sustain illicit markets online and the conditions under which platform design and user routines may produce harm. I focus on offender motivations and on features of platforms that shape opportunity and reach, including the growing use of generative AI. The purpose is to deliver findings that travel directly into policy and product decisions.The PhD research data so far has helped consult the UK Home Office, the European Commission, the Swedish Police Authority, and The Guardian.

Recent Engagements

  • Consulting European Commission on online safety, 2025

  • Speaker - Punishment in Global Peripheries, South Africa, 2025

  • Chairing and Speaking – International Stockholm Criminology Symposium, June 2025

  • Speaker – British Society of Criminology Conference, July 2025

  • CICJ Fellow – University of Sydney, 2025

  • ISF Global Fellow (Schmidt Futures), 2025

  • Europaeum School on AI and the Digital Future - University of Luxembourg, July 2025

  • Quoted in The Guardian article, 2025

  • "Cybersecurity in the Age of GenAI" – CyberProtection Magazine, 2023

  • "Coercive Cyberbegging" – ActiveFence, 2023

  • Lecturer at DIS, 2023-2025

Support My Work

If you are interested in funding, collaborating, or partnering, I would love to hear from you. Your support helps ensure that this research remains independent, globally engaged, and responsive to urgent challenges in digital governance and human vulnerability.Ways to support:
- Funding research (academic, philanthropic, or private sponsors)
- Partner on joint research or advisory work
- Share this work with networks that care about systems-level change