Alaska Attorney General John Burns joined other state attorneys general in signing a letter Wednesday calling on the website Backpage.com to detail how it is attempting to remove advertising for sex trafficking, especially ads that could involve minors.
The Backpage.com online classified sites claim to have strict policies to prevent illegal activities, yet research has found hundreds of ads that are clearly for prostitution.
“It does not require forensic training to understand that these advertisements are for prostitution,” the attorneys general wrote.
The letter states the hub for illegal sex ads is a magnet for those seeking to exploit minors and points to more than 50 cases, in 22 states, over three years involving the trafficking or attempted trafficking of minors through Backpage.com.
“These are only the stories that made it into the news; many more instances likely exist,” the attorneys general wrote. They also reminded Backpage.com of a 2010 request from nearly two dozen attorneys general asking the adult services site be taken down.
In a press release, Burns stated, “Kids aren’t capable, legally or otherwise, to consent to be sold for sex. And regardless of a prostitute’s age, its difficult to know whether the person advertised is being coerced.”
Richard Svobodny, deputy attorney general for the Department of Law, stated in a press release, “The only way for Backpage.com to completely stop child sex trafficking on its site is to take down adult services advertisements altogether and take aggressive steps to be sure such posts don’t appear elsewhere on the site. Traffickers who exploit runaways and other disadvantaged kids shouldn’t be provided with a tool that makes that process so much easier.”
Village Voice Media, LLC, a top provider of “adult services” advertisements, owns Backpage.com. The company owns 13 weekly newspapers in the United States including a web page that advertises “escort” services in several Alaska communities.
Backpage.com vice president Carl Ferrer, in a meeting with the Washington state AG’s office, acknowledged the company identifies more than 400 “adult services” posts every month that may involve minors.
There has been no change in postings for prostitution services on Backpage.com since that meeting. On Aug. 1, the Washington Attorney General’s Office found 142 advertisements for what they considered prostitutes in the Seattle area. On Aug. 2, the Connecticut AG’s Office found ads for prostitutes in Springfield and Rhode Island that circumvented Backpage.com’s omission of an adult section.
Investigators are finding that Backpage.com’s review procedures are ineffective in policing illegal activity, according to the attorneys general’s letter. In the letter, Backpage.com also states to being committed to preventing those intent on misusing the site for illegal purposes and states they have implemented strict content policies to prevent illegal activity and that the company has inappropriate ad content removed.
The letter demonstrates ads on Backpage.com still show nearly naked persons in provocative positions pictured in nearly every adult services advertisement.
In the letter, an independent assessment by AIM Group estimated Backpage.com’s annual revenue from its adult services at approximately $22.7 million. The letter also applauded the decision by Craigslist to shut down its adult services section as a way for it to eradicate advertising on its website that trafficked children for prostitution.
The National Association of Attorneys General requested Backpage.com’s response on or before Sept. 14.
Comments (10)
Add commentIf only the AG would get our
If only the AG would get our politicians to stop being prostitutes...
Maybe prostitution just
Maybe prostitution just shouldn't be illegal in the first place. If a woman (or a man) can sleep with a random person for free, or get involved in the porn industry, I don't see why accepting money for sex is such a different issue.
Just making it legal would
Just making it legal would solve many of the problems, though. Sex trafficking happens even in countries that have outlawed prostitution (like the U.S.), and it's an entirely different issue.
Were it legal, it would likely require licensing of some sort to prevent the spread of STDs and ensure a safe working environment. If women are brought over from the Ukraine (or, more likely, Mexico), then anyone forcing them into prostitution would still be committing a crime, and if they work in legal establishments, they'd be regulated to the point where law enforcement would know if they were being forced into it.
I don't see why restricting a group of people from using their own bodies the way they choose should be a law enforcement tool for people who commit crimes either way. Even if it's not perfect, I'd rather a minority of sex workers be subject to abusive pimps than the majority.
Besides women and young
Besides women and young girls, we need to be worried about children and sex trafficking. Isn't this disgusting?
"The August 17 Baltimore conference is sponsored by B4U-ACT, a group of pro-pedophile mental health professionals and sympathetic activists. According to the conference brochure, the event will examine “ways in which minor-attracted persons [pedophiles] can be involved in the DSM 5 revision process” and how the popular perceptions of pedophiles can be reframed to encourage tolerance."
Child advocate Dr. Judith Reisman, a visiting professor at Liberty University’s School of Law, said the conference is part of a strategy to condition people into accepting pedophiles.
“The first thing they do is to get the public to divest from thinking of what the offender does criminally, to thinking of the offender’s emotional state, to think of him as thinking of his emotional state, [and] to empathize and sympathize,” Reisman said. “You don’t change the nation in one fell swoop; you have to change it by conditioning. The aim is to get them [pedophiles] out of prison.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/08/15/conference-aims-to-normalize-pedophili...
p, I guess as a society,
p, I guess as a society, Americans have chosen to have prostitution be illegal. Go to Vegas, if you feel the need!
I don't know, call it backwards or old fashioned. Maybe it just makes a better environment in which to raise the next generation. Call it morals...
Funny, Calypso, because many
Funny, Calypso, because many of their best customers are the morally concerned. And how many priests are convicted pedophiles? Morality has little to do with it.
kpaw, I'm not talking about
kpaw, I'm not talking about the morals of the people that engage in such behavior (some of them put up a good moral front, I agree). It's the morality of a society in general.
We have enough problems with Hollywood and the music industry and liquor and drugs. Let's not add something else.
It happens anyway, legal or
It happens anyway, legal or not, just in a much more dark and sinister way.