I wasn't sure where to put this........
USA TODAY
September 30, 2010 Thursday
New efforts target child sex trafficking;
More groups and activists band together
A crackdown on child sex trafficking is being pushed by a growing movement of women's groups, celebrities, human rights activists and state officials.
This month, 22 state attorneys general called on Backpage.com, a classified-ad website, to close its adult-services ads after Craigslist was prodded to do so.
In New York City last week, actors Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher announced their "Real Men Don't Buy Girls" campaign against child sex trafficking at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting.
In St. Louis, a lawsuit was filed against Backpage.com, claiming it helped a pimp prostitute a 14-year-old girl.
The new efforts paint child prostitution as modern-day slavery, arguing it's a human rights issue rather than a free-speech one. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children estimates that at least 100,000 American children are victimized each year, often beginning at ages 11 to 14, by criminal networks.
"These children have been traumatized, brainwashed and abandoned and need specialized resources for a successful recovery," Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., said at a recent House hearing.
"We have more data and more momentum," says Deborah Richardson of the Women's Funding Network, which helps abused women. Her group financed a study of three states where it's helping to fight the problem -- New York, Michigan and Minnesota -- and found the number of girls trafficked through online classifieds and escort services rose at least 20% from February through August.
"Non-governmental groups and activists have started to coalesce much more," says Samantha Vardaman of Shared Hope International, a group that fights sex trafficking. Five years ago, she says, people didn't understand how online classifieds contributed to child prostitution. After all, she says, "I sold my couch on Craigslist. It was so accessible."
The groups worked with state attorneys general to pressure Craigslist to remove its adult-services ads, which it did Sept. 3.
"Adult-services sections are little more than online brothels," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said last week in announcing a similar appeal to Backpage.com, owned by Village Voice Media.
Backpage.com said in an online statement that it "respectfully declines the recent demand." It said attorneys general are shifting blame "from criminal predators to a legal business operator in an apparent attempt to capitalize on political opportunity."
Craigslist was on track to earn $44 million on adult-services ads this year before terminating them, and Village Voice Media is on track to earn $17.5 million, according to AIM Group, classified advertising consultants.
Stopping the ads will hurt efforts to eradicate child trafficking, Craigslist executive William "Clint" Powell told the House Judiciary Committee Sept. 15. "Those who formerly posted adult-services ads on Craigslist will now advertise at countless other venues," he said, adding that Craigslist worked with police and turned over credit card information of people accused of crimes.
Jason Schultz, assistant professor at the University of California-Berkeley School of Law, says lawsuits that accuse a publication of aiding child prostitution often fail, because courts traditionally cite the First Amendment's protection of free expression.
"Present law is outdated and needs revision," Blumenthal says. "I support changes clarifying and strengthening the law to hold websites accountable when they knowingly enable or promote illegal activity."
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