Prosecutors to pursue websites that host sex traffickers
THE US Senate has just passed a bill, already approved by the House, that would enable prosecutors to pursue websites that host advertisements for prostitution. The bill, awaiting President Donald Trump’s signature, was hailed by antisex trafficking groups and law enforcement as an important step in fighting online prostitution of teenagers.
Senators passed the bill 97 to 2, without amendments, meaning it can be immediately signed into law by the president.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Trump will sign the bill, but Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and a senior adviser, hosted a meeting of supporters of the bill in the White House earlier this month and has previously tweeted her support.
The bill would amend the Communications Decency Act, which websites like Backpage. com have invoked as immunity from criminal and civil actions when victims of online sex trafficking have tried to stop them from hosting ads for male and female sex workers, some of whom are teenagers.
The decency act was passed in 1996, as the internet was just evolving.
The 1996 measure protects website operators from content posted by third-parties, so long as the operators have no involvement in the content, and it is credited with enabling the internet to flourish without excessive regulation or legal liability for small start-ups.
And when young women who had been prostituted on Backpage tried to sue the website, federal appeals courts in Chicago and Boston specifically cited the Decency Act’s Section 230 as precluding the women from holding the websites liable.
Those rulings spurred the move to amend the law. In Chicago, a 16-year- old girl was slain by a customer who’d found her on Backpage in 2016. In Washington state, a 15year- old girl was trafficked on Backpage for more than three months before being rescued. The mothers of both girls gave emotional testimony to Congress in support of amending Section 230 to enable prosecution of the
Senators passed the bill 97 to 2, without amendments, meaning it can be immediately signed into law by the president.
websites themselves.
“It is a good day for America,” said Nacole S., the mother of the Washington girl, whose last name is being withheld to protect the girl’s identity.
“The narrow focus of this bill corrects Section 230 and keeps with the original intent of internet freedom and holds bad actors accountable for trafficking our children.
“This means everything to our family, and it is the fulfilment of a promise to our daughter to hold those (actors) accountable.”
Linda Smith, founder of Shared Hope International, an anti- sex trafficking group, said she began providing research to Congress in 2007 about online sex trafficking, but the information wasn’t taken seriously.
“We were all waking up,” Smith said. “Congress is not much different from the rest of the country. People are recognising that these children are victims of crime and deserve justice. That vote is, I think, historic.”
A Senate sub- committee investigated Backpage and found that it was involved in editing prostitution ads on its site to remove references to underage girls, while allowing the ads to stay on the site.
A Washington Post investigation last year revealed that Backpage representatives actively solicited ads from prostitutes who advertised on other sites, and created ads for them on Backpage.
Legislation then launched in the House and Senate to amend Section 230, specifying that it did not indemnify websites from facilitating sex trafficking. — WP-Bloomberg