A worthy effort to fight online sex trafficking
The sexual exploitation of children is a crime so ugly that many people prefer to look away. This “ick” factor benefits those who profit by enslaving girls and women for sex. What’s more, policing sex-trafficking websites is so fraught with concerns about restricting the openness of the internet that some lawmakers are afraid to act.
This, too, can protect those who facilitate an unspeakable crime.
Enter Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake.
They joined more than a dozen other senators in introducing a bill that would make it easier to prosecute those who publish websites that feature ads linked to sex trafficking.
During a meeting with the Republic Editorial Board on Thursday, McCain explained his involvement in terms that reflect the complexity of the issue.
“There’s something that’s just shameful, and it’s getting worse as the world becomes more tumultuous the more dislocation there is, the more human trafficking,” he said. “Honestly, for someone like me, and I see this, my first instinct is to shy away from it. It’s so gross. It’s so terrible.” But he isn’t shying away. Both of our senators have demonstrated a talent for taking on tough causes, so it is no surprise they are backing the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act.
It is particularly aimed at Backpage.com, a website that was subjected to a two-year Senate investigation that found that the Backpage.com founders — Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin — increased their profits by knowingly accepting ads that facilitated criminal sex trafficking of women and underage girls.
Lacey and Larkin have argued that federal law gives them immunity as long as they did not actually create the ads on the website, according to reporting by The Republic.
Their business is under review by a federal grand jury, and their attorney expects an indictment.
The bill supported by McCain and Flake is in response to the investigation.
McCain acknowledged he has been strongly influenced and inspired on this issue by his wife, Cindy, who joined him at Thursday’s Editorial Board meeting. Cindy McCain is one of the nation’s leading advocates for tougher laws against human traffickers.
The Senate bill would amend Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 to make it clear that the law does not prevent enforcement of sex-trafficking laws against interactive computer services.
That seems simple enough. Clearly, it makes sense to update laws to reflect the challenges of today.
And without a doubt, those who knowingly accept ads to sell children for sex ought to be held accountable, not spared by an outdated statute.
But even efforts to protect children from sex trafficking can be tricky in this era of spontaneous, unfiltered communication.
If every website were held responsible for screening content, “there is no Twitter,” Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University, told The Republic’s Ryan Santistevan.
A law meant to protect innocents from vicious exploitation could “reshape the way the internet works, in ways that we can’t fully predict or understand,” Goldman said.
Modern communication tools are popular with users and profitable to providers. Their appeal is often the anonymous and ephemeral forum they provide to those who think they have something to say.
The very nature of this type of communication would change if website operators had to prescreen and take responsibility for content.
However, as Flake pointed out in a written statement: “Sex trafficking is a deplorable crime and companies like Backpage.com that knowingly facilitate it are reprehensible . ... Congress needs to act to hold these criminal actors liable for their victimization of innocent women and girls.”
It’s going to require a delicate balance to make this work without chilling the communication channels available to all on the internet. It won’t be easy. But it is a worthy effort for Arizona’s senators.