Dark side of the web: child sex trafficking

Are online publishers of adult content responsible for harm?

FAKE news is not the only challenge facing online publishers and social networks this year; child sex trafficking victims and activists are pushing for amendments to the Communications Decency Act, a US law that says website owners are not responsible for content posted by users.

Earlier this month, Backpage. com, the second largest online classified advertising site in the US, removed its adult content section, which had been responsible for about 90 percent of the company’s profits, according to a recent Senate Subcommittee report.

The company cited “unconstitutional government censorship” and “new government tactics, including pressuring credit card companies to cease doing business with Backpage.”

This followed an unsuccessful lawsuit by three child sex-trafficking victims, who claimed Backpage promoted the sexual exploitation of minors, and the release of the US Senate Subcommittee report, which found that Backpage manually edited Adult ads until 2012, including removing terms like “Lolita” or “Amber Alert” that typically signified under-age girls, before posting the sanitised ads.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children claimed that Backpage was involved in 73% of all child trafficking reports it received from the public.

Mary Mazzio is the director of I Am Jane Doe, a documentary out next month on Backpage and child sex-trafficking victims. “All those children wanted to do is litigate whether an online operator is responsible for online harm,” she told The Stream on Al Jazeera this week.

After her daughter had been missing for nine months, Kubiiki Pride found the 14-year-old for sale in the Adult section on Backpage. com. “When I asked them to remove the pictures of my child, they did not. My problems with Backpage began there,” she told The Stream.

“I was very happy to have found my child, on this site. But when you look at the dynamics of how brain-breaking it is to see your child, your baby, in a compromised position being advertised for sex, in America, I think conversations should be had to stop this from ever happening, to stop this long-term damage every happening again.

“The reality is that Backpage has adapted, edited and passed through third-party content that is responsible for generating revenue off human trafficking and modern-day slavery,” sex trafficking survivor Brooke Axtell, founder and director of She Is Rising, told The Stream.

“It’s their responsibility to create a solution – greater measures for verification of identity, protocols for intervening, and protections for young people. At this time, they’re not able to do that, so legally and ethically they have a responsibility to shut their own site down and stop hiding behind the rhetoric of freedom of speech while silencing the voices of the countless children who have been bought and sold on their site.

“I have listened to far too many stories from young women and girls who have had their lives ripped apart because in such a short amount of time they can be posted as a commodity. While these girls will spend a lifetime recovering from trauma, the CEO of Backpage and those who benefit financially will reap the rewards of exploitation.”

Brooke quoted a University of Texas study just released that found 73 000 children are trafficked into the sex trade every year in Texas alone. “It’s a common myth that this isn’t prevalent here. It’s prevalent because there’s a demand for it.”

Elizabeth Nolan Brown, associate editor at Reason magazine, pointed out that the debate doesn’t only impact Backpage.

“We see cops conducting sex trafficking and prostitution stings on Facebook and now through Snapchat,” she said.

“When Backpage closed, everyone was saying, ‘ Oh, I suppose everyone’s going to advertise on Instagram now.’ These other sites haven’t sufficiently shut this down either or else the cops wouldn’t be able to routinely conduct stings this way. So would you also go after Facebook and Instagram and Snapchat and all of the other sites?”

Backpage declined to join the discussion on The Stream but Elizabeth argued shutting down their adult section was misguided. “The government has gone after various websites – and each time the ads just migrate to a different site.”

When asked what she would do to curb child-sex trafficking online, she said: “I would not try to drive people onto encrypted sites, onto the dark web, back to street corners and alleys, and off sites where prostitution advertising is in the open and sites will actually co-ordinate with law enforcement.”

Ongoing debate over protection of child sextrafficking victims versus protection of online publishers to not be held responsible for third-party content

73 000 children are trafficked into the sex trade every year in Texas alone

Girls can be abducted, listed on sites like Backpage.com and bought within 24 hours

Backpage.com removed its adult content section earlier this month after pressure from activists and government

Debate impacts on Facebook and other social media networks

The Stream is a social media community with its own daily TV show on Al Jazeera English. For more information, see http://stream. aljazeera.com/ or follow @ajstream on social media.