An uneasy Backpage alliance – Anti-trafficking activists

An uneasy Backpage alliance
Anti-trafficking activists may turn to the site for tips, but some say we’re ultimately better without it
By Tracy Clark-Flory
Saturday, May 12, 2012

In the fight against child sex trafficking, Backpage.com is seen as both friend and foe. The online classified site screens ads, reports thousands of potential cases of exploitation, assists in police investigations and acts as a resource for those searching for trafficked kids. But even some activists who use the site for good see greater benefit in the site shutting down its adult section — a move called for recently in Senate and House resolutions. This uneasy alliance reveals the complexities of the problem at hand.

In the past 16 months — the length of time Backpage has been screening and reporting potential trafficking ads — the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received nearly 5,000 tips from the site. The center’s president, Ernie Allen, tells me, “There’s no question they have undertaken the screening and reporting process very aggressively.” Ultimately, though, the question is whether it’s enough.

After working with Craigslist in a similar fashion for almost two years, he says, “What we basically concluded was that it wasn’t working. The price you pay to allow this kind of activity to proliferate was too great.” Eventually, Craigslist shuttered its adult section and, Allen says, “the total volume of these ads dropped dramatically, and most of that has not come back.”

If Backpage were to do the same thing, “it would dramatically reduce the scale and scope of the problem,” he says. “Some of it would relocate, but I don’t think it would proliferate at the same level.” Allen says that NCMEC doesn’t make “public pronouncements about the policy stuff,” but his message is clear: Shuttering Backpage’s adult section would make things better — but, short of that, NCMEC is devoted to helping the site reduce harm…. http://www.salon.com/2012/05/13/an_uneasy_backpage_alliance/singleton/

Sex Trafficking of Americans: The Girls Next Door – 300,000 young American girls

“There are more young American girls entering the commercial sex industry—an estimated 300,000 at this moment—and their ages have been dropping drastically. “

“we’re still in the Dark Ages with trafficking because, unlike incest, rape, and domestic battering, trafficking generates massive revenues—$32 billion a year worldwide.”

these articles may have graphic descriptions of these crimes

Sex Trafficking of Americans: The Girls Next Door
By Amy Fine Collins May 24, 2011

….In the Sex Crimes Bureau of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, in the pediatric division of Fort Bragg’s Womack Army Medical Center, in the back alleys of Waterbury, Connecticut, and in the hallways of Hartford’s Community Court, Assistant D.A. Rhonnie Jaus, forensic pediatrician Dr. Sharon Cooper, ex-streetwalker Louise, and Judge Curtissa Cofield have all simultaneously and independently noted the same disturbing phenomenon. There are more young American girls entering the commercial sex industry—an estimated 300,000 at this moment—and their ages have been dropping drastically.

“The average starting age for prostitution is now 13,” says Rachel Lloyd, executive director of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (gems), a Harlem-based organization that rescues young women from “the life.” Says Judge Cofield, who formerly presided over Hartford’s Prostitution Protocol, a court-ordered rehabilitation program, “I call them the Little Barbies.”

The explanations offered for these downwardly expanding demographics are various, and not at all mutually exclusive. Dr. Sharon Cooper believes that the anti-intellectual, consumerist, hyper-violent, and super-eroticized content of movies (Hustle & Flow), reality TV (Cathouse), video games (Grand Theft Auto: Vice City), gangsta rap (Nelly’s “Tip Drill”), and cyber sites (Second Life: Jail Bait) has normalized sexual harm. “History is repeating itself, and we’re back to treating women and children as chattel,” she says. “It’s a sexually toxic era of ‘pimpfantwear’ for your newborn son and thongs for your five-year-old daughter.” Additionally, Cooper cites the breakdown of the family unit (statistically, absent or abusive parents compounds risk) and the emergence of vast cyber-communities of like-minded deviant individuals, who no longer have disincentives to act on their most destructive predatory fantasies. Krishna Patel, assistant U.S. attorney in Bridgeport, Connecticut, invokes the easy money.

Criminals have learned, often in prison—where “macking” memoirs such as Iceberg Slim’s Pimp are best-sellers—that it’s become more lucrative and much safer to sell malleable teens than drugs or guns. A pound of heroin or an AK-47 can be retailed once, but a young girl can be sold 10 to 15 times a day—and a “righteous” pimp confiscates 100 percent of her earnings….

Introduced and signed into law under the Clinton administration, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, 18 U.S.C. 1591, covers labor trafficking as well as sex trafficking, but only when a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or when the person induced to perform such an act is a minor, under 18….

The unlikely trafficking-abolitionist coalition—consisting of secular social-justice advocates, faith-based groups, black activists, second- and fourth-wave feminists, liberals, conservatives, Democrats, and Republicans—shares a peculiar adversary in the form of trafficking skeptics, coming largely from the left. The Nation, for example, ridiculed the “‘sex slave’ panic,” and both Slate and City Pages questioned the alarming statistics published by the Department of Justice, the State Department, and non–government organizations such as ecpat and the Salvation Army.

“All the numbers we have on trafficking are inaccurate,” avows Deirdre Bialo-Padin, chief of the domestic-violence bureau of the Brooklyn D.A.’s office. “They’re too low. It’s an underreported crime. Who is going to raise her hand and say, ‘Hi, I’m a trafficking victim!’ when her family has been threatened? With the right laws in place, we will get harder numbers.” For victim advocates, saying that trafficking in America isn’t a problem is akin to J. Edgar Hoover saying the Mafia doesn’t exist. Melissa Farley believes “we’re still in the Dark Ages with trafficking because, unlike incest, rape, and domestic battering, trafficking generates massive revenues—$32 billion a year worldwide.”….

Scates had noticed that the X-rated classifieds in the back of The Hartford Advocate had dwindled slightly, she hoped as a result of the task force’s valiant efforts. But she quickly caught on that a new, tech-savvy generation of pimps was filling the void by merchandising girls on Craigslist (in September 2010 the site succumbed to pressure to remove its adult-services section, which was expected to earn $44 million last year); on Backpage.com (owned by Village Voice Media); or via theeroticreview.com. Females on theeroticreview.com are rated for consumers—ostensibly by “hobbyists” but more often than not, victims say, by their ever shrewder pimps. With the help of untraceable, prepaid cell phones and credit cards, this futuristic breed of trafficker can….obliterate any paper trail. “….

the theory behind the Sex Purchase Law in Sweden. As of 1999, johns are punished by up to six months’ imprisonment, traffickers are locked up for 2-to-10-year hits, and prostitutes are offered medical care, education, and housing. As a result, prostitution has been reduced by 50 percent in Sweden, and the purchase of sex, which is understood to be a human-rights abuse, has decreased by 75 percent. In contrast, Europol studies show, nations such as Holland and Australia, where prostitution has been legalized, have become lucrative, low-risk magnets for international sex-slave drivers and organized crime….. http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/05/sex-trafficking-201105

Sex Trafficking: The Girls Next Door
By James R. Marsh on June 2, 2011
Vanity Fair has a great story about child sex trafficking and prostitution in All-American Hartford, Connecticut. Here’s an edited excerpt of this excellent piece:

There are more young American girls entering the commercial sex industry—an estimated 300,000 at this moment—and their ages have been dropping drastically. “The average starting age for prostitution is now 13,” says Rachel Lloyd, executive director of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (gems), a Harlem-based organization that rescues young women from “the life.”

The explanations offered for these downwardly expanding demographics are various, and not at all mutually exclusive. Dr. Sharon Cooper believes that “history is repeating itself, and we’re back to treating women and children as chattel,” she says. “It’s a sexually toxic era of ‘pimpfantwear’ for your newborn son and thongs for your five-year-old daughter.” Additionally, Cooper cites the breakdown of the family unit (statistically, absent or abusive parents compounds risk) and the emergence of vast cyber-communities of like-minded deviant individuals, who no longer have disincentives to act on their most destructive predatory fantasies. http://www.childlaw.us/2011/06/sex-trafficking-the-girls-next.html

Colin McEnroe Show: ‘Sex Trafficking Of Americans’ How is prostitution treated in Connecticut?  By Colin McEnroe Published: Jun 01, 2011

….But the story of Connecticut’s human sex trafficking ring is not as distant as 19th-century London. It’s a story of right here, right now, maybe a girl you saw walking across the parking lot as you drove past a motel in the Meadows or on the Berlin Turnpike. She’s young, and maybe even something about the way she’s dressed makes you think, “She’s a hooker.”

What might not occur to you is how young the woman is and how trapped into the trade.  Some of those young women, right here, right now, have been bought and sold so that they can be forced to do a smaller, seamier version of the buying and selling of themselves. http://www.yourpublicmedia.org/content/wnpr/colin-mcenroe-show-sex-trafficking-americans

Underage sex trade still flourishing online

Underage sex trade still flourishing online By Amber Lyon and Steve Turnham, CNN January 20, 2011

Editor’s note: Hundreds of thousands of girls under the age of 18 are sold as sex slaves in the U.S. In a yearlong investigation, CNN’s Amber Lyon reveals the devastating realities of the business of underage sex. Don’t miss CNN Presents “Selling the Girl Next Door” this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on CNN.

Las Vegas, Nevada (CNN)….STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Selena, 13, was sold for sex on backpage.com
* Advocacy groups have accused the website of facilitating the trafficking of underage girls
* Neither backpage.com nor its owner would comment on those accusations….

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there are at least 100,000 underage girls being sex trafficked in America today. That’s a conservative estimate based on what little hard data currently exists; NCMEC believes the real number could be as high as 300,000.

Most are runaways, suffering from psychological problems or drug dependence, picked up and sold by pimps for staggering profits. According to studies, pimps can make up to half a million dollars a year, and they frequently prey on the young and the vulnerable.

The pimps ply their trade on the web, the new marketplace for underage sex trafficking. Last year, victims’ advocates called the internet classified site Craigslist’s Adult Service Section the “Walmart of child sex trafficking.”

CNN investigated Craigslist, posting an ad and receiving numerous calls from men seeking sex. That investigation helped spark a national conversation and outrage, as well as a call from 17 attorneys general around the country for Craigslist to shut down its adult services section.

But when Craigslist shut down its section, the escort ads migrated to another site, backpage.com. We decided to investigate Backpage after advocacy groups accused the website, which is owned by the Village Voice Media Group, of facilitating the trafficking of underage girls.

According to the AIM Group, an internet consulting firm, Backpage’s escort site earned an estimated $20 million in 2010. Its profits soared after Craigslist decided to pull the plug on its adult services section….Last fall, Backpage hired internet security advisor Hemu Nigam to implement “a holistic plan centered around preventing criminal activity on our site.” We wanted to know what that “holistic plan” was, but Nigam wouldn’t talk to us either.

Full nudity appears to have disappeared from the site, but suspect ads with tag lines such as “Daddy’s Little Girl” are common.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/20/siu.selling.girl.next.door.backpage/index.html

Congress Holds Hearing on Child Sex Trafficking, H.R.3244

also: H.R.3244 — Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000

Congress Holds Hearing on Child Sex Trafficking
By James R. Marsh on September 17, 2010
On Wednesday, the House Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing on DOMESTIC child sex trafficking.
At the hearing, former Congresswoman Linda Smith testified that more than 100,000 children are exploited in the sex trade in the United States every year:
“Domestic minor sex trafficking is the name we have given to the sexual exploitation of U.S. citizen children through prostitution, pornography and sexual entertainment,” she said. “The name reflects the fact that this exploitation is human trafficking as defined in the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. The crime therefore is a federal crime of trafficking and the victims should receive the full range of protections, services and rights outlined in the TVPA.”
http://www.childlaw.us/2010/09/congress-holds-hearing-on-chil.html

H.R.3244 — Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (Enrolled Bill [Final as Passed Both House and Senate] – ENR) http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c106:H.R.3244.ENR:

Irish Bishop secrecy oath, Afghan Boy Sex Slaves, Cambodia Child Sex Trafficking

Bishop admits involvement in secrecy oath for abuse victims By Fergus Black March 22 2010 ANOTHER Irish bishop has admitted being involved in an investigation into clerical abuse claims in which victims were made to sign oaths of secrecy. The Bishop of Clogher, Joseph Duffy, said in a statement that he had been been party to at least one civil settlement involving a claim made against the diocese in which a non-disclosure agreement was signed between the diocese and the claimant.

He told a Sunday newspaper that it was to his “regret” he did not pass on the abuse claims to police when he first became aware of the allegations in 1989. Bishop Duffy, who was unavailable for comment last night, told the ‘Sunday Business Post’ he was bound to secrecy by the victim’s parents at the time of the offence, but that he would not now be restricted by such a condition. Last week, a spokesman for Bishop Duffy said he had co-operated fully with the statutory authorities by sharing “all known records with them”. Irish Independent
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/bishop-admits-involvement-in-secrecy-oath-for-abuse-victims-2106660.html

Afghanistan’s Boy Sex Slaves By Michael Mechanic Mar. 19, 2010 Say what you will about the Taliban. They’re small-minded, repressive, religious zealots who exert their power through fear and intimidation. But certain aspects of Afghan society can make the black turbans look downright righteous. Consider the ancient tradition of Bacha Bazi, which means “boy play.” Banned by the Taliban, this illicit activity is on the upswing across Afghanistan. The Guardian reported on it last fall, and on April 20, Frontline is airing a special report with the same title: The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan.
Here’s how the Frontline producers describe it: Hundreds of boys, some as young as eleven, street orphans or boys bought from poor families by former warlords and powerful businessmen, are dressed in woman’s clothes, taught to sing and dance for the entertainment of male audiences, and then sold to the highest bidder or traded among the men for sex.

With remarkable access inside a Bacha Bazi ring operating in Northern Afghanistan, Najibullah Quraishi, an Afghan journalist, investigates this practice, still illegal under Afghan law, talking with the boys, their families, and their masters, exposing the sexual abuse and even murders of the boys, and documenting how Afghan authorities responsible for stopping these crimes are sometimes themselves complicit in the practice. http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/03/afghanistan-boy-sex-slaves-taliban

The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan – On air and online April 20, 2010 at 9:00pm In Afghanistan today, in the midst of war and endemic poverty, an ancient tradition–banned when the Taliban were in power–has re-emerged across the country. It’s called Bacha Bazi, translated literally as “boy play.”

Hundreds of boys, some as young as eleven, street orphans or boys bought from poor families by former warlords and powerful businessmen, are dressed in woman’s clothes, taught to sing and dance for the entertainment of male audiences, and then sold to the highest bidder or traded among the men for sex. With remarkable access inside a Bacha Bazi ring operating in Northern Afghanistan, Najibullah Quraishi, an Afghan journalist, investigates this practice, still illegal under Afghan law, talking with the boys, their families, and their masters, exposing the sexual abuse and even murders of the boys, and documenting how Afghan authorities responsible for stopping these crimes are sometimes themselves complicit in the practice. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/dancingboys/

In Cambodia, American Evangelicals Fight to End Child Sex Trafficking Christian Volunteer: ‘There Is a Deep Fulfillment in Laying Your Life Down for Somebody Else’ By DAN HARRIS, ALMIN KARAMEHMEDOVIC, AUDE SOICHET and SIDNEY WRIGHT IV – SVAY PAK, Cambodia, March 21, 2010 Butler runs a community center in the village of Svay Pak, the epicenter of Cambodia’s raging child sex trafficking epidemic. It’s a place where, on any given night, many of the children will be sold – by their own parents – for sex with strangers. He is one of many American Christians who have come to this impoverished, war-ravaged country to protect some of the world’s most vulnerable children.
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/cambodia-children-sold-slavery/story?id=10163645