What Is Human Trafficking? I am Jane Doe, Communications Decency Act shields Backpage from liability, Europe Global Hub for Child Abuse Websites

– Europe Overtakes U.S. to Become Global Hub for Child Abuse Websites, Study Finds
– Child trafficking in UK hits record high, figures show

“federal judges were excusing Backpage from all liability,” said Mazzio. “Even alleged criminal activity is shielded by an outdated internet freedom law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

“Almost 21 million people are victims of forced labor”

What Is Human Trafficking? 
Tom Lowery, Contributor 03/26/2017

Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery. It’s the exploitation of people and involves the use of force, fraud or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act.

Contrary to popular misconception, Human Trafficking exists in every country, including the United States. If you think it’s always about foreigners and poor people then it’s imperative for you acquaint yourself with the facts.

Victims can be any age, race, gender or nationality. They can also come from any socioeconomic group. They’re not dirty or sex mad or stupid. They’re victims of a wide network of underground criminals….

It’s estimated that Human Trafficking generates many billions of dollars in profits per year; second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable form of transnational crime.

Award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio (whom I’ve previously written about in my article We Are All Jane Doe), is the producer and director of the film I Am Jane Doe. This documentary followed the heart breaking journey of several middle-school daughters, victims of Sex Trafficking on Backpage.com….

“I was also struck by the fact that federal judges were excusing Backpage from all liability,” said Mazzio. “Even alleged criminal activity is shielded by an outdated internet freedom law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, in a particularly stunning decision, told these Jane Doe children that even if Backpage participated in the federal crime of sex trafficking, the case had to be dismissed. It simply did not make any sense to me that it was legal to host ads for the sale of children here in the United States.” ….

Other types of crimes related to Human Trafficking include Forced Labor and Slave Labor. The International Labor Organization estimates are frightening:

Almost 21 million people are victims of forced labor – 11.4 million women and girls and 9.5 million men and boys.
Almost 19 million victims are exploited by private individuals or enterprises and over 2 million by the state or rebel groups.
Of those exploited by individuals or enterprises, 4.5 million are victims of forced sexual exploitation.
Forced labor in the private economy generates US$ 150 billion in illegal profits per year.
Domestic work, agriculture, construction, manufacturing and entertainment are among the sectors most concerned.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/what-is-human-trafficking_us_58d85f7ee4b0c0980ac0e789

I AM JANE DOE – TRAILER
Mary Mazzio
I AM JANE DOE chronicles the epic battle that several American mothers are waging on behalf of their middle-school daughters, victims of sex trafficking on Backpage.com, the adult classifieds section that for years was part of the iconic Village Voice.
Narrated by Academy Award-nominee Jessica Chastain, directed by award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio, and produced by Mazzio and Academy-Award nominee, Alec Sokolow, the film is a gut-wrenching human story and fresh look at a social and legal issue that affects every community in America.  For more, please visit IamJaneDoeFilm.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt8jpxA_AY0

Europe Overtakes U.S. to Become Global Hub for Child Abuse Websites, Study Finds 
By Eleanor Ross  4/3/17

Europe is now the global hub of websites hosting child pornography, after a 19 percent jump in content since last year, a new report has found.

The report, conducted by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), found that Europe hosted the greatest number of websites with graphic images and videos of children. The Netherlands has become the country with the most online sexual imagery of children in Europe. (For the purpose of the report, Europe includes Russia and Turkey.)

The IWF is a non-profit, responsible for finding and removing graphic sexual content from the internet.

Until recently, most child sexual abuse images were found in the United States (57 percent), but this has now shifted to Europe, which hosts 60 percent of all material says the report.

Child abuse content has fallen in the United States partly because of work undertaken by the U.S. industry to tackle the problem. Susie Hargreaves, director of the IWF, told the BBC criminals are forced to search harder for host websites where they can upload child pornography. Just 37 percent of abusive images now come from the United States.

“The situation is reversed from previous years. Europe is now the biggest host of child sexual abuse imagery, rather than North America,” Hargreaves told the BBC.  There have been no changes in Europe’s policy that would explain the shift, according to the IWF report….
http://www.newsweek.com/europe-worst-hosts-most-child-abuse-websites-study-finds-578022

Child trafficking in UK hits record high, figures show
Number of child victims referred rise by 30 per cent in a year, with biggest surge among British children and youngsters from countries affected by conflict      May Bulman   April 3, 2017

Child trafficking referrals in the UK have hit a record high after rising by 30 per cent in a year, statistics have revealed.

The number of children referred to the UK Government’s National Referral Mechanism (NRM), which identifies victims of human trafficking, increased to 1,278 in 2016, the highest figure on record, according to the latest figures from the National Crime Agency.

More than a third of all potential victims of trafficking were children aged 18 and under, with a majority of children drawn into exploitative labour, including forced criminality, such as cannabis cultivation. Overall, the NRM identified 3,805 potential victims of trafficking in 2016, a 17 per cent increase on 2015…..

All reported forms of exploitation affecting children – domestic servitude, labour exploitation and sexual exploitation – increased by considerable percentages, indicating a worrying diffusion of the types of abuses suffered by children.

Alarmingly, while numbers of potential victims of trafficking increased, positive conclusive decisions — which enable victims to access support — decreased to the lowest point in NRM history to 635, compared with 1,028 the previous year….
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/child-trafficking-referrals-in-uk-hit-record-high-figures-show-a7665201.html

The Survivorship Ritual Abuse and Mind Control 2017 Conference
May 19 – 21, 2017  Oakland, CA
https://survivorship.org/the-survivorship-ritual-abuse-and-child-abuse-2017-conference/


Articles and Research by Neil Brick
http://neilbrick.com
#Neil_Brick  #NeilBrick

 

Feds May Seek Racketeering Suit for Clergy Abuse in Diocese, Sex Abuse by UN peacekeepers

Feds May Seek Racketeering Suit for Clergy Abuse in Diocese
By The Associated Press PITTSBURGH  Apr 3, 2016

A federal prosecutor may file a racketeering lawsuit against a Roman Catholic diocese where a state grand jury found two former bishops helped cover up the sexual abuse of hundreds of children by more than 50 clergy over a 40-year period.

The ongoing investigation of the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese grew out of the prosecution of the Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr., U.S. Attorney David Hickton said Friday.

The 71-year-old Somerset County priest was convicted last year of molesting two street children during missionary trips to Honduras. He was sentenced to nearly 17 years in prison, fined $50,000 and forced to pay his victims $10,000 each.

Hickton said the ongoing investigation concerns whether diocesan officials engaged in a pattern of criminal activity that would fall under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as RICO.

The statute of limitations has lapsed on criminal racketeering charges, but there is no time limit for filing a RICO lawsuit, Hickton said. KDKA-TV first reported that Hickton was considering such a lawsuit. A diocesan spokesman didn’t immediately comment.

“The remedy that would be available under a civil RICO would be some sort of injunctive relief,” Hickton said. “If we were able to get a consent decree, that would be one route.”

Injunctive relief is simply a court order requiring the diocese to do something. A consent decree is a voluntary agreement between prosecutors and a target that certain reforms would be enacted…. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/feds-seek-racketeering-suit-clergy-abuse-diocese-38118342

The vile sex abuse by UN peacekeepers is leaving the United Nations in tatters
Cathy Newman Channel 4 News Presenter
14 April 2016

Sexual violence in war “is as destructive as any bomb or bullet”, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said a couple of years ago….

Sexual violence in conflict is one of the oldest crimes….

There were no fewer than 99 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by the “blue helmets” – as UN military personnel are nicknamed – last year, and there have been 25 new claims this year. And those are just the ones we know about.

What’s perhaps even more shocking is that this isn’t the first time such claims have surfaced about the conduct of UN peacekeepers. There was an alleged paedophile ring in the Democratic Republic of Congo, UN police officers in Bosnia were paying for prostitutes and trafficking young women from Eastern Europe, and Pakistani peacekeepers were found guilty of sexual abuse in Haiti. There’s a track record going back decades…. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/the-vile-sex-abuse-by-un-peacekeepers-is-leaving-the-united-nati/

Deepcut soldier ‘ordered to have sex with another squaddie before she died’ inquest hears, Rotherham child abuse trial: four men and two women found guilty, Former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns apologises for his handling of abuse allegations

– Deepcut soldier ‘ordered to have sex with another squaddie before she died’ inquest hears
– Was girl soldier’s death covered up because she was raped on orders of Army top brass?
– Rotherham child abuse trial: four men and two women found guilty
– Child abuse royal commission: Former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns apologises for his handling of abuse allegations

Deepcut soldier ‘ordered to have sex with another squaddie before she died’ inquest hears
A TEENAGED female soldier was ordered to have sex with another squaddie the night before she died, an inquest heard.
By Peter Henn Wed, Feb 24, 2016
Private Cheryl James, 18, was found with a fatal bullet wound in Deepcut barracks, Surrey, in November 1995.

She was one of four recruits to die at the army training camp over the space of seven years.

Fellow soldier Mark Beards told Woking Coroner’s Court that she had confided in him about the order and he had been “destroyed” by “carrying the guilt” of her death for 20 years.

But under cross-examination he was accused of being “a liar and a fantasist”.

He was also accused of assuming that Pte James was referring to sex the night before her death when she never used the word.

He told the inquest he bumped into Pte James at around 11.10pm and she told him she had been ordered by Sergeant Andrew Gavaghan to go into a room with Pte Ian Atkinson – known as Aki – to have sex.

He said: “I asked her what she was doing there and she said she had to meet Aki. I asked her why she had to meet Aki and she explained to me she had to go into the room with him.

“I asked her, ‘What do you mean?’. She said ‘I’ve got to do it’….
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/647229/Deepcut-soldier-Cheryl-James-inquest-ordered-to-have-sex

Was girl soldier’s death covered up because she was raped on orders of Army top brass?
THE death of a teenage soldier at a notorious army barracks where three other youngsters also died may have been covered up by the establishment because she was raped on the orders of her officers, it was claimed today.
By Nick Gutteridge  Mon, Jan 25, 2016

Police and army officials have conspired to keep the truth about the supposed suicide of 18-year-old Cheryl James from ever coming to light according to her family, who have fought a 20-year battle for justice.

But new evidence has now emerged suggesting that the young Private may have been ordered to sleep with a male colleague in the hours before her death by bullying officers who were “pimping out” female recruits at the infamous Deepcut barracks in Surrey.

The latest claims will rock the military and police establishment, both of whom have repeatedly insisted that her death was a suicide, even suggesting she may have killed herself because of complications with her love life….

But serious questions began to be asked several years later when it emerged that four young recruits had all died at the same barracks within a short space of time.

Detectives came under serious pressure to reopen their investigation after 17-year-old James Collinson was also found at the Deepcut base with a fatal gunshot wound in March 2002.

The calls became a clamour when it then emerged that there had been two more deaths at the notorious barracks – home to the Royal Logistics Corps – in the space of just seven years.

Private Sean Benton, 20, died a few months before Pte James, while 17-year-old Geoff Gray died in September 2001.

Surrey Police, which has been savagely criticised over its bungled investigations of the deaths, was then forced to admit that it had received almost 60 allegations of bullying and sexual assaults at the base in 1995 alone.

Her family are hoping that the truth will finally come out after a High Court judge quashed the verdict of her original inquest, with a fresh inquiry set to get under way next week.

And in a bombshell development a pre-inquest hearing held earlier this month was told how the young recruit, from Llangollen on the Welsh borders, had been subjected to “vile treatment”, sexual exploitation by senior ranks and may have been “sexually coerced or raped” the night before she was found dead….
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/637700/Deepcut-deaths-Private-Cheryl-James-inquest-claims-rape-army-officers

Rotherham child abuse trial: four men and two women found guilty
Gang including three brothers, led by Arshid Hussain, targeted 15 girls, one as young as 11
Lisa O’Carroll and Josh Halliday Wednesday 24 February 2016

Six men and women were found guilty of offences relating to the sexual exploitation of teenage girls in Rotherham, as it emerged that the conduct of more than 50 officers from South Yorkshire who had dealt with the victims is now under investigation.

A gang of three brothers, their uncle and two women were found guilty of 55 serious offences, some of which lay undetected for almost 20 years. They targeted 15 vulnerable girls, one as young as 11, and subjected them to brutal and degrading acts between 1987 and 2003 including rape, forced prostitution, indecent assault and false imprisonment.

Allegations by victims that those found guilty – Arshid, Basharat and Bannaras Hussain, their uncle Qurban Ali and their associates Karen MacGregor and Shelley Davies – were able to commit crimes for so long with apparent impunity are now the focus of two separate investigations into the police.

It can now be reported that the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has launched 55 separate investigations into how South Yorkshire police dealt with victims, in one of the biggest inquiries into potential neglect of duty and corruption in recent policing history.

The police watchdog said that 46 misconduct notices had already been served on 26 officers, and warned the figure could increase. It is understood that more than 50 officers are being investigated. Complaints cover “a range of allegations from a failure to act on reported child sexual exploitation to corruption by police officers,” it said….
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/feb/24/child-sex-abuse-rotherham-guilty-gang-hussain

Child abuse royal commission: Former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns apologises for his handling of abuse allegations
By Margaret Paul and staff  2/25/16

Former Catholic bishop Ronald Mulkearns has told a royal commission he is not sure if he knew child abuse was a crime during his time in charge of the Ballarat diocese, but he knew it was wrong.

The former bishop made his much-anticipated appearance at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse via videolink from the nursing home in which he now lives.

Until now Bishop Mulkearns had been excused from giving evidence because he was too sick.

Asked if he referred paedophile Gerald Ridsdale for help because he knew he was abusing children, he said yes.

Bishop Mulkearns told the hearing he never asked priests directly if they were abusers but instead got reports from psychologists.

He conceded the only reason he sent priests off for treatment was because he believed they had been offending.

“I didn’t really know what to do or how to do it,” he said.

He apologised on Thursday for the way he handled complaints of abuse in his diocese….
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-25/royal-commission-former-ballarat-bishop-ronald-mulkearns-appears/7198260

Female genital cutting, Sloppy Police Work of Mormon Towns, Internet trolling: teenagers suffered online abuse, Catholic church alleged abuse at UK school, Twelve men jailed for sexually exploiting girl

– I’m a survivor of female genital cutting and I’m speaking out – as others must too
– Replace female genital mutilation with new rites of passage, says UN chief
– Expert Details Sloppy Police Work of Mormon Towns
– Internet trolling: quarter of teenagers suffered online abuse last year
– Catholic church pays compensation over alleged abuse at UK school
– Keighley abuse: Twelve men jailed for sexually exploiting girl

I’m a survivor of female genital cutting and I’m speaking out – as others must too
Maryum Saifee
My aunt cut my genitals when I was seven years old. The culture of silence surrounding this FGM/C means laws alone won’t stop it
Monday 8 February 2016

Ifor a final, only half-listening to a fellow classmate describe her research project. “Female genital mutilation is the partial or total cutting of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons,” she mechanically described. “The procedure typically take places when the girl is seven years old. The process is usually carried out by an older female relative. And once the ritual takes place, it is almost never discussed.” As she spoke, goosebumps began to form and I sat paralysed in my seat. Memories I had suppressed since childhood came flooding to the foreground….

My aunt was a doctor. So when she led me downstairs to her clinic and instructed me to lie flat on my back on her operating table, I didn’t think to question her authority. With no anaesthetic and very little warning, she performed the ritualised cut. After it was over, we headed back to the party in silence….

When I confronted my parents, they were stunned. My aunt had carried out the ritual without their consent. My father felt a unique betrayal. This was the same little sister he encouraged to pursue medicine in the first place. He had no idea that female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C) was even practised within the Dawoodi Bohra community, a Shia subsect from India’s coastal state of Gujarat….

Like other forms of gender-based violence, FGM/C is a manifestation of power and means of controlling the sexuality of women and girls. In recent years, many countries have passed laws to criminalise the practice of FGM/C. Yet, it is an extraordinarily difficult crime to prosecute. Laws alone are not enough. For there to be a sustainable end to this practice, there has to be a radical culture change from the ground up, that promotes zero tolerance to any and all forms of excision….
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/08/victim-fgm-speaking-out-cut-genitals-culture-of-silence

Replace female genital mutilation with new rites of passage, says UN chief
By Sebastien Malo  Mon Feb 8, 2016
NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – New, unharmful rites of passage should replace female genital mutilation, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said on Monday after new data showed there were more victims of the custom than previously estimated.

The call by the U.N. Secretary-General was heard by diplomats, campaigners and survivors gathered at the U.N. headquarters in New York to mark the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, which fell on Saturday.

“I am especially inspired by communities that find better ways to mark the rite of passage into womanhood,” said Ban.

He gave the example of young girls in Kenya and Tanzania spending a week away from their families to learn life skills instead of being cut.

The U.N.’s children’s agency UNICEF said on Friday more than 200 million girls and women globally have suffered genital mutilation, far higher than previously estimated….
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-rights-women-fgm-idUSKCN0VH23R

Expert Details Sloppy Police Work of Mormon Towns
By JAMIE ROSS Friday, February 05, 2016 Courthouse News Service
PHOENIX (CN) – The Marshal’s Office in two towns on the Arizona-Utah border failed to investigate claims of child abuse or timely complete reports, an expert witness for the Justice Department testified Thursday during a religious discrimination trial.
Colorado City, Ariz. and Hildale, Utah are largely made up of followers of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Department of Justice sued the towns in 2012, accusing them of denying non-church members access to police protection, water and electricity. The sect’s leader, Warren Jeffs, is serving life in prison for sexually assaulting 12- and 15-year-old girls, whom he called his spiritual wives.
Joseph De Lopez, a former deputy superintendent for the Chicago Police Department hired to review policies of the Colorado City Marshal’s Office, told the jury the towns’ Marshal Office did not investigate reports that town members married underage girls.
“Not only should there be an Internal Affairs investigation if it involves an officer, but a criminal investigation,” De Lopez testified.
On Wednesday, the towns’ former Chief Marshal Helaman Barlow testified that the Marshal’s Office ignored claims of underage marriages.
“If it was a church marriage, I as a church member saw it as a valid marriage,” Barlow testified.
On Thursday, De Lopez said this was just one of the Marshal’s Office’s many “deficiencies” in investigating and documenting alleged crimes and failing to train its officers….
http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/02/05/expert-details-sloppy-police-work-of-mormon-towns.htm

Internet trolling: quarter of teenagers suffered online abuse last year
Survey of 13- to 18-year-olds reveals teenagers with disabilities and those from minority ethnic backgrounds are more likely to encounter cyberbullying
Four in five adolescents surveyed said they had recently seen or heard online hate.
Aisha Gani Monday 8 February 2016
One in four teenagers suffered hate incidents online last year, a figure described by experts as a “wake-up call” on the impact of internet trolling.

The survey of 13- to 18-year-olds found that 24% had been targeted due to their gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, disability or transgender identity. One in 25 said they were singled out for abuse all or most of the time.

Will Gardner, chief executive of the charity Childnet and director of the UK Safer Internet Centre, which published the study, said: “It is a wake-up call for all of us to play our part in helping create a better internet for all, to ensure that everyone can benefit from the opportunities that technology provides for building mutual respect and dialogue, facilitating rights, and empowering everyone to be able to express themselves and be themselves online – whoever they are.”

The survey also found four in five adolescents had seen or heard online hate during the previous 12 months. Researchers defined such abuse as offensive, mean or threatening, and either targeted directly at a person or group or generally shared online.

Teenagers with disabilities and those from African, Caribbean, Asian, Middle Eastern and other minority ethnic groups were more likely to encounter cyberbullying, the report concluded…..
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/feb/09/internet-trolling-teenagers-online-abuse-hate-cyberbullying

Keighley abuse: Twelve men jailed for sexually exploiting girl
8 February 2016
Twelve men who sexually exploited a vulnerable teenage girl in West Yorkshire have received jail sentences of up to 20 years.

Eleven were jailed at Bradford Crown Court after being convicted of raping the girl in Keighley from the age of 13.

Another man was sentenced for sexual activity with the same girl.

The trial heard how the teenager was repeatedly attacked over a period of 13 months, between 2011 and 2012….
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-35524340

Catholic church pays compensation over alleged abuse at UK school
Leslie Turner was paid £17,000 compensation after claiming two members of Christian Brothers abused him at school in Sunderland in 1960s
Jenny Kleeman and Helen Pidd
Leslie Turner: ‘The abuse was so common it became normal’
Wednesday 3 February 2016
The Catholic church continues to quietly pay out compensation to victims of alleged sex abuse at Catholic schools in Britain while refusing to accept liability.

Leslie Turner, a retired primary headteacher, was paid £17,000 in compensation by the Irish Christian Brothers in 2014, after claiming two members of the Catholic order sexually abused him at school in Sunderland in the 1960s.

Turner, now 66, has waived his anonymity in a film for the Guardian to allege he was molested from the age of 12 by two teachers at St Aidan’s Roman Catholic grammar school in Sunderland between 1961 and 1967. Both are long dead, but he sued after being diagnosed with delayed onset post-traumatic stress disorder in 2012 as a result of what he says he suffered as a child.

“After the abuse stopped was actually worse than when the abuse was taking place,” Turner told the Guardian. “I tried to become invisible. It never occurred to me to tell anybody. When the headteacher has been abusing you, who do you tell? I put it into a cupboard in my head and I shut the cupboard door.”

Turner is speaking out as the film Spotlight, is released in UK cinemas, which tells the story of the Boston Globe’s investigation into sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in Boston in 2002. The Globe’s investigation helped unveil a pattern of abuse by Catholic priests on a global scale…..
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/03/catholic-church-pays-compensation-over-alleged-abuse-at-uk-school

UN peacekeepers ‘paid 13-year-olds for sex’, FBI hacked into ‘dark web’ to bust up largest ever child abuse network

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation has reportedly interrupted and shut down a massive online child abuse network after hacking into the so-called dark web in an operation that may lead to 1,500 prosecutions.”

UN peacekeepers ‘paid 13-year-olds for sex’
Four peacekeepers allegedly paid young girls as little as 50 cents in exchange for sex
Kevin Sieff Tuesday 12 January 2016

The United Nations has been grappling with so many sexual abuse allegations involving its peacekeepers that Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon recently called them “a cancer in our system.”

Now, officials have learned about what appears to be a fresh scandal. Investigators discovered this month that at least four UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic allegedly paid young girls as little as 50 cents in exchange for sex.

The case is the latest to plague the UN mission in the Central African Republic, whose employees have been accused of 22 other incidents of alleged sexual abuse or sexual exploitation in the past 14 months. The most recent accusations come in the wake of Ban’s efforts to implement a “zero tolerance” policy for such offenses….

The most recent allegations involve at least four peacekeepers who are accused of paying girls as young as 13 for sex at a camp for the internally displaced next to the international airport in Bangui, the capital. The site, known as M’Poko camp, is home to 20,000 people, mostly Christians. It is a vast agglomeration of white tents surrounding old, decaying airplanes, just yards from the airport runway.

The United Nations has not publicly released the nationalities of the acccused troops, or provided details of the alleged abuse. But in interviews, UN officials said the peacekeepers were from Gabon, Morocco, Burundi and France. The prostitution ring they allegedly used was run by boys and young men who offered up girls “for anywhere from 50 cents to three dollars,” according to one official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation….

Human Rights Watch documented nine cases of sexual violence between September and December in and around the displacement camp. In several instances, Christian women were raped by members of the mostly Christian “anti-balaka” militia after being accused of interacting with Muslims. Across Bangui, the conflict has fallen largely along religious lines.

“M’Poko is a lawless zone run by anti-balaka thugs a few hundred meters away from the international airport. The camp is not being protected, and women are being raped,” said Lewis Mudge, Human Rights Watch’s Central Africa Republic researcher….
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/un-peacekeepers-paid-13-year-olds-for-sex-a6806961.html

FBI hacked into ‘dark web’ to bust up largest ever child abuse network
The FBI used an unprecedented technique to hack into the protected bulletin board
Andrew Buncombe New York Friday 8 January 2016

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has reportedly interrupted and shut down a massive online child abuse network after hacking into the so-called dark web in an operation that may lead to 1,500 prosecutions.

Vice Motherboard reported that federal investigators used an unprecedented approach to hack into the dark web bulletin board site named Playpen. The bulletin board was launched in August 2014 and within one year had 215,000 accounts with 11,000 unique visitors each week.

The report said that the FBI seized the North Carolina-based server running the board in February 2015 but did not shut it down immediately. Rather, the investigators ran the site via its own servers and deployed a hacking tool known, or network investigative technique (NIT), to identify the IP addresses of those visitors to the site.

The dark web is a section of the internet not discoverable by conventional means, such as through a server search or by directly entering a website URL.

Playpen was apparently the largest child abuse site discovered to date. It enabled users to sign up and then upload any images they liked. According to court documents, the website’s primary purpose was to advertise and distribute child pornography….
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/fbi-hacked-into-dark-web-to-bust-up-largest-ever-child-abuse-network-a6802886.html

Child Abuse ‘Almost at an Epidemic Level’ in U.S., Human trafficking: The lives bought and sold

– FBI: Child Abuse ‘Almost at an Epidemic Level’ in U.S.
– Sex trafficking: Lifelong struggle of exploited children
– Human trafficking: The lives bought and sold

FBI: Child Abuse ‘Almost at an Epidemic Level’ in U.S. 
Tara John July 30, 2015

The bureau rescued 600 children last year  Tens of thousands of children are being sexually exploited each year in the U.S., according to an investigation by the BBC.  Despite rescuing 600 children last year, the FBI says child sex abuse is at epidemic levels where tens of thousands of children are believed to be sexually exploited in the country each year. “The level of paedophilia is unprecedented right now,” Joseph Campbell of the FBI told the BBC.

Campbell, who works in the Criminal Investigation Division, has seen individuals from all walks of life engaged in both child pornography and child exploitation, calling it a problem “almost at an epidemic level.” Hundreds of American children are also being sold into sex, according to the BBC, where poverty and neglect are thought to be some of the main reasons why young kids are vulnerable to sex trafficking…. http://time.com/3978236/american-children-sold-sex/

Sex trafficking: Lifelong struggle of exploited children  By Ian Pannell BBC News 30 July 2015
In the US, poverty, deprivation and exploitation draw thousands of its own children down into a dark underworld that offers few ways out.   It is a world few Americans are aware of. But tens of thousands of American children are thought to be sexually exploited every year.  It’s believed that every night hundreds are sold for sex.   The FBI says child sex abuse is almost at an epidemic level, despite the agency rescuing 600 children last year….  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33710224

Human trafficking: The lives bought and sold
28 July 2015

Millions of men, women and children around the world are currently victims of human trafficking – bought and sold as commodities into prostitution and forced labour. This trade in people criss-crosses the globe – and it is a lucrative business. The International Labour Office estimates that forced labour generates $150bn (£96bn) in illegal profits every year. Two thirds ($99bn; £63bn) comes from sexual exploitation.

But who are the people behind the numbers?
Kemi and Bilkisu, from Nigeria, Jane from the UK and Gabby from the US describe how they fell prey to traffickers.

Kemi’s story, Nigeria
Thousands of women and girls from West Africa are bought and sold every year – most end up in Europe. The UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime estimates West African trafficking victims, many of whom originate in Nigeria, make up about 10% of those forced into sex work in Western Europe.
Benin City, in Nigeria’s south, is a key player – with networks and infrastructure built around the trade in people….

Gabby’s story, US
It is a similar story in the United States, where tens of thousands of children are being trafficked into prostitution. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says child exploitation is at “near-epidemic levels”.  Gabby, from Baltimore, says she was abused by her father between the ages of eight and 12 – a relationship that she feels has influenced how she interacts with men. “I learnt very early that you could get things that you wanted or needed through sexual favours,” she says. Gabby says she turned to drugs and fell into a relationship with an addict who, years later, pushed her into prostitution…. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-33592634

Tor’s most visited hidden sites host child abuse images, Police investigating 718 cases of child abuse in Northern Ireland

Tor’s most visited hidden sites host child abuse images
By Mark Ward Technology correspondent, BBC News 30 December 2014

Most traffic to sites hidden on the Tor network go to those dealing in images of child sexual abuse a study suggests. The six-month study sought to catalogue hidden services on the so-called “dark net” and work out which were the most popular.

It found lots of sites peddling illegal drugs but the most popular were those involved with abuse.
However, the researcher behind the study said it was hard to conclude that people were behind all the visits.

Tor, or The Onion Router, is an anonymising system that lets people use the web without revealing who they are or which country they are in. The anonymity offered by the network has encouraged many people to set up hidden .onion sites that offer content, services and goods that it is illegal to sell openly….

Although the number of sites dealing in images of abuse on Tor is small, traffic to them dwarfs that going to other sites, said Dr Owen. About 75% of the traffic observed in the study ended up at abuse sites, said Dr Owen….
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30637010

Police investigating 718 cases of child abuse in Northern Ireland
And calls to local NSPCC helpline show sharp rise

524 individuals have contacted the inquiry into historical abuse.
By Adrian Rutherford – 30 December 2014

Officers are probing 718 “live” cases where the victim was aged under 18.
The figure is thought to include a number of historic allegations relating to children’s care homes.

It comes as a leading charity revealed it has seen the number of calls to a specialist helpline jump by almost a quarter in the last year.

The issue of child abuse has been in the headlines throughout 2014. A State inquiry into historical abuse in Northern Ireland, chaired by retired judge Sir Anthony Hart, opened in January. The inquiry, which has so far been contacted by 524 individuals, has already heard harrowing testimonies from victims.

And in November a report estimated that up to 145 children were at significant risk of exploitation in Northern Ireland….

The paper by Professor Kathleen Marshall revealed paramilitaries were using fear and intimidation to sexually exploit children.  It also uncovered cases involving the military, revealing that soldiers had been disciplined for smuggling girls into two different barracks in the last three years….

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) is examining allegations of child abuse in children’s homes and other residential institutions between 1922 and 1995. It is the biggest child abuse public inquiry ever held in the UK, having been contacted by 524 people who said they were abused in childhood. Most complainants are from the UK, 65 are from Australia and 26 from the Irish Republic.

The HIA inquiry was set up by the First and Deputy First Minister in May 2012. Its aim is to establish if there were “systemic failings by institutions or the state in their duties towards those children in their care”.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/child-abuse-media-coverage-of-highprofile-cases-has-given-more-children-courage-to-seek-help-30869078.html