Maelie could tell you how it happens…
Maelie could tell you how it happens…
She wasn’t grabbed and thrown in the trunk of his car. She hadn’t run away from home in search of thrills on the street. No, she was lured away…charmed away…friended away. For him, it was easy enough, with a bit of patience–a promise of something she needed, or something she wanted bad enough to take a chance. Her body, young as it was, would bring in lots of cash; she was worth the time it took to recruit her. For her anguished parents, distraught and desperate to locate that “normal” child who disappeared into a dark relationship, the nightmare had begun.
You see, there is an insatiable market for sex with children and there is a lot of money to be made off eager buyers–it’s a matter of supply and demand.
But it’s also a matter of evil. This evil is thick and rank along the crowded brothel allies; it smirks as it describes the ‘high’ of taking away a child’s innocence; it slashes her with a box cutter when she refuses; it tells her what happened to her was all her fault; it reminds her that she is nothing but trash. The sheer weight of such evil is stunning and threatens to immobilize us…but for the stories of those that have overcome, like Maelie and the family that loved her and brought her home again!
Together we must act to protect our children and take back those who have been lost. Please go online today and download your state’s Protected Innocence Challenge Report Card, then share it with your state legislators. You have a powerful voice for change. Use it!
Holding Online Facilitators Accountable: Campaign Targeted at Backpage.com
Since Shared Hope’s December 2011 release of the Protected Innocence Initiative, many states have had a torrent of new bills going out addressing the gaps in their laws which leave minors vulnerable to sex trafficking. As part of this initiative, Shared Hope evaluated the laws of each state in regards to their punishments for facilitators. Facilitators are those people or entities that knowingly enable domestic minor sex trafficking or benefit from sex trafficking in any way. While our analysis did not specifically focus on online facilitators, law enforcement and service providers have identified it as an increasing concern.
President and Founder of Shared Hope International, Congresswoman Linda Smith, explained in testimony before the Washington Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday, January 27th, it seems illogical to believe that these sites should escape accountability because they happen “in the cloud”. (Click here to listen to Congresswoman Smith’s testimony.)
Traditionally facilitators were thought of as a taxi cab driver or hotel employee assisting or turning a blind eye away from sex trafficking. However it is increasingly becoming apparent that there are many forms of facilitation of child sex trafficking. While a few states currently hold facilitators responsible by holding them to criminal or civil penalties, there are still barriers when it comes to online facilitators.
Backpage.com is an online classifieds site owned by Village Voice Media Group where many so-called “adult” ads are placed. Backpage.com has been identified by law enforcement and service providers as a hub for child sex trafficking. News outlets in states across the country have been reporting cases confirming Backpage.com is being used by traffickers to place ads offering minors for commercial sex. For example, in Florida, Leighton Curtis was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for bringing a 15-year-old girl into the state where he took sexually explicit photographs of her and advertised her for commercial sex on websites including Backpage.com. Another case involved Theodore Briggs of Connecticut who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sex trafficking a 14 and 17 year old. He used Backpage.com to advertise the girls for sex to buyers.
Backpage.com profits each time a minor is advertised for commercial sex on the site. An independent study by Advanced Interactive Media Group found that the adult section of Backpage.com is expected to earn Village Voice Media Group $24.8 million this year. While the act of profiting from child sex trafficking could lead to criminal charges for on-the-ground facilitators, Backpage.com has been left relatively unchanged throughout this process. Village Voice Media has claimed that their website is protected by the Communications Decency Act. They have been unwilling to close down this section of their website or even though they have been made well aware by law enforcement, policy officials and the victims themselves that domestic minor sex trafficking is happening there.
Shared Hope International is leading a national campaign inviting mayors across the nation to join our efforts to encourage Village Voice Media to stop facilitating child sex trafficking on Backpage.com. In addition, 51 state attorney generals, 53 anti-trafficking experts and organizations, and nearly 3,000 faith leaders of different denominations are publically calling on Backpage.com to shut this section down. We will not stop our efforts until children are no longer advertised online for sex.
USAID’s New Counter-Trafficking in Persons Initiative
The United States has a long history of helping developing nations around the world. USAID has been the forefront agency involved in extending U.S. assistance overseas from the time it was created in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy. Beginning in 2001, USAID has played a major role in U.S. efforts to eradicate modern day slavery. On February 23, 2012, we were honored to join other leaders in the anti-human trafficking field for the launch of USAID’s new Counter-Trafficking in Persons (C-TIP) initiative.
The Counter-Trafficking in Persons (C-TIP) initiative contains 5 objectives that incorporate the 4 P’s – Prevention, Protection, Persecution, and Partnership – in hopes of reducing human trafficking around the globe.
The five objectives can be broadly separated into two categories:
1. Education: compiling the knowledge of current anti-trafficking methods to improve future endeavors and training for USAID staff members
2. Assistance: integrating human trafficking efforts into already-established programs, and increase investment in high-risk regions
During the launch, Shared Hope was one of only two NGOs noted at the meeting and was commended for our domestic efforts, with special praise for our Rapid Assessments on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking in Washington, Arizona and Virginia. We were honored to be recognized.
Speakers at the briefing emphasized the utilization of technology to help fight trafficking, as well as increased communication between and among governments, organizations, missions, etc. Technology has already proved its usefulness: two boys enslaved on a fishing boat in Asia saw the Human Trafficking hotline number on MTV, called, and were rescued. Technology and collaboration, coupled with the new C-TIP initiative may help in the decline of modern day slavery.
Two States Take the Protected Innocence Challenge Head On
Last year, Shared Hope issued failing grades to over half the states for their legal provisions to protect America’s innocent against domestic minor sex trafficking. We challenged each state to raise their grade. They heard us! Taking this challenge head on, more than 30 states have introduced a total of 90 bills (and counting!) that will help combat human trafficking in their states. Kentucky and Louisiana have taken a notable lead in the movement to end human trafficking by introducing a package of Protected Innocence bills.
In Kentucky, 22 legislators are sponsoring HB 350 which will address more than 10 key components of the Protected Innocence legislative framework. If passed, this bill will expand provisions pertaining to asset forfeiture, will require human trafficking training for law enforcement, create a human trafficking fund, improve the definition of human trafficking to accurately identify victims, increase victim protections, establish a dedicated department within the police department for human trafficking investigations, and more. Kentucky received a “D” on the 2011 Protected Innocence Report Card—we commend the leaders championing this cause to raise the grade in Kentucky.
Louisiana continues taking aggressive action to combat child sex trafficking in the state. House Bill 49 addresses more than half of the legal components outlined in the Protected Innocence legislative framework. HB 49 contains 20 distinct provisions that would tighten the legal framework in this “C” state, including: increasing penalties for human trafficking, providing an affirmative defense, authorizing wiretaps, training law enforcement, providing victim restitution, requiring reporting of rescued children, allowing expungement of juvenile records, extending statutes of limitation, permitting policy decoys in investigation operations, preventing a consent defense, raising the penalty for buying sex with a minor to a $50,000 fine and 15–50 years in jail, establishing DMST victim eligibility for the crime victim’s compensation fund, removing prostitution from the definition of delinquent acts, and much, much more. If passed, Louisiana could emerge as one of the most dangerous places for those who buy and sell children for sex and raise the state’s grade even higher in the 2012 Protected Innocence Challenge.
We’re thrilled to see Shared Hope’s advocacy tools impacting change in states around the nation. Has your state taken the Protected Innocence Challenge?
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