User Tag List

+ Reply to Thread
Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 11 to 19 of 19

Thread: Child trafficking & sex exploitation

  1. #11
    Original Ranter
    Points: 858,832, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 92.0%
    Achievements:
    SocialCreated Album picturesOverdrive50000 Experience PointsVeteran
    Awards:
    Posting Award
    Peter1469's Avatar Advisor
    Karma
    496507
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    NOVA
    Posts
    241,624
    Points
    858,832
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    153,194
    Thanked 147,517x in 94,378 Posts
    Mentioned
    2552 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by AeonPax View Post
    `
    `

    I was sort of at the mercy of my hosts insofar that I was always escorted if I wanted to check things out on my own.
    Where all did you go? I spent a week there in 2002.
    ΜOΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ


  2. #12
    Points: 23,829, Level: 37
    Level completed: 57%, Points required for next Level: 521
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    SocialCreated Album picturesYour first Group50000 Experience PointsVeteran
    AeonPax's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    133449
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Wisconsin
    Posts
    4,766
    Points
    23,829
    Level
    37
    Thanks Given
    1,500
    Thanked 3,101x in 1,897 Posts
    Mentioned
    59 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by Peter1469 View Post
    Where all did you go? I spent a week there in 2002.
    `
    I actually went there for business reasons and had little time for the tourist thing but I did venture out to both the day life and night life. I was impressed and blown away just to be there. Both Thailand and Japan. I stayed in Bangkok mainly. More later.
    `

  3. The Following User Says Thank You to AeonPax For This Useful Post:

    Peter1469 (11-16-2016)

  4. #13
    Points: 39,654, Level: 48
    Level completed: 69%, Points required for next Level: 496
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    VeteranTagger First Class25000 Experience PointsSocial
    waltky's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    5662
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Posts
    8,859
    Points
    39,654
    Level
    48
    Thanks Given
    2,515
    Thanked 2,140x in 1,616 Posts
    Mentioned
    46 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Two Indian schoolgirls to get awards for tricking human traffickers...

    Indian teens to get awards for tricking human traffickers
    Wed, Jan 18, 2017 - Two Indian schoolgirls are to be awarded national bravery awards next week for helping police bust a cross-border human trafficking racket, leading to the arrest of suspects in the cases of missing girls from both India and Nepal.
    Shivani Gond, 17, and Tejasweeta Pradhan, 18, are to be honored by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “showing exemplary courage” when acting as decoys to gain the trust of the traffickers, allowing police catch them red-handed. The girls, both from the hill district of Darjeeling in eastern India’s West Bengal state, befriended the traffickers on Facebook in May last year. They then spent days communicating with them by telephone, convincing the traffickers that they were willing to run away from home, before leading them to police. Government data showed a 52.8 percent increase in the number of minor girls “procured” and a 35.4 percent increase in the number of girls sold in 2015 compared with the previous year.

    West Bengal is among the top three states where traffickers lure young girls from poor families with the promise of good jobs, instead forcing them into the sex trade or into domestic servitude, campaigners say. Traffickers also targeted the two schoolgirls, Gond and Pradhan, but were unaware that they were part of an operation jointly organized by police and non-profit organization Mankind in Action for Rural Growth. “When we spoke to them, they very openly told us that we would be required to meet the sexual needs of our guests,” Gond said. “They asked to see our photographs, to make sure we were pretty girls. I was a little scared, but we did everything they asked us to because we had to gain their trust.”

    The National Bravery Awards are given to about 25 children between the ages of six and 18 every year. The recipients, selected from across India, are given a medal, certificate and a cash prize. They also receive financial assistance to complete their education. While children have won awards for foiling robberies, fighting off armed intruders, rescuing people from drowning, saving lives in a stampede and putting out fires, it is the first time one is being awarded in a human trafficking case.

    Many parents do not give consent for their children to be involved in anti-trafficking operations. “I also hesitated, but then realized that it was our only shot to get the traffickers,” said Kamlesh Rai, Pradhan’s mother and a school teacher. The police got their first breakthrough with the arrest of a woman who had traveled to New Jalpaiguri to pick up the girls. Her arrest led police to a missing girl from Nepal, as well as a trafficking gang and a sought-after suspect in New Delhi.

    http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worl.../18/2003663335

  5. #14
    Points: 39,654, Level: 48
    Level completed: 69%, Points required for next Level: 496
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    VeteranTagger First Class25000 Experience PointsSocial
    waltky's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    5662
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Posts
    8,859
    Points
    39,654
    Level
    48
    Thanks Given
    2,515
    Thanked 2,140x in 1,616 Posts
    Mentioned
    46 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Unhappy

    Mass child migration up almost five-fold...

    UN: 300,000 children migrating solo, up nearly five-fold
    May 17,`17 -- Authorities have documented more than 300,000 children migrating alone worldwide over a two-year period, marking a dramatic escalation of a trend that has forced many young refugees into slavery and prostitution, the U.N. children's agency said Wednesday.
    UNICEF said 170,000 of those children sought asylum in Europe in 2015-2016, many after making the treacherous trip across the Mediterranean Sea where hundreds of children are estimated to have drowned last year. Nearly 92 percent of the boys and girls arriving by boat in Italy in 2016 and early 2017 came unaccompanied or had been separated from their relatives along the way, the report said. They came mainly from the African nations of Eritrea, Gambia, Nigeria, Egypt and Guinea, UNICEF said. "Ruthless smugglers and traffickers are exploiting their vulnerability for personal gain, helping children to cross borders, only to sell them into slavery and forced prostitution," UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Justin Forsyth said. "It is unconscionable that we are not adequately defending children from these predators."

    Those who survived the journeys recounted harrowing stories of abuse along the way, including a 17-year-old girl from Nigeria who told officials that she was raped in Libya by a man who had promised her passage to Europe. UNICEF said the girl spent months in Libya deprived of contact with her family back home until she finally was sent to Italy by boat. Upon arrival, she was rescued from a life of prostitution but she told the U.N. agency her prospects are dire. "Now the people who paid for my trip are saying to my mother, it's time for money," she said. "They say I have run away, and that they paid for my trip and I owe them. They say that if I don't pay, they will put a curse on me to make me be deported."


    A 14-year old unaccompanied minor, a migrant from Afghanistan, showers on a cold day near an old train carriage where he and other migrants took refuge in Belgrade, Serbia. More than 300,000 children traveling alone have been recorded in a two-year period, the U.N. children's agency said Wednesday, May 17, 2017 marking a dramatic escalation of a dangerous trend that has forced some young refugees into slavery and prostitution.

    UNICEF said the number of recorded children traveling unaccompanied had risen nearly fivefold since 2010-2011, coinciding with a major increase in refugees worldwide. The figure includes only solo children who were registered at a border or as part of an asylum claim and the actual total is believed to be much higher. One-third of the children covered in the report - 100,000 boys and girls - were counted at the U.S.-Mexican border, UNICEF said. Some 90,000 young migrants from the Horn of Africa were displaced either internally or across borders due to conflict in South Sudan and other regional instability. While some of the unaccompanied children are orphans, others are seeking to join relatives who already reached prosperous countries. Other times, relatives believe children "would have a greater chance of being allowed to stay" than adult migrants, the report said.

    UNICEF called Wednesday on the countries where children have sought refuge to provide better services, saying many "languish in overcrowded shelters, end up in makeshift camps or are left exposed to the dangers of life on the streets." Unaccompanied migrant and refugee children should not be placed in adult detention facilities and ideally should be in foster care, the report said. In March, Italy's Parliament approved a law setting out comprehensive standards of care for unaccompanied migrant children who arrive in Italy by sea. The law includes a strict prohibition on turning unaccompanied minors away at the border. The law also set a 10-day window for officials to confirm migrant children's identities, with the aim of reducing the amount of time they have to spend in preliminary welcome centers. The law also guarantees them access to health care. Among those hailing its passage at the time were the UNICEF and the humanitarian group Save the Children.

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...05-17-17-46-21

  6. #15
    Points: 39,654, Level: 48
    Level completed: 69%, Points required for next Level: 496
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    VeteranTagger First Class25000 Experience PointsSocial
    waltky's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    5662
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Posts
    8,859
    Points
    39,654
    Level
    48
    Thanks Given
    2,515
    Thanked 2,140x in 1,616 Posts
    Mentioned
    46 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Angry

    Granny says, "Dat's right - dey'll steal yer baby boy an' den sell him back to ya...

    US to Declare China as Among World's Worst Human Trafficking Offenders
    June 26, 2017 | WASHINGTON — The United States is set to declare China as among the world's worst offenders in human trafficking and forced labor, placing it alongside countries the U.S. has long disparaged — Iran, North Korea and Syria.
    The designation, expected to be formally announced by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday, could further aggravate tensions between Washington and Beijing at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump had sought to enlist Chinese President Xi Jinping in an effort to curb North Korea's nuclear weapons development.



    Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, smiles at U.S. President Donald Trump as they pose together for photographers before dinner at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida



    Why the downgrade?


    Last week, Trump said in a Twitter comment that while he appreciates China's efforts in dealing with Pyongyang, “it has not worked out.” It was not immediately clear what led Tillerson to downgrade China in the State Department's annual assessment of human trafficking that covers more than 180 countries. Last year's report said Beijing was not doing enough to curb “state sponsored forced labor,” and did not meet “minimum standards” for fighting human trafficking, even though it was making progress. The 2017 report lists China as a Tier 3 human trafficking and forced labor offender, the lowest ranking, according to officials familiar with the ranking. The 2016 report placed China on a Tier 2 “watch list” deserving special scrutiny in the last year.


    Sanctions a possibility


    A year ago, the report described China as a “source, destination and transit country” for forced labor and sex trafficking. Internal migrants in China were particularly vulnerable, the report said, with some people forced to work in factories and coal mines with little governmental oversight. It also said men, women and children from other Asian countries and from Africa are being exploited, while girls and women from rural areas often were recruited for sex trafficking in cities. Countries placed in Tier 3 can be penalized with sanctions barring them from participating in cultural exchanges with the U.S. But past U.S. presidents have granted waivers to the worst offenders and Trump could do the same. There was no immediate reaction from Beijing about the planned U.S. action.


    https://www.voanews.com/a/us-to-delc...s/3917064.html

    See also:


    Reports: US Secretary of State to Take Myanmar, Iraq Off Child Soldiers List
    June 26, 2017 - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is expected to take Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, and Iraq off a list of countries that use or recruit child soldiers, in an announcement set for Tuesday, according to media reports.
    The Reuters news agency reported last week that by delisting those countries, Tillerson is overruling recommendations from State Department experts and senior diplomats. Reuters also cited officials as saying the announcement is expected to be made as part of the department's annual Trafficking in Persons report. The list, created through the Child Soldier Prevention Act, prohibits offending nations from receiving certain kinds of U.S. military aid.


    In response, Human Rights Watch on Monday called on Tillerson to keep Myanmar and Iraq on the list. Taking Burma and Iraq off the list "when they continue to use child soldiers, is both contrary to U.S. law and harms children still in the ranks," said Jo Becker, HRW's children's rights advocacy director. Becker also said that unless Tillerson reverses his decision, he will "gravely damage U.S. credibility in ending the use of children in warfare."



    Trainees stand at attention at an army training base in Pathein, Irawaddy, Myanmar.



    Myanmar has been on the list since its inception. Despite recent efforts to reduce recruitment, the country has yet to pass a law to criminalize the use of child soldiers and has refused to give U.N. observers access to ethnic armed groups. "This isn't the time to let Burma [Myanmar] off the hook for its use of child soldiers," said Becker. "U.S. and U.N. pressure has led to important progress, but as long as children are still being recruited and found in its army's ranks, Burma should stay on the list."


    Iraq was added in 2016. That year, HRW reported that government-backed tribal militias were recruiting children from displaced persons camps in Iraq in the fight against Islamic State. Despite Iraq being on the list, then-U.S. President Barack Obama issued a waiver to allow $3 billion in military aid to flow into that country last year. "The Child Soldiers Prevention Act gives the president some discretion in applying sanctions against countries using child soldiers, but it doesn't give the State Department discretion to take off countries that belong on the list," Becker said. "Tillerson should do what the law requires and return Burma and Iraq to the list."


    https://www.voanews.com/a/us-secreta...s/3916953.html

  7. #16
    Points: 39,654, Level: 48
    Level completed: 69%, Points required for next Level: 496
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    VeteranTagger First Class25000 Experience PointsSocial
    waltky's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    5662
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Posts
    8,859
    Points
    39,654
    Level
    48
    Thanks Given
    2,515
    Thanked 2,140x in 1,616 Posts
    Mentioned
    46 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Angry

    Mawari Residents being pressed into sexual slavery...

    Residents being held hostage by Islamist terrorists in the Philippines forced into sex slavery, asked to loot abandoned houses
    Thursday 29th June, 2017 - The Philippine Military that is engaged in fighting Islamist militants who have besieged the city of Marawi have made some shocking revelations about the state of affairs there.
    According to Manila's military, Maute militants were pushing captives to loot abandoned houses in the region and were forcing female captives into sex slavery in Marawi. Manila's army said that male and female captives were made to assist the militants in their fight against the Filipino military. In May this year, Marawi city in the Mindanao island turned into a centre of conflict following which, the Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in the southern part of the country. The military further warned that the number of residents killed by rebel "atrocities" could rise sharply as troops retake more ground. During their operation, military personnel are said to have found five decapitated civilians in the occupied city. A total of 17 bodies were recovered and officials said these would be the first evidence that civilians trapped in besieged Marawi City have been decapitated during the five-week stand by militants loyal to the Islamic State group, as some who escaped the city have previously reported.

    The military is hoping to fully rid the island of militants belonging to the Maute group in the coming days - but are faced by a stiff resistance from the ISIS-inspired extremists. Joint Task Force Marawi spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jo-ar Herrera told reporters on Wednesday, "Worst thing [is] there are cases of female hostages forced to marry the Maute local terrorist group. They are being forced to [be a] sex slave, forced to destroy the dignity of these women.” Herrera said hostages that either escaped or were rescued reported that women suffered brutal sexual assaults at the hands of the Maute captors and that captives were also tasked with plundering abandoned houses in the conflict-ridden area. Herrera said, "The hostages were tasked to loot houses, establishments [for] ammunition, firearms, cash, [and] gold.” Many of the 200,000 inhabitants fled Marawi soon after clashes erupted in the island between the government forces and militants. Those who remained trapped in the region are reportedly being used as human shields by the militants.


    The city is also facing an acute food shortage and residents had reportedly resorted to eating leaves and cardboard boxes for their survival. Referring to the Maute Islamists, Herrera said, "This is what is happening inside, this is very evident. These are evil personalities.” About 71 security forces and 299 militants have been killed so far, even as reports estimated that a total of 246,000 people were displaced in the conflict. Violence erupted in the city after a failed attempt on May 23 to arrest a Filipino militant commander backed by Islamic State's leadership. Meanwhile, President Duterte has vowed to destroy the militants in Marawi and said the Philippines was now dealing with "a very dangerous situation" due to young Muslims inspired by the "mass insanity" of Islamic State. Emerging after a long public absence, reportedly due to being sick, Duterte said his government is determined to rebuild Marawi once the violence subsides. Adding, “I know the deployment of snipers and where they hid their firearms. I already had the complete picture and I knew that would be a long fight. What's painful for me, a fractured ideology entered. All that they want is to kill and destroy, how can we live with that?"

    Addressing an event where he received hundreds of sniper and assault rifles donated by China to help the military campaign in Marawi, he said, “All they do is just to kill and destroy, and killing in a most brutal way. They enjoy decapitating people in front of cameras. They have to be dealt with, with the same ferocity but not the brutality.” On Wednesday, the battle entered its 36th day and reports noted that sights of intense gunfights and bombing in the heart of the town were seen and that black-clad fighters were seen from afar running between buildings as explosions rang out. This month, videos appeared on the website of Islamic State's Amaq news agency and its social media channels showing hostages in Marawi pleading for their lives, saying they would be beheaded if air strikes were not stopped. Clips have also appeared of kneeling captives, shot in the head from behind.

    http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/2...andoned-houses

  8. #17
    Points: 39,654, Level: 48
    Level completed: 69%, Points required for next Level: 496
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    VeteranTagger First Class25000 Experience PointsSocial
    waltky's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    5662
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Posts
    8,859
    Points
    39,654
    Level
    48
    Thanks Given
    2,515
    Thanked 2,140x in 1,616 Posts
    Mentioned
    46 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Cool

    Tracking down online sex trafficking buyers...

    Algorithms Could Tie Trafficking Ads to Their Buyers
    August 17, 2017 — A U.S. researcher says she has developed automated ways to identify links between online sex trafficking ads and the digital currency Bitcoin, techniques that may help locate children being sold for sex.
    Law enforcement and anti-trafficking groups could use the methods to investigate Backpage.com, an online classified advertising site where sex ads can be found, according to a statement by the University of California Berkeley, where the research was based. About 1.5 million people in the United States are victims of trafficking, mostly for sexual exploitation, according to anti-trafficking groups. Most sex trafficking victims are children, and most are advertised or sold online, according to a U.S. Senate subcommittee report released this year.


    Algorithms do the digging


    The new research uses an algorithm that analyzes writing styles to identify authors and could be applied to online trafficking ads, Rebecca Portnoff, its lead author, said Thursday. A second algorithm can use time stamps to trace ad payments to accounts, known as wallets, at Bitcoin, a web-based digital currency that allows money to move quickly and anonymously. Comparing time stamps of ad purchases on Bitcoin and time stamps and information on Backpage ads could help identify who is paying for them, said Portnoff, a UC Berkeley doctoral candidate in computer science who developed the techniques as part of her dissertation.



    Ethnic Uighur Muslim boy stands inside a police van in Khlong Hoi Khong of southern Songkhla province, Thailand. He was in a group of 200 people rescued from a human trafficking camp.



    “Where previously you might have five different phone numbers that you had no idea were connected, when you can see that they all came from the same wallets, that the same person paid for them, that’s a concrete sign that these five phone numbers are all related to each other,” she said. “I knew this was an issue that law enforcement was especially interested in,” she added.


    Boost for law enforcement


    Having automated style and time stamp analyses to identify sex ads by authors and Bitcoin owners is significant, said Damon McCoy, a New York University Tandon School of Engineering assistant professor of computer science and engineering and a co-author of the research. “Any technique that can surface commonalities between ads and potentially shed light on the owners is a big boost for those working to curb exploitation,” McCoy said in a statement.



    A Bitcoin paper wallet with QR codes.


    The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has said more than 70 percent of the reports it gets of trafficked children involve Backpage, based in Dallas, Texas. Backpage did not respond to a request for comment. The findings will be published by the Association for Computing Machinery’s Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, UC Berkeley said.[ It said the work was funded by the Amazon Web Services Cloud Credits for Research Program, the technology and security firm Giant Oak, Google, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education.


    https://www.voanews.com/a/algorithms...s/3990724.html

  9. #18
    Points: 39,654, Level: 48
    Level completed: 69%, Points required for next Level: 496
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    VeteranTagger First Class25000 Experience PointsSocial
    waltky's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    5662
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Posts
    8,859
    Points
    39,654
    Level
    48
    Thanks Given
    2,515
    Thanked 2,140x in 1,616 Posts
    Mentioned
    46 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Cool

    FBI Rescues 84 Children, Arrests 120 Human Traffickers...

    FBI Rescues 84 Children, Arrests 120 Human Traffickers
    Oct. 19, 2017--Eighty-four children were rescued -- including one as young as 3 months old -- and 120 human traffickers were arrested in a nationwide undercover operation that involved a Myrtle Beach hotel.
    Eighty-four children were rescued -- including one as young as 3 months old -- and 120 human traffickers were arrested in a nationwide undercover operation that involved a Myrtle Beach hotel. In South Carolina, the three-day operation Oct. 12-15 focused on undercover stings in Myrtle Beach and Columbia. Three women were arrested and charged with prostitution last week in a joint FBI/Myrtle Beach Police Department operation at the Hilton Garden Inn near Coastal Grand Mall. Capt. David Knipes with MBPD said the arrests came as part of the FBI's operation on the evening of Oct. 13.

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation led Operation Cross Country XI in 55 FBI field offices across the country with the help of 78 state and local task forces and five international partners hailing from Canada, the United Kingdom, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines, according to Wednesday's news release. "We at the FBI have no greater mission than to protect our nation's children from harm. Unfortunately, the number of traffickers arrested -- and the number of children recovered -- reinforces why we need to continue to do this important work," FBI Director Christopher Wray said in the release. "This operation isn't just about taking traffickers off the street. It's about making sure we offer help and a way out to these young victims who find themselves caught in a vicious cycle of abuse."


    FBI involved in human trafficking bust in Myrtle Beach,SC

    FBI agents and task force officers staged operations in hotels, casinos and truck stops, as well as on street corners and websites, according to the release. The youngest victim recovered during this year's operation was 3 months old, and the average age of victims recovered during the operation was 15 years old, the release stated. Minors recovered during operations are offered assistance from state protective services and the FBI's Victim Services Division. Depending on the level of need, victims are offered medical and mental health counseling, as well as a number of other services, the release stated. On Oct. 13, the FBI field office in Denver, Colorado, recovered two minor girls -- one 3-month-old and one 5-year-old, according to the release. A friend of the children's family, offered an undercover officer access to the two children for sexual purposes in exchange for $600, the release stated.

    The FBI is working with Child Protective Services to conduct a forensic interview and secure safe placement of the children, the FBI stated in the release. The family friend was arrested. Also on Oct. 13, a 16-year-old female victim was recovered by FBI agents in El Paso, Texas, after an undercover officer called an online advertisement for entertainment. The agent met with a 21-year-old female, who agreed to engage in sexual intercourse with the officer and the 16-year-old for a fee of $200, according to the release. Further investigations revealed that a second adult female drove the minor and the 21-year-old to the undercover agent's location, the release stated. Both female subjects have been arrested on federal charges, according to the FBI.

    https://www.officer.com/tactical/swa...me-at-mb-hotel

  10. #19
    Points: 39,654, Level: 48
    Level completed: 69%, Points required for next Level: 496
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    VeteranTagger First Class25000 Experience PointsSocial
    waltky's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    5662
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Posts
    8,859
    Points
    39,654
    Level
    48
    Thanks Given
    2,515
    Thanked 2,140x in 1,616 Posts
    Mentioned
    46 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Gov't. shuts down Backpage.com...

    Federal agencies seize, shut down Backpage.com
    April 8, 2018 -- Federal agencies have shut down Backpage.com, a website of classified ads accused of enabling child sex trafficking.
    A disclaimer posted to the website on Friday says agencies that included the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division and the U.S. Justice Department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Division have seized Backpage.com and its affiliated websites. Federal law-enforcement officers also raided the Arizona homes of two of the site's co-founders, Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, The Arizona Republic reported.


    This disclaimer has been posted onto Backpage.com.

    A bill passed by Congress that awaits President Donald Trump's signature would enable law enforcement to prosecute a website executive who, "using a facility or means of interstate or foreign commerce or in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, owns, manages, or operates an interactive computer service ... or conspires or attempts to do so, with the intent to promote or facilitate the prostitution of another person." The New York Times reported there is a similar law already on the books that law enforcement officers have previously enforced.

    Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said in a statement that the seizure of Backpage.com was "great news for survivors, advocates, and law enforcement in Missouri and across the country." After a U.S. Senate subcommittee filed a report determining Backpage.com hid information that indicated people were using the site for prostitution and child sex trafficking, the website shut down its adult section to U.S. visitors in January 2017. The site called government pushback to its services "unconstitutional government censorship."

    https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2018...p&utm_medium=3

+ Reply to Thread

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts