Backpage.com is like Craigslist or other sites promoting services, jobs and apartments, but with one major niche-escort services. Two teenage girls from Washington state have sued Backpage.com on allegedly allowing them to be trafficked into sex from the site by pimps who captured them and took all the profits for themselves.
The 13 and 15 year old girls had ran away from home and according to the lawsuit, the 13-year-old was photographed by pimps in lingerie to post on Backpage.com which drew in many adult men as customers. The 15-year-old was linked to 33-year-old pimp Baruti Hopson who is currently serving a 26-year prison sentence for child rape, assault and promoting sexual abuse of a minor.
The lawsuit blames Village Voice Media owned, Backpage.com for allowing the trafficking to happen. Erik Bauer, one of the girls' lawyer said to the News Tribune, "I don't think we can stop prostitution. But you don't sell kids. It's not OK to advertise and sell kids anywhere, ever. You don't do that."
A recent study from the Advanced Interactive Media Group (AIMG) found that 70 percent of revenue generated from online sex deals goes to Backpage.com. AIMG noted that Backpage made about $2 million a month from online sex sales.
However, the Communications Decency Act of 1996 comes into play in this particular situation. The act allows service providers such as Google or Facebook to operate without being sued because of things or services that users post on their website. On Friday a federal judge granted a temporary ban to block a new Washington state law that would make Backpage.com verify the ages of individuals who are in their sex ads. Backpage.com alleges that this law would violate the Communications Decency Act, the 1ST and 5th amendments and the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The company has been under pressure to change the way it operates with mayors of nearly 50 cities across the country singing a letter that urged Village Voice Media to require age identification for people posting escort ads. Though the website requires people using the site for adult service to be 18 or older, there is nothing on the site to verify the age of the escorts who appear in the ads.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
