Old news but still important
From the Wall St Journal
"WASHINGTON—Federal law enforcement agencies have seized Backpage.com, a controversial classified-ads website known for its numerous sex-related postings.
“Backpage.com and affiliated websites have been seized,” said a large notice plastered on the site. The action was led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and Internal Revenue Service and included participation from state authorities.
Backpage, already the subject of multiple criminal probes, has become a lightning rod for critics of websites accused of turning a blind eye to sex trafficking. It has galvanized lawmakers to pass a law limiting the immunity of websites for the actions of their users."
UPDATE
According to news source Bloomberg: "A 93-count indictment alleges that Backpage.com on some occasions helped customers edit their ads so they would stay within legal limits while still encouraging commercial sex." Really? Backpage helped clients edit their ads to stay within legal bounds and that's a fucking crime? If so, the First Amendment is no more, folks!
Backpage is gone. Shut down. Hey, I never saw ANY obvious child sex trafficking or underage sex ads on Backpage, in my local area sections. Ever. Besides ads for ADULT escorts and massage parlors and personal ads, I DID, however, also see lots of nonsexual categories that people used to buy and sell stuff and have other nonsexual interactions. Backpage also offered classified listings for a wide variety of products and services including automotive, jobs listings, finding roommates and real estate. The whole Backpage site was taken over by the authorities? By the FBI? Closed it down? It sounds to me like the "prohibitionists" are back. "Oh yeah, we're the government, let's prohibit alcohol (1918)." "Oh yeah, we're the government, let's prohibit all adult sex ads online (2018)." What century is this? Where are the rights for consenting a-d-u-l-t-s?
Under the guise of reducing/eliminating underage sex trafficking, Congress passed an anti-sex-trafficking law, a law that also makes website owners criminally and civilly liable for sex related ads on their websites. Even the ads which advertised ADULT activities. As a result, all online adult sex ads websites have or will shut down. I googled "female escorts Los Angeles" and checked a half dozen of the major websites listed - they were all shut down. Gone.
This government-induced website-sex-advertising shutdown will force adult sex workers to once again ply their trade in the unsafe streets and back alleys of American towns and cities, as they did before the internet. This is a giant step backwards. Advertising for adult consensual sex via online ads was much much safer, allowing adult age sex workers to better control the transaction and the client. Now, in an effort to crack down on underage sex trafficking, Congress has made it more unsafe for all voluntary sex workers, including those over 21 years of age. Plus, the new law has made it more difficult, or impossible, for horny men to find sex via convenient local online ads for escorts, w4m personals, etc. As an indirect result of this government crackdown on child sex trafficking, I predict an immediate and substantial upswing in rape and violence against women.
Perhaps it's time to decriminalize and legalize adult prostitution in America, i.e. consensual paid sexual activities between two adults. Consensual adult sex-for-money, or sex-for-gifts, or sex-for-favors, or a job, has been going on since the dawn of time and, if done right, serves a human and humane purpose. They made f-ing marijuana legal in many states but consensual adult sex-for-pay is still illegal, and hosting ads for it can get the website shut down permanently and the owner prosecuted and thrown in jail? Perhaps, once again, as they did with regulating alcohol, vaping, and other adult activities, the government cannot differentiate between underage minors and adults.
The government legally eliminating all adult online sex ads is not a good idea. Like alcohol, tobacco and other "harmful" adult activities, if you want to control the adult consensual sex-for-pay activity, regulate it, don't prohibit it. Don't lump it together with child sex trafficking. If you want to stamp out child sexploitation and underage sex trafficking, you gotta narrow it down to the proper perps, not include, and do damage to, the adult-to-adult play-for-pay voluntary participants.
And, no, I do not support or encourage underage/child sex trafficking -- but all monetized consensual sex is not underage sex trafficking.
