Websites where children are prostituted are immune from prosecution. But why?

Under attack, Backpage.com has its supporters as anti-trafficking tool. But many differ.

Not everyone wants to shut down Backpage.com. The online classified ad site, which generates millions of dollars in revenue by hosting sex-related ads, has been vilified for allowing apparent prostitution ads that sometimes include child trafficking victims. Backpage has claimed for years it is merely a passive host of third-party content, but a story last week in The Washington Post showed that Backpage has been using a contractor in the Philippines to attract more sex advertisers, and sex customers, to its sites around the world. But Backpage argues there’s an upside to all this and some anti-trafficking advocates agree: The site provides a responsive, reliable repository for local and federal investigators to track illegal activity, from prostitution to murder. Backpage responds quickly to subpoenas and provides testimony and research to police and prosecutors. Shutting down Backpage’s “dating” section would disperse those ads to many smaller and foreign sites who might not be so helpful to American investigators trying to rescue a child or capture a pimp. “We harness the technologies that have been created,” Backpage general counsel Liz McDougall told an Arizona human trafficking task force in 2013, “and use them intelligently to find and stop the perpetrators of this horrific crime. … Backpage has no tolerance for sex trafficking. As a result, Backpage is one of the best places in America to get busted trafficking a child.” Statements like these draw extreme skepticism from many anti-trafficking groups, especially those who work with girls once prostituted through Backpage. Eight civil suits have been filed this year alone by women who were underage and sold for sex on Backpage, with renowned attorney David Boies serving as lead counsel in two of them. The suits seek money and injunctions as a way to persuade Backpage to stop hosting sex ads. Five members of Congress last week called for the Justice Department to launch a criminal investigation of the site. But it’s a tougher call for law enforcement. They have worked with Backpage for years, and they have gotten information and convictions. McDougall, who declined to speak to The Post on the record, quoted numerous examples in 2013 of law enforcement officials thanking Backpage for their help. “Mr. Ferrer,” went one email from the FBI in 2011, referring to Backpage chief executive Carl Ferrer, “We want to submit your name for recognition of your assistance following this case.” “We appreciate Backpage’s vigilance to help protect kids,” an email from Texas said in 2011. “Your company’s level of cooperation is not the norm,” said an email from a Massachusetts agency in 2011, “and makes a huge difference in our ability to target and ultimately arrest the offender.” We reached out to a number of law enforcement groups who investigate human trafficking, and several of them didn’t want to discuss Backpage. Defending Backpage is “not a popular position to take in the law enforcement world,” said Kimberly Mehlman-Orozco, a human trafficking expert who often testifies in such cases. “In my talks with law enforcement, they do say they use it as a tool.” Mehlman-Orozco said of the campaign against Backpage, “If these ads ceased to exist would these women not be sold? The answer is no. There’s not a single piece of empirical research to suggest that. It will simply displace these ads.”  McDougall has said that the courts have repeatedly upheld Backpage’s right to publish adult content and that their First Amendment right to free speech protects them. In addition, the Communications Decency Act holds that websites that merely host third-party content are not liable for that content. But beyond legal theory, there’s the actual practice, and that’s where there is a stark divide. McDougall said in 2013 that “Backpage’s role in the rescue of victims and conviction of predators in the United States gets short shrift — if it is mentioned at all.” She said, “Backpage has developed a team and systems in order to respond to law enforcement subpoenas within 24 hours or less,” and that in one case they were able to facilitate three same-day rescues of trafficked children by providing data to the vice lieutenant within an hour of his call. Lois Lee, who has worked on the streets of Los Angeles for 38 years rescuing child trafficking victims, is a big believer in Backpage, and strongly agreed with Mehlman-Orozco that shutting one website would have no impact on child trafficking. “The parents or lawyers are able to find these kids. I know,” Lee said in a telephone interview. “Backpage becomes a place where everyone on the street can find their kid.” When Backpage shut down its adult ads category in January, in response to a highly critical report from a Senate subcommittee, Lee issued a public statement calling it “a sad day for America’s children victimized by prostitution.” [The ads have reappeared in the “dating" category.]  “Backpage is the looking glass for what is going on with adolescent sexuality in American society now,” Lee said. “Nobody wants to deal with that issue. The reaction of the government, it’s almost like McCarthyism.” In Minneapolis, police Sgt. Grant Snyder has been fighting human trafficking for more than 20 years. He said Backpage is far more responsive to his requests for help than phone companies or social media, and he has run into dead ends trying to get information from non-U.S. websites. He said there were “a thousand things Backpage could do to make me more efficient,” but added, “You could eradicate Backpage and it wouldn’t make a difference” in trafficking. “There’s an assault on our children and it has very little to do with Backpage.” That’s because the problem is on the demand side, Snyder said. “The demand absolutely drives this problem,” Snyder said. “And it’s guys like me. White, middle-aged, educated. How is it they’re unreachable? I don’t believe it. We’re targeting the source of ads, and not putting the blame where it belongs. On men.” Both Andrea Powell, the executive director of FAIR Girls, and Lisa Goldblatt Grace, director of My Life My Choice, two groups which fight trafficking and help its victims, agreed with Lee and Snyder about the underlying problems of trafficking. But they said Backpage is not helping. Powell said FAIR asked Backpage to require age verification for its advertisers, and submit ads to law enforcement in advance, but they refused. “Be a positive force,” Powell has told Backpage. “They chose not to.” “This is really about a multi-billion dollar sex industry preying on the most vulnerable in our communities,” Grace said. “And Backpage is a key part of this unfair fight.” Powell said 90 percent of the girls they help were trafficked on Backpage. The practices of scrubbing questionable words from ads but leaving the ads online, of soliciting sex advertisers and customers from other sites, “make it more difficult for law enforcement,” Powell said. “They’re not helping. They’re acting criminally. You can’t light a whole bunch of matches in a box and say, ‘Hope you find the fire.’ You made the fire.” Other trafficking experts agreed, saying the isolated cases where Backpage helps are overwhelmed by the numbers who remain victimized. Rutgers University professor emeritus James Finckenauer, who co-authored a book on human trafficking and served on a trafficking task force, said, “If you had a number of the potential pool of people victimized, versus the number of cases which you received assistance, I think there’d be a large number in the former and less in the latter. This argument that they’re helpful to law enforcement is specious.” Finckenauer added, “These folks are in business to make money. I understand that. There’s also areas where business runs into the innocent. At some point. Somebody has to say, ‘Hey, you crossed the line.’” Plenty in law enforcement are ready to say that, if only because prostitution itself is illegal and cops oppose illegal things. Both Sheriff Tom Dart of Cook County, Ill., who has tried a couple of different ways to stop Backpage through the courts and failed, and Lt. Barry Hill of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department human trafficking bureau, said they had never gotten a call from Backpage alerting them to illegal activity. “If they were the least bit proactive in any form or fashion,” Dart said, “there might be something to this argument. If they were calling me saying ‘We’ve found a pattern’ or something like that, but I’ve never received a phone call from them.” He said he had written them suggesting ways to actually detect illicit activity, including hiring retired police detectives to monitor the ads and removing (rather than just editing) problem ads, “they theoretically could be a great partner. But that requires activity, not just press releases.” Boies, the lawyer who represented the Justice Department in the break-up of Microsoft, said his firm researched Backpage for a year before filing civil suits in Arizona and Florida earlier this year. He acknowledged that “closing up Backpage is not going to solve the entire problem. But it will save thousands and thousands of lives.” Boies echoed many in the police world when he said, “The fact that taking out one sex trafficker doesn’t solve the problem doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take it on, particularly when it’s the most pervasive. And then work on some of the others. It may be we’re going to need additional tools to take out some of the other websites. We can deal with that as we go after them. We need to deal with the websites now that we can deal with.” Dart said, “We can’t have something that’s right in front of our faces, so actively involved with different crimes. We can’t just stand there and do nothing. It could get worse? It’s already pretty bad.”

Here’s how an anti-prostitution campaign could threaten free speech online

A New Jersey federal judge is scheduled to consider today whether federal law preempts a state statute designed to crack down on online classified ads for underage prostitution. ( **Update:** the judge has enjoined the law, holding that it likely conflicts with federal law and the First Amendment.) Some anti- prostitution activists charge that sites such as backpage.com are knowingly profiting from the practice. But free speech advocates argue that efforts to censor the sites will undermine online freedom of speech more broadly.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University At the heart of the controversy is a provision of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which made it a crime to send "indecent" communications to minors. Ironically, while the Supreme Court in 1997 struck down the provisions of the CDA that restricted online speech, it left standing Section 230, which immunizes Internet service providers from liability for content posted by their users. Section 230 is beloved by free-speech advocates because it lets people operate uncensored online forums without worrying about being sued for their users' posts.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University But the attorneys general of the 50 states are frustrated by Section 230. State officials have been pressuring the classified service backpage.com to shut down its "adult personals" section, which is sometimes used to advertise underage prostitutes. Backpage has refused, and the courts have supported the site. In 2011, a judge cited Section 230 to dismiss a lawsuit against Backpage by a woman who had been forced into child prostitution. Last year, a court blocked a Washington state law requiring companies to verify the ages of the subjects of online prostitution ads, holding that the law was preempted by Section 230.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University Two weeks ago, the National Association of Attorneys General sent a letter to key members of Congress asking for Section 230 to be revised. Right now, Section 230 immunizes Web site operators against civil _and_ criminal liability for their users' speech. The NAAG wants to narrow that so Web site owners are protected only against civil lawsuits, not criminal prosecution.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University The NAAG letter provoked a response from a broad coalition of civil liberties groups, high-tech investors and legal scholars. They worry that narrowing Section 230 will undermine freedom of speech online. "Section 230 is the legal cornerstone of the Internet economy, enabling the unprecedented scope of lawful commerce and free expression that the Internet supports today," they wrote in a letter to congressional leaders. The coalition warned that modifying Section 230 would "jeopardize the continued growth of the entire Internet industry and the free expression rights of Internet users everywhere."    *[WSU]: Wayne State University Without Section 230, they warn, "online service providers would expose   themselves to potential prosecution under literally thousands of criminal statutes on a state-by-state basis. Keeping up with the thicket of state criminal laws would be a significant burden, especially for start-ups and smaller companies."    *[WSU]: Wayne State University Kevin Bankston, an attorney at the Center for Democracy & Technology, argues that the states' focus on Backpage is misplaced. "Backpage cooperates with law enforcement in helping them find these people," he says. He points to a recent 70-city raid that "resulted in the rescue of 105 teenagers and the arrest of 159 pimps." That operation was made possible because Backpage supplied law enforcement with information about who had posted ads.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University But Jill Habig, a legal adviser to California attorney general Kamala Harris, argues that merely cooperating with law enforcement isn't enough to exonerate Backpage for its role in child prostitution. "In criminal law, you have liability for someone who is an accomplice to a crime," she says. "Backpage is used to profit from the sale of human beings." Bankston counters that there's little reason to think Backpage would be found liable as an accomplice to prostitution even without Section 230 on the books. In his 2011 ruling holding that Backpage was protected by Section 230, Judge Thomas C. Mummert also found that the plaintiff did not "describe the specific intent required for aiding and abetting." Bankston says that "even if [CDA Section 230] hadn't existed, that case would have been dismissed." Similarly, Bankston said, the Washington age-verification statute probably would have been struck down on First Amendment grounds if Section 230 wasn't on the books. "Although they characterize this as a narrow fix, this is an incredibly broad proposal for a very narrow, specific problem," Bankston says. "We're talking about opening [online service providers] up to liability for a wide range of criminal defamation statutes, state privacy laws, a practically unlimited array of potential liability that would send any sensible investor running away from any kind of user-generated content play," Bankston warns. Most important, Banston argues, exposing Web sites to liability for their users' speech "would be devastating to the free expression environment online." Section 230, he says, "is as important to free speech online as the First Amendment."

Children who are prostituted aren’t criminals. So why do we keep putting them in jail?

A 13-year-old runaway was gang raped by 10 men for several hours in a Texas apartment last year. When she was rescued, authorities took her to a hospital where she was given a rape kit, which was used along with her account to quickly find two of her assailants, who were charged with felony sexual assault of a child.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Now consider the story of another 13-year-old girl, who was sold by a pimp to dozens of men throughout Washington, D.C. She experienced the same pain, fear, trauma, and abuse as the first child. But when an undercover officer, posing as a John, encountered her in a hotel room, she was arrested for prostitution and sent to juvenile jail. The men who bought her (or, more correctly, _raped_ her) walked away free.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico That our society labels one of these girls a criminal and the other a victim is unjust. Ultimately, both were sent to treatment centers, but the second had the added trauma of going through the penal system and carrying an arrest record. This difference is based in a deeply rooted misunderstanding that the second girl made “a choice” because she was paid. Since she has a pimp, she is no longer considered a victim of statutory rape and sexual abuse. This misguided notion leads police to arrest more than 1,000 victimized children a year for prostitution – a crime they aren’t even capable of committing. Federal law mandates that minors cannot willingly be involved in prostitution, but this rule isn’t uniformly enforced. Local and state jurisdictions must go a step further to ensure these children aren’t treated as criminals.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Only 12 states have “Safe Harbor” laws that prohibit the arrest of children for prostitution-related crimes. This week, Washington D.C. joined the group, passing the Sex Trafficking of Minors Prevention Act. The D.C. law has an added provision mandating that the children are connected to emergency and long-term services, such as housing, through organizations like mine, FAIR Girls. But while these children can’t be arrested for prostitution, many are instead jailed for truancy, being a runaway and other minor violations. The majority of FAIR Girls’s 45 minor clients (we have 125 clients total, aged 11 to 24) last year were arrested for such crimes. Without effective training for law enforcement and a comprehensive trafficking response model, the vast majority of child victims are simply locked up anyway. When they are released from jail, they often go further underground where they are exploited by traffickers again.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Opponents of Safe Harbor laws fear prosecutors and law enforcement will lose their power to persuade children to testify in court against their traffickers. But the truth is that children who are given quality services are more likely to give honest testimony than those who are forced under threat of arrest. To truly work, Safe Harbor laws must include funding to make sure those services are available. In Washington D.C., FAIR Girls is pushing for the District to fund a mobile trafficking response team that can quickly provide trained professionals and services whenever police encounter a potential child trafficking situation. The team would connect the child with long-term housing, intensive counseling, educational support, mentoring, and safety planning, which FAIR Girls currently provides with funding from the federal Office of Victims of Crime, private foundations and individual donors. At about $125 a day, those services cost 50 percent less than the average price of keeping a child incarcerated.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico On average, our clients were first trafficked at 12 to 14 years old. Ninety percent are American citizens, and all have experienced sexual abuse or domestic violence prior to being trafficked. Traffickers target the vulnerable to exploit their weaknesses.  They target runaways and homeless youth, mainly girls, by offering them a safe place to sleep or pretending to be their boyfriends. These children are victims, and it is our responsibility to care for them. It is time that the law enforcement and criminal justice systems treat child sex trafficking like what it really is – organized rape for profit. _ **More from Posteverything:**_    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico My own rape shows how much we get wrong about these attacks    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico I’m a black woman with a white husband. People assume I’m a prostitute all the time.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Bill Cosby raped me. Why did it take 30 years for people to believe my story?    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico

There is no such thing as a child prostitute

_Malika Saada Saar is special counsel on human rights at theRaben Group and director of the Human Rights Project for Girls._ Would you call Tami a child prostitute? A pimp kidnapped Tami on her way home from school in Los Angeles. He held her captive for six months, raping, beating and starving her. At night, he sold Tami for sex with other men. Tami tried to escape by telling every john who purchased her that she was only a kid. For months, Tami pleaded with her buyers: “I’m only 15. Can you please take me to a police station?” But none did. When she finally encountered police officers, they did not rescue her; they arrested her. How about Sandra? Sandra ran away from an abusive foster care home in Florida at 12. She was found at a bus stop by a pimp who promised to love and care for her forever. He sold her to at least seven men a night. Finally she, too, was arrested, for child prostitution. Unfortunately, girls in these situations are not typically seen as child victims of serial rape and abuse. Instead, they are left to fend for themselves or treated as child offenders, funneled into the juvenile justice system for child prostitution or related charges. About 293,000 U.S. children are at risk of being exploited and trafficked for sex, according to a 2011 FBI report on trafficking. Most are girls ages 12 to 14. They often are abducted or lured by pimps/traffickers, beaten into submission and sometimes even branded with the pimp’s name. Across the United States, there are child sex markets not terribly dissimilar to those in Cambodia, Thailand and India. Girls are sold in this country with the same disregard for human dignity, and they are often tortured in the same ways when they try to escape. Like trafficked girls everywhere, they are hidden in plain view. In Washington, they are right in front of us — on “dates” at Motel 6 or bars in Adams Morgan. They are purchased through Web sites such as Backpage.com, where their under-age status is signaled with terms like “fresh” or “new to town,” or even the girl’s weight. Often they are dressed up to look older. Many of the girls are children who were in foster care. One survivor explained to me how the foster-care system is a convenient supply chain for traffickers. “In most of my 14 different placements in foster-care homes,” she said, “I was raped and attached to a check. I understood very early that I could be raped, cared for and connected to money. It was therefore easy to go from that to a pimp, and at least the pimp told me that he loved me.” Child welfare systems do not properly identify or help children who are being trafficked for sex. Even when there is recognition of abuse, child welfare agencies often regard it as outside of their purview because the perpetrator is not a parent or caregiver. Child welfare agencies then shift the responsibility to law enforcement, which has failed to establish consistent protocols that treat trafficked children as victims of child abuse. These children are not routinely interviewed by sexual violence experts, as is done in other instances of child rape. Nor do prosecutors provide them the legal protections afforded to other sexually assaulted minors. Because they often are seen as prostitutes, these victims are routed into the juvenile justice system. In many cases, the girls are handcuffed and detained, sometimes for days or longer. A 13-year-old girl recently was arrested in North Hollywood for juvenile prostitution, put in handcuffs and carried off to detention. In California, like many other states, juvenile prostitution carries a sentence of up to two years. Whether girls are arrested for prostitution or just loitering, they are often the ones placed behind bars. I have heard many judges express frustration that there is no safe place to send these girls. They cannot necessarily be returned to foster care or their families because their home life is often perilous and they might run away again. Nor can they be released onto the streets, where the pimps are waiting. For trafficked girls, there is rarely the option of safe, therapeutic centers. As Rep. Ted Poe (R-Tex.) has pointed out, this country has more animal shelters than shelters for exploited children. Judges often detain these girls, believing that jail is the safest of many bad options. But should an abused child be incarcerated for the abuses perpetrated against her? The people who rape these girls, the politely termed “johns,” are rarely arrested for statutory rape, child endangerment or sexual assault of a minor. Perhaps it is too difficult to accept what happens on U.S. soil, to our own daughters. Regardless, we must call this trafficking what it is: serial, systematized rape. And we must care for these girls, too often invisible to society, as victims and survivors of child sexual abuse. Because there is no such thing as a child prostitute. **Read more about this issue:** Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Cindy McCain: Fighting human trafficking on all levels Arjun Sethi: Who should pay for child pornography? Holly Burkhalter: We’re winning the fight against child sexual exploitation The Post’s View: Human trafficking is a scourge that needs greater attention Charles Lane: Legalizing prostitution doesn’t make it safer The Post’s View: D.C.’s challenge: Keep its children from becoming victims

Why wasn’t Jared Fogle charged with child sex trafficking?

_Faiza Mathon-Mathieu and Michelle Guelbart are, respectively, the director of public policy and government relations and the director of private-sector engagement for the anti-child-trafficking organizationECPAT-USA. _ The Justice Department complaint against former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle fully reveals how he used his power and celebrity to exploit vulnerable children. But Fogle will only plead guilty to child pornography charges and to traveling to engage in illicit sexual contact with a minor. A recent Post blog post asked why Fogle wasn’t charged with rape. We have another question: Why wasn’t he charged with child sex trafficking? According to his signed plea agreement, Fogle paid for sex with at least two minors and offered a finders fee to others if they could find him children as young as 14 to sexually abuse — which under federal law makes him a child sex trafficker. Certainly, Fogle’s crimes constitute rape, but Fogle was also an active participant in the child sex-trafficking marketplace. Indeed, the Fogle case is a classic example of child sex trafficking in the United States. He should have been charged accordingly. The documents released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office show that Fogle used the Internet and social media to initiate contact with children. The Internet is consistently used for the recruitment and sale of children in the United States. Since 2009, in Cook County, Ill., alone, more than 50 arrests for sex trafficking were made using information found online. Fogle then met his victims in luxury hotels. In New York, where Fogle traveled to meet his victims, 45 percent of commercial child sexual exploitation takes place in hotels, according to a 2008 analysis. Luxury hotels often act as though they are immune to this problem — that such crimes occur only at cheap hotels — but we know that any hotel can be used for solicitation of commercial sex with minors. When Fogle came to New York, he didn’t stay at some budget hotel near the airport; he stayed at the Ritz Carlton and the Plaza. And he had his victims meet him where he was staying. The media have unwittingly engaged in victim-blaming in this case, dubbing the underage victims as “escorts” or, worse, “child prostitutes.” Even Tim Horty, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana, got it wrong, saying: “There is no federal statute for rape in this situation that would have applied.” This is not true. We have very strong federal laws against both child rape and child sex trafficking. This is especially astonishing because in May, President Obama signed into law the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act , which eliminated any doubt as to the application of human trafficking laws to buyers who knowingly seek sex with children. Under this federal law, if you knowingly patronize or solicit a person under 18 for a commercial sex act, you are subject to at least 10 years in prison. By Fogle’s own admission, according to prosecutors, “he repeatedly . . . engage[d] in commercial sex acts with victims he knew were underage minors.” But because those prosecutors did not charge Fogle with trafficking, he faces a minimum of only five years in prison. While the plea agreement ensures that Fogle will go to jail for his crimes and pay his victims restitution, charging him essentially with engaging only in interstate prostitution reinforces the false narrative that these children are willing participants in the sex trade, as opposed to victims of child rape and child sex trafficking. Fogle was not charged with child sex trafficking because we still do not recognize the harm caused by buyers when they purchase children for commercial sex. But buyers of sex-trafficked children are as culpable for the crime of trafficking as the pimps who sell the children. Failing to charge Fogle with trafficking minimizes the role buyers play in the child sex-trafficking marketplace. The U.N. International Labor Organization estimates that, globally, the sex-trafficking industry generates profits as high as $99 billion a year. This is not surprising when you consider people such as Fogle are willing to pay not only to exploit children but also to recruit new children to exploit — “the younger the girl, the better,” as prosecutors say Fogle explained to one victim. Like so many we have seen before, this case ends with Fogle avoiding human-trafficking charges. The only silver lining is that while Fogle may escape full accountability, he will be penalized for his actions that contributed to the child-trafficking marketplace thanks to a stopgap measure in the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act. In addition to the restitution Fogle will pay his victims, he will be required to pay an additional $5,000 penalty per charge. This money will go into the Domestic Trafficking Victims Fund, which will help pay for victim-service programs and training for law enforcement — so that the next time a Jared Fogle is arrested, he will be charged as a human trafficker. **Read more about this topic:** Thomas G. Plante: Our image of pedophiles is completely wrong

Why Colorado may require eighth-graders who were caught sexting to register as sex offenders

Three Colorado middle and high schools were rocked by a string of recent underage sexting scandals, prompting police investigations. If charged, the teens involved in the case — some as young as eighth grade — could face charges of child pornography, which would require them to register as sex offenders if they were convicted. The stiff penalties for sexting has sparked a debate in Colorado and other state assemblies over whether misbehaving teens should face the same punishment as child pornographers. But efforts by the Colorado state legislature to lighten the penalties have stalled.     State Rep. Yeulin Willet, a Republican who co-sponsored the bill, says that the misdemeanor charge did not go too far. He argued that the juvenile petty offense that the bill introduced accounts legally for "virtually no crime at all" and "basically just takes that juvenile into some counseling or education, end of story." He added that making teen sexting a misdemeanor charge allows the police to seize the images and prevent them from being spread online. "To say that this is a victimless situation is just not a fact," he said. "These images get stolen, hacked, now they end up in the hands of thousands or more via digital media, and now you have a suicidal young girl. What started out as a consensual situation, the problem is the permanent damage. It lasts forever." But Jennifer Eyl, director of family stability programs at the Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center, says that even the misdemeanor charge was too harsh. It criminalized the behavior of sexting itself, even consensual sexual behavior between teens, she said, rather than targeting the issue of non-consensual spreading of nude images. "It's really kind of this blanket prevention of sexting, which, we work with kids, we just know that that's not going to happen. Sexting is part of 21st century communication between teenagers," she said. Eyl also expressed concerns that the most vulnerable children — those in the foster system or without strong parental involvement — were particularly susceptible to blanket charges because foster parents might be more inclined to involve law enforcement should they discover nude photos. "While we hope parents and schools are educating kids about the risks of [sexting], about the risks of where pictures could end up and the fact that they might exist on the internet forever, we don't want it to be criminalized at that level," she said.

Italian judge orders client of child prostitute to buy her 30 books

MILAN, Italy — In an unusual ruling, a judge in Rome ordered the client of a child prostitute to buy her 30 books and a movie. The 35-year-old man was recently convicted of having paid a girl, then 15, to have sex with him in 2013 (authorities are withholding both their names to protect her privacy). In Italy, prostitution is legal, and the age of consent is 14. But paying a minor for sex is a crime punishable by up to six years of jail.   But why did the girl need to be taught a “moral lesson” if she was the victim?  The episode raises broader issues about the way child prostitution is viewed in Italy. Rather than being perceived as victims, the girls are often portrayed in the media and in court as morally corrupt, as if they were the ones to blame.

How to curb online harassment? Technology, law and advocacy can help.

That’s where I come in. My law firm represents victims of online harassment and sexual assault. We stand for the belief – and witness it anew multiple times a day – that everybody is a moment away from having their life destroyed by a jealous ex, an enemy or even a demented stranger. All the angry person must do is post a picture or rumor. The Internet’s relentlessly archiving memory and creeping search engine algorithms provide eternal life in cyberspace to the most humiliating information, true or not. Here’s a fact pattern we see frequently: A client’s nude pictures, originally shared in a trusting relationship, get posted by her jilted ex to a website dedicated to hosting “revenge porn.” Thousands of men frequent these sites each day. They email our clients. Soon he or she is assaulted by hundreds of unwanted, threatening emails, texts and social-media requests from strangers who blindly accept that she is the “diseased whore” her ex describes her as. These strangers compete with one another in the site’s comment threads to unearth as much personal information about her as possible – her social-media accounts, phone numbers of her parent’s employers, email accounts of her underage sisters. They use that information to stalk and harass. With a click of a button, the angry ex has presented the victim on a platter for the Internet to devour. This is harassment by proxy; revenge has never been more efficient. Just because you’ve never taken naked pictures or don’t have enemies doesn’t mean you’re safe. We have clients whose bikinis are photoshopped off and posted onto revenge porn sites, who are filmed getting dressed or engaging in a sexual act without their knowledge, whose faces are masterfully superimposed onto a porn star’s bodies, whose rape videos have gone viral. Other clients are advertised as prostitutes for sex on websites such as Craigslist and Backpage. In one case, more than 40 strangers showed up at our client’s home and workplace to intimidate her. We’ve had cases where the offender is somebody with whom our client went on one online date. In one case, she was somebody with whom our client, a male, decided not to go on a date with after determining she seemed too emotionally unstable. Thereafter, his name and social media profile picture wound up on an online STD registry. In all cases, the mob is at the ready to ignore the truth and scare the bejesus out of the target.  The law must keep up with these kinds of crimes. While 34 states have revenge porn laws, they don’t cover the resulting online harassment from mob viewers. Harassment laws typically require direct contact with the victim and a course of conduct. So if the original offender simply uploads content onto a site and sits back while the mob attacks, neither of those requirements are met. Similarly, a thousand people may each anonymously send the victim one terrorizing communication – again, not a course of conduct by any single person. Plus, law enforcers are highly unmotivated to open a case in which the cyber forensics may eventually show that the offender lives in a country on the other side of the equator – or at least is logging in through an IP address suggesting that. Law enforcement officers shy away from investigating tech cases, especially when they are lowly misdemeanors with an anonymous offender, let alone a thousand anonymous offenders. There is good news: A combination of legislation, technology, law and advocacy can improve online life. We need laws that acknowledge harassment by proxy and that attribute actions of the incited mob to the original upstream offender. Rep. Katherine M. Clark (D-Mass.) is in the vanguard, introducing legislation stopping some of the most formidable online acts. One bill criminalizes the malicious publication of private information, another prevents blackmailed demands for sexual acts, and a third punishes people who falsely report emergencies causing SWAT teams to be dispatched.

Solving prostitution

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL adopted a resolution last week urging the worldwide decriminalization of prostitution, and D.C. Council member David Grosso (I-At Large) was among many to applaud the vote: He announced that he is considering introducing matching legislation this fall. Amnesty International and Mr. Grosso are well intentioned but wrong: The policy would do more to hurt victims of sex trafficking than it would to help them. Amnesty International’s vote authorizes its international board to adopt an official policy asking countries to decriminalize what it refers to as “sex work” — the exchange of sex for money. The human rights organization makes its recommendation on the grounds that it would allow women to report abuse, gain access to health care and leave the business if they want without fear of legal consequences. Those are noble ends. Yet these means won’t achieve them. Supporters of the resolution assume that sex work can be a profession like any other and that sex transactions can be consensual. This is probably true for some prostitutes. It is not true for the vast majority, who resort to selling their bodies because they feel they have no other option. Decriminalizing prostitution entirely might give some of these women a way out. More often, it would allow pimps to operate with impunity, using the money and status that comes with their newfound legitimacy to scale up trafficking operations that hurt the most vulnerable — the young, the very poor and especially the undocumented. The evidence seems to bear that out in Germany and the Netherlands, where trafficking has increased dramatically since the decriminalization of the sex industry in the early 2000s. Though no policy on prostitution is perfect, some have yielded better results. The so-called “Nordic model” — a set of laws first passed in Sweden — decriminalizes the sale of sex but keeps the purchase illegal. It has its flaws, too. Clients increasingly afraid of punishment may arrange for transactions in underground and unsafe locations, and police might manipulate prostitutes seeking protection into helping track down their pimps, instead of looking first to their safety. But overall, the Nordic model appears to lead to fewer women being in danger. In Sweden, for example, street prostitution has gone down by half. Men report soliciting sex less, and some traffickers who find the country inhospitable to business have moved away. Prostitution and human trafficking will never be stamped out, and no legal approach to reducing the harm they cause will be perfect. But wholesale decriminalization is surely wrong. The way to solve a problem is not to protect the very people who cause it — not in the District and not anywhere else in the world. **Read more on this topic:** Cindy McCain: Amnesty International’s dangerous decriminalization proposal Amy Klobuchar and Cindy McCain: Broadening the fight to end human trafficking Letter to the Editor: Why not legalize prostitution? Malika Saada Saar: There’s no such thing as a child prostitute

‘I Am Jane Doe’: A disturbing look at Internet-enabled exploitation

The documentary “I Am Jane Doe” is the kind of film that lifts up a rock that’s been sitting in plain sight year after year, with only a heroic few bothering to see the slithering reality underneath. Now, thanks to this sobering, often sickening, bluntly effective piece of advocacy cinema, the rest of us have no excuse to turn away. The subject at hand is the sexual exploitation of children — specifically, thousands of girls, often runaways, who have been tricked or manipulated into becoming “prostitutes” (or, more accurately, rape victims and enslaved sex workers). Historically, the chief outlet that their pimps advertised on was a website called Backpage.com, a Craigslist-like classified bulletin board that, along with information about bikes for sale and apartments for rent, ran a booming business in the “escort” industry, accounts payable by credit card or bitcoin. In “I Am Jane Doe,” filmmaker Mary Mazzio tracks down some of the girls who managed to survive their ordeals and the families — mostly mothers — who filed lawsuits against Backpage for conspiring in the illegal activities of their pimps and abusers. Relating a few pivotal lawsuits filed in St. Louis, Seattle and Boston, narrator Jessica Chastain (also one of the executive producers) threads viewers through a Kafkaesque labyrinth of legal dodges and breathtaking judicial cynicism, most of which centers on an obscure clause in the Communications Decency Act. (Enacted in 1996, the CDA protected Internet service providers from liability for material published on their platforms by third parties.) As it happens, Backpage was once owned by the Village Voice, which would seem to have put it squarely in the crosshairs of the kind of aggressive investigative reporting and righteous indignation for which that venerable New York newspaper earned its journalistic bones. The editorial inaction of the Voice — even as Backpage grew steadily sleazier — is just one of the ironies that abound in “I Am Jane Doe,” which also features cameos from such famous jurists as Richard Posner and David Souter, as well as high-profile litigator David Boies. But the heroes of the film are the young Jane Does who courageously share their stories, along with their tireless parents and the local attorneys who have clearly made it their mission to find redress for their clients and amend the CDA, after being continually swatted down by courts with seemingly endless capacity for denial of the law’s real-world consequences. “I Am Jane Doe” became unexpectedly timely last month, when the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations finally succeeded in questioning current and former Backpage executives, who repeatedly claimed their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. The day before, they had shut down its “adult services” section, claiming government censorship. And indeed, Backpage has enlisted powerful allies in its free-speech argument, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Cato Institute — as well as some sex workers and nonprofits who argue that Backpage was actually helpful in making their work safer, and in identifying exploitative perpetrators. Those views aren’t explored in “I Am Jane Doe,” which doesn’t apologize for voicing only one side of the debate but nonetheless makes a viscerally emotional case for a common-sense reassessment of the law. With luck, the conversation will continue, in Congress and elsewhere. If anything, “I Am Jane Doe” offers a gut-wrenching reminder that there are certain rocks we ignore at our peril. Unrated. At area theaters. Contains brief obscenity, disturbing subject matter, sexual imagery and nudity. 99 minutes.

How Congress should ﬁght child sex trafficking on the Internet

FOR YEARS, classifieds website Backpage.com has denied reports that it was involved in facilitating child sex trafficking and exploitation. It insisted that it was a passive host of third-party content and had no control over its sex-related ads — many of which featured children. Reporting from The Post’s Tom Jackman and Jonathan O’Connell raises new questions about these claims. According to documents provided to The Post from an unrelated legal dispute, a contractor for Backpage in the Philippines has been aggressively soliciting and creating sex-related ads for the website. Emails from a Backpage.com address directed the contractor to find ads from rival websites and explicitly mentioned ads for “adult services,” suggesting that at least someone at Backpage was aware of the contractor’s activities. This revelation builds on the results of a recent Senate investigation, which found that Backpage was editing ads to remove language that explicitly referred to underage girls, rather than deleting the ads altogether. The website also advised users on how to conceal illicit activity from its screening process. Experts have long alleged that ads published in Backpage play a major role in facilitating human trafficking, including of children. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that 73 percent of the 10,000 child trafficking reports it receives annually involve Backpage in some way. The website faces pending litigation in California, Washington state  and Florida, among other states. Backpage touted its “extensive efforts to prevent, screen and block improper ads” in a 2015 court filing in the District. But instead of fully cooperating with authorities, it has repeatedly resisted official investigations into its practices. It refused to comply with a Senate subpoena to hand over documents last year and was unanimously held in contempt of Congress — the first time such an action was taken in over two decades. When it was finally compelled to shut down its adult ad section in January, it claimed that it had been “unconstitutionally censored.” Backpage has also filed lawsuits over state and federal laws that tackle online sex trafficking. In response to the latest revelations, three senators have recommended the Justice Department conduct a criminal review. Legislators also are debating whether to amend the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which gives third-party hosts such as Backpage wide-ranging immunity for content posted by its users. This immunity has been vital to the development of free speech on the Internet, but can also provide a loophole for companies that tacitly facilitate human trafficking. It is for Congress to see if it can amend the act without infringing on First Amendment rights, or if passing some other preventive measure is more viable. What is clear is that something must be done. At the Senate hearing on Backpage in January, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) remarked, “Children were sold, and they simply tried to sanitize it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the definition of evil.” Given the contents of these new documents, we understand how she feels. **Read more here:** George F. Will: The Sisyphean battle against sex trafficking of minors Letters to the Editor: To ﬁght sex trafficking, target the men who buy sex Colbert I. King: Washington D.C.’s serious sex-trafficking problem Amy Klobuchar and Cindy McCain: Taking the fight to end human trafficking to the federal, state and local levels

D.C. needs to keep its children from becoming victims

TWO RECENT cases of D.C. police officers allegedly sexually victimizing teenage girls have justifiably focused attention on the department’s hiring and disciplinary practices. Overlooked, though, are some other critical questions. What about the girls? How did they come to be trafficked? Are they now getting the support they need? Most fundamentally, are there holes in the system that allow vulnerable youth to become easy prey? Linwood Barnhill Jr., a 24-year member of the Metropolitan Police Department, has been charged with prostituting two teenage girls. His arrest this month followed the apparent suicide of another officer who had been arrested for taking lewd pictures of a 15-year-old. Police said they believe the two cases are unrelated. No doubt, as Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier contended, the behavior is not representative of the police force. But there are troubling commonalities, notably that both cases involved missing or runaway youth. These teens are the typical victims of human trafficking. In need of food or housing or simply a sense of belonging, they are easily exploited. Often, they have previously been victims of abuse. Jamila Larson, executive director of the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project, is critical of the District’s efforts to publicize, locate or help these vulnerable children. Why is it, she asked us, that you have to dig on the Metropolitan Police Department’s Web site to find a link to an outdated listing (it included four people when we checked, including a woman murdered three years ago) by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children? In its annual study of state efforts to combat sex trafficking, Shared Hope International gave the District a D in 2013. That’s a step up from the F it got last year, but advocates said there is much the city needs to do to update laws, improve training, increase communications among agencies and provide more services. More support for transgender youth is a particular issue, as is the need for harsher penalties for the men who pay for sex with minors. The District still has on the books — although officials say it is rarely enforced — a law that makes juveniles subject to arrest for prostitution, a clear conflict with their status as victims. Thankfully, it doesn’t appear the victims in these recent cases were prosecuted; officials said confidentiality bars release of any information. We hope they are getting the critical services that survivors need and that their terrible stories prompt D.C. officials to examine whether more can be done to protect other children. **Read more on this issue from Opinions:** The Post’s View: Getting D.C. children the mental health they need The Post’s View: D.C. children in shelter must get real homes

Ask Amy: Children in the buff shouldn’t be on Facebook

_**Dear Amy:** I am writing to you regarding people sharing pictures of children in the buff on Facebook, Instagram or other social media._ _I have a girlfriend who constantly posts naked pictures of her 3-year-old son._ _Even worse, some of these photos were taken on a public beach. Imagine the looks from others as they stroll by!_ _To me, this is not only distasteful, but also dangerous._ _I am afraid that some of the “friends” from Facebook or Instagram could be pedophiles who might take advantage of this innocent boy!_ _I discussed this with my mother and her mother, and both women are concerned._ _When we suggested to the friend’s mother that she should discuss this with her daughter, she said she would get defensive and maybe stop talking to her._ _I want to confront her about this through a private message._ _How can I approach this?_ **Fully Clothed** **Clothed:** I think this practice is risky (and disrespectful to the child, who cannot consent). Those photos can wind up anywhere (well beyond her own Facebook circle), and the photos of these innocent children can be grabbed and shared by pedophiles, who will hoard and trade them. The pictures will also surface off and on for the rest of the child’s life. I am not offended by the sight of a nude young child at the beach, but in this day of secret photographing and photo-sharing, I agree that this, too, carries risks. Reacting to posts and photos is expected on social media sites. Rather than privately soliciting opinions about this and gossiping about it, you should feel free to share your point of view with the mother posting these photos. I suggest sending her a private message and saying, “I really enjoy seeing pictures of your adorable son on Facebook and Instagram, but I worry that any nude pictures can fall into the wrong hands and be shared well beyond your own circle of trusted friends. I hope you’ll think about possible unintended consequences when you post photos.” Every young child deserves to have adults in their life who respect and guard their privacy. Children are completely defenseless when it comes to the questionable judgment of their parents. _**Dear Amy:** My grandmother is 78 and lost her husband about 10 years ago._ _I’ve noticed over the last five years that she has become very lonely and likes to do ALL the talking. Due to the distance between us, I am only able to see her one or two times a year and for only one or two days per visit. Spending time with her is not fun anymore. She never asks about me, my future husband, my upcoming wedding, etc._ _She doesn’t even ask me, “How are you doing?”_ _Our entire visit consists of her reminiscing about her past, and she will even cry over certain events, which results in me consoling her._ _When it is time for me to leave after staying for a couple days, I feel as if I didn’t get to actually talk to her. I feel like we are missing out on these years we have together._ _I hope this doesn’t make me seem selfish. I love my grandmother dearly; we used to talk till the cows came home, and it’s not the same anymore._ _I want to talk to her about it, but I am afraid I will hurt her feelings. What should I do?_ **Worried** **Worried:** You should be honest with your grandmother about your concerns: “Grammy, I’m worried about you. You seem so sad . . .” It sounds as if she might be depressed. Older people are just as likely as anyone else to become depressed, but they aren’t routinely screened for depression. Diagnosis and treatment could be a game-changer for her. Speak to your parents (and/or her) about this. Also, if you correspond with her by email or snail mail in between your visits, you will basically have the opportunity to tell her whatever news you have regarding your own life. Then when you are with her, you can say, “Remember how I wrote to you that I’m engaged? I have some pictures of my fiance — do you want to see them?” _**Dear Amy:** The question from “Sad” broke my heart. Sad’s younger sister was abusing the party drug Molly, and Sad was upset because her sister was mad at her when she intervened._ _I wish more people cared enough to intervene and let a family member be mad at them. Anger fades._ **Also Sad** **Sad:** Exactly. © 2016 by Amy Dickinson distributed by Tribune Content Agency

India turns blind eye to trafficking, rape of child maids

NEW DELHI — She was just 14 years old when she was picked up from her poor village in eastern India and promised good wages as a maid in New Delhi. Instead, she was forced to work for free as a virtual slave in a wealthy middle-class household. When she plucked up the courage to complain to the “placement agent” who had found her the job, “he beat me and then he raped me,” the girl, now 17, said in an interview in this capital city. “He said if I ever tried to run away from home, he would kill off my family and burn down my house.” Every year, hundreds of thousands of girls are trafficked from rural India to work as domestic servants in middle-class homes in India’s fast-growing urban areas. They are expected to work at least 15 hours a day for food, lodging and salaries well below the legal minimum monthly wage of about $125. Many end up cut off from their families, abused and treated like slaves. Some are sexually assaulted. India erupted in outrage at the gang rape last month of a young woman on a moving bus in New Delhi. But in the same city, experts say, a vast network of child trafficking and abuse operates with society’s implicit sanction and official apathy. As India strives to become a modern and developed nation, the problem serves as a reminder of the exclusion of a vast swath of the population from the benefits of a rising economy and the broad indifference of many middle-class Indians to the rights of the poor. “The trafficking of young children, especially girls, under the garb of placement agencies is the biggest organized crime in India today. And the worst part is, it is right there in the open, in our homes, and yet invisible,” said Bhuwan Ribhu of the child rights group Bachpan Bachao Andolan. One of the six suspects in the gang-rape case, a purported 17-year-old, was himself trafficked at age 11 from a poor village in northern India to a life of child labor in the capital, where he worked in a roadside restaurant and as a bus driver’s assistant, police have said. He soon lost touch with his parents. Many middle-class Indians believe they are helping poor families by giving their children work. But according to municipal law in New Delhi, which has enacted some of India’s strictest child labor laws, they should be jailed. Employing people younger than 18 in a hazardous job, as domestic service is defined, has been a non-bailable offense since 2009. But the law is widely flouted, said Ribhu, who added that on rare occasions police carry out “rescue operations” of underage servants after complaints from parents or activists. “Almost all of the domestic maids are either minors, or started work as maids before they were 18,” Ribhu said. There has never been a systematic attempt to determine the scale of the problem. The government says 5 million children are employed in India, but activists say the real number could be 10 times that. A senior official at India’s Home Affairs Ministry, which oversees the police, estimated that as many as 4 million children work in domestic service nationwide and that up to 4,000 placement agencies operate in New Delhi and its suburbs alone. But the official, who insisted on anonymity to speak candidly, said it was often hard to get his fellow bureaucrats to take the issue seriously because so many of them employ children at home. Sometimes, placement agencies demand a one-time fee for supplying servants, a sum often docked from the girls’ wages by their employers. Other times, the employer pays the wages directly to the placement agency, which might give a portion of that money, or none at all, to the girl. One 18-year-old interviewed, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retribution from former employers, said she received no money for four years of work as a maid for doctors and businesspeople. Another, whose statement forms part of a court case filed by activists in an attempt to force New Delhi authorities to regulate the industry, said in her testimony that she was paid $45 a month but was essentially imprisoned for years and never allowed to telephone her family. When she complained to the placement agent, she said, he raped her. Ribhu said traffickers often use rape — which can ruin a young woman’s marriage prospects by robbing her of her “honor” — as a tool of control. “I could not bear the pain and fell unconscious,” she said. “When I awoke, I found myself in a pool of blood. When I came out crying, he told me he would sell me off and never send me home if I didn’t keep quiet.” The Washington Post generally does not name rape victims. Activists have made progress only by taking such cases to Indian courts. New Delhi’s high court has led the way by ordering authorities to raise the minimum age for domestic service and requiring placement agencies to be registered. But the fine for failing to register ranges from just 50 cents to $5, and monitoring of registered agencies is nonexistent, activists say. After two years of unpaid work, and after being raped on two occasions by her placement agent, the 17-year-old girl from eastern India was rescued by a Bachpan Bachao Andolan activist who was working undercover at New Delhi’s railway station. The girl was at the station because the trafficker had promised to take her home to her village but had secretly bought tickets to the teeming commercial capital, Mumbai, where he apparently intended to sell her off into a life of further slavery or prostitution. A year later, the girl is still in New Delhi, hiding from the trafficker. Small and shy, with her hair tied back in a bun and covered in a patterned scarf, she has an unassuming manner that masks a determination to see her tormentor put behind bars. “The first thing I want is that man should be punished for what he did to me,” she said. “Then I want to see the money I am owed in my hand. The third thing is to go back home safe and sound.”

Children rescued, pimps arrested in international prostitution crackdown

During a presidential campaign soured by sexual misconduct allegations, the FBI reminds us just how bad sexual abuse can get. A coordinated international crackdown on child sex trafficking rescued 82 children, who were provided social services, and arrested 239 suspected pimps and fellow reprobates in the United States, according to the FBI. Five boys were among the victims and the average age was just under 16. Foster children are particularly vulnerable.   The crackdown demonstrates that prostitution is more insidious and oppressive than images of street hookers and high-priced call girls indicate. Children are forced into prostitution, sometimes by parents. The FBI reported these tragedies: Some folks “don’t want to believe children are being sold for sex. Not in this country,” Clark said, but the operation “provides irrefutable evidence that they are.” The “common denominator” among the children, FBI Director James B. Comey told reporters, is “someone overbearing the will of a vulnerable young person and convincing them that this is what they must do to survive and there’s no way out. That’s what we mean by these children feel trapped in darkness … Our message is there is a way out.”  Cross Country “aims to shine a spotlight into the darkest corners of our society that seeks to prey on the most vulnerable of our population,” Comey said during the media event at the International Association of Chiefs of Police convention in San Diego. One problem for law enforcement is the mobility of pimps and victims. They “often travel throughout the nation to engage in prostitution and do not necessarily reside in the area where they are located by authorities,” according to the FBI in Detroit. National and international operations such as Cross Country allow local, national and international law enforcement officials to cast a wide net at the same time. In the United States, 400 law enforcement organizations participated in the operation, including 55 FBI field offices and 74 child exploitation task forces. The anonymous young lady had words of encouragement for those still trapped: “If you’re a victim and you went through this, there is justice for you … I can breathe and say I can finally put him (the pimp) behind me.”

A movie about online sex-trafficking might actually get laws changed

It’s tough getting a consensus on anything these days, but child sex abuse and human trafficking are generally considered indefensible crimes. So who’s defending them? According to “I Am Jane Doe,” that would be Google. And Microsoft. And Facebook. And Yahoo. Directed by Mary Mazzio (“Lemonade Stories,” “Underwater Dreams”) and coming to Netflix May 26 after a theatrical run earlier this year, the documentary advocates for victims of online trafficking while taking principal aim at the classified-ad website Backpage.com, a notorious venue for sex ads and transactions, many involving children. In its indictment of Backpage.com and the tech companies that are indirectly supporting the website, the film may also give a public relations boost to members of Congress working to tighten laws surrounding Internet liability. In doing so, “I Am Jane Doe” may be the rare social-issue documentary that has an effect on a social issue. According to Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, online service providers cannot be held liable for third-party content. But that means if someone sells a 13-year-old on its pages, Backpage says, it isn’t responsible. And so far, court after court has agreed — to the relief of First Amendment absolutists, and the Silicon Valley companies mentioned above, which support, financially, organizations defending Backpage’s position. As the film explains — through the voices of victims, their mothers, their advocates and narrator Jessica Chastain — neither side is letting up. Backpage was once part of Village Voice Media and is now owned by a Dutch firm, although founders Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin and chief executive Carl Ferrer have been named in the suits. “I Am Jane Doe” picks up the Backpage saga in 2010 with lawsuits filed by girls who were trafficked on its pages, and continues through a Senate subcommittee investigation led by Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) in January, as well as criminal charges of pimping and money laundering brought by then-California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris, now a Democratic senator. It also focuses on the effort that has thus far made the most headway — a civil suit that continues in Washington state, piloted by lawyer Erik Bauer. Backpage will try to get that case dismissed during a summary judgment hearing Wednesday. A jury trial is scheduled for Oct. 9. “I think we’ll kick their a--,” Bauer said from his office in Tacoma, Wash. His argument, which has since been adopted by other plaintiffs, was that because Backpage provided guidelines about how posters could sculpt their ads to evade law-enforcement scrutiny, it made itself culpable outside the scope of Section 230. Some parties to the issue disagree vigorously — it’s not about sex trafficking, but about liability. “People looking at different legislative remedies are going to have to look at the other consequences of those proposals,” said Emma Llanso, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, one of the groups that have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of Backpage. She said those consequences could include online censorship, a disincentive for providers to actually monitor their content (lest they open themselves to legal liability), and an invasion of the social media “that we all use every day.” Google has contributed tens of millions toward eradicating human trafficking. So have many of the big tech companies. But according to a report issued Wednesday by Consumer Watchdog, a public interest organization in California, many of the same companies — including Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo, but Google more than any other — have also contributed to the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Dozens of scholars, institutions and public-interest groups, many supported by Google and other companies, have lobbied against an overhaul of Section 230, saying that it could change the nature of the entire Internet. The report also alleges that Google makes $1 billion a year off postings for unlawful material and services, from pirated movies to child porn to prostitution. (Update: A Google spokesperson emailed after this article was published to say, “This is absolutely untrue, we have strict policies in this area and do not accept ads for them.”) “If there’s going to be an amendment to keep websites from helping sex traffickers, the only way it’s going to happen is if Google doesn’t stand in the way” said Jamie Court of Consumer Watchdog. “There’s no reason they should except they fear it’s a slippery slope and they’ll be held liable one day for something less egregious than what Backpage is doing. “What’s Google going to do?” Court asked. “Be evil?” (Google’s longtime corporate motto was “Don’t be evil.”) Google would only say in an email, through a spokeswoman, “We have long contributed to many independent organizations because of their advocacy on a wide range of Internet issues, including privacy, surveillance reform and the open Internet. We will continue to use our technology to combat child sex trafficking and connect victims and survivors with the resources they need.” “I Am Jane Doe” is an unabashed victim-advocacy film and has followed a route previously traveled by “The Invisible War” (sexual assault in the military), “The Hunting Ground” (campus rape) and “Trapped” (the war against reproductive choice): It’s taken its social-issue argument directly to Congress. Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) had been working for a year to draft a bill that would exclude sex trafficking from Section 230 protections, but used the occasion of a February congressional screening of “I Am Jane Doe” to announce the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, which now has bipartisan support. “This is a criminal issue,” said Wagner. “Opponents of this bill have been brilliant in shaping their opposition as a First Amendment issue, but that’s bogus and they know it.” “Of course, we all believe in freedom of speech. At the time this [act] was written, people weren’t selling kids online, let alone Backpage,” said Cindy McCain, wife of Sen. John McCain and one of the anti-trafficking advocates who appears in the film, via email. “It’s not a freedom-of-speech issue, it’s a human rights issue.” Wagner said she thought “I Am Jane Doe” would be instrumental in “helping drive this bill across the finish line.” Over the years, films like “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Food Inc.” have probably left a considerable long-term impression on their viewers, but those viewers were likely to be sympathetic before they bought their tickets. Convincing lawmakers is a different thing entirely. “The film definitely has created some additional leverage on the Hill,” said Yiota Souras, senior vice president and general counsel at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, based in Alexandria, Va. “Mary gave a voice to what a lot of attorneys and nonprofit organizations have been working on for years.” Portman agreed. “We need to raise awareness about it, and that’s what this film does,” he said, adding that earlier this year, the members of his Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, who include Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), “were able to show that [Backpage] knowingly tried to take out evidence of criminality to increase their own profits.” He was looking forward to drafting legislation that “narrows” Section 230. “I think the tech community is willing to work with us,” he said, “but they are understandably concerned that if you go too far it will affect the ability to have a free Internet. We all get that — we’re not trying to shut down the Internet. What we’re trying to do is make it work better and safer.” Mazzio simply hopes her film will spare a few children the horrors recounted in the film. “There’s a cultural view of these crimes that says ‘It’s kind of sorta prostitution, and what’s the big deal about prostitution?’” Mazzio said. “You hear about a kid found in a dumpster and you say, ‘Oh, that poor troubled kid.’ … But the scope of this problem shows it’s simply not reality.” _This post has been updated._

Amnesty International’s dangerous proposal to decriminalize the sex trade

_Cindy McCain is chairman of the Human Trafficking Advisory Council at the McCain Institute for International Leadership._ Amnesty International recently adopted a proposal that recommends decriminalizing the sex trade, a move that it says is for the human rights and equal protections of sex workers. This proposal instead gives amnesty to pimps, brothel owners and sex buyers by recognizing everyone in sex work as “consenting adults.” Men and women in the vulnerable position of selling their bodies for sex should be offered services and solutions to provide them with safe alternatives. The proposal instead legalizes their exploitation. Amnesty International says that people who engage in sex work often do so because they have been marginalized and have limited choices. The decision to sell one’s body for sex made in the absence of better circumstances is not a human right. A buyer or trafficker who takes advantage of someone’s lack of choice for their own financial or sexual gain is an exploiter of human rights and should be criminalized. Sex work and sex trafficking cannot reasonably be separated. Sex work fuels the demand for commercial sex, which is the indisputable driving force behind the sex-trafficking industry. Supply will always meet demand, and in this equation, supply is too often vulnerable men and women, and, at its very worst, children. Under the group’s proposal, sex traffickers and brothel owners could operate with immunity for facilitating what they say is consensual sex work. Protections should not be afforded to those who prey on a person’s vulnerability or lack of basic needs. Decriminalizing sex work would put those in the sex industry, and vulnerable populations around the world, in greater danger by giving no authority to go after those who exploit others for personal profit, all under the guise of protecting those in harm’s way. This industry is not safe, and Amnesty International understands that sex workers in many countries face high levels of violence, but it draws the implausible conclusion that the danger lies in societal stigma, not in the precarious nature of the sex industry and those who exploit it. Recently in Charleston, W.Va., an escort fended off and killed her attacker when he arrived for a “date” with a “kill kit,” including a gun, handcuffs, an ax, machete, bulletproof vest, knives, a box cutter, bleach and several trash bags. This person is thought to be tied to the deaths of four other escorts and carried a list of 10 other women selling sex whom he intended to harm. In 2009, a Texas man shot and killed an escort for not agreeing to have sex with him, and the horror stories continue. Stigma isn’t the danger. This proposal tells women, men and children that sex work is a safe and accepted choice, and that those who pay to have sex with them have the human right to express their personal autonomy. Amnesty International says that some buyers “develop a stronger sense of self in their relationships with sex workers, improving their life enjoyment and dignity.” The sexual fulfillment and dignity of sex clients as a human right has been placed higher than the safety and stability of those caught in the sex trade. Dignity for exploited women and children is ranked below that of commercial sex buyers. Although Amnesty International does not have the authority to make or enforce laws, its influence as an international human rights organization presents a challenge in the uphill battle to combat societal acceptance of the degradation of women and children for sex. Its policy recommendations matter to the international community, although perhaps after this proposal, they should matter less. This policy is a step backward in the fight against human trafficking worldwide. It is misguided thinking, dangerous for women and children, and a heartbreaking abandonment of those being sold for sex each and every day. **Read more on this issue:** The Post’s View: Thailand’s despicable trafficking record Donald J. Brewster: The fight against child sex trafficking in Cambodia Marc A. Thiessen: Hastert case shows it’s no time to cave on child sex trafficking Holly Burkhalter: A safer home for Cambodia’s girls Amy Klobuchar and Cindy McCain: Broadening the fight to end human trafficking

Holly Burkhalter: Curb the child migration crisis begins with combating sexual abuse

_Holly Burkhalter is vice president for government relations for International Justice Mission._ It is not news to Guatemalan, Salvadoran and Honduran children that they are at high risk of violent abuse and have nowhere to turn for protection. But now that they are  fleeing across our border by the tens of thousands, it is apparently news to U.S. policymakers. The drug trade that is destroying Central American societies is clearly part of the problem. But kids aren’t only fleeing narco-violence and gangs ; they are also trying to escape sexual abuse. The United States should commit significant foreign assistance to address this overlooked aspect of the child migration crisis. Consider the case of Guatemala. Large numbers of children are preyed upon by adults, usually someone in the home or otherwise known to the victim. A study by Doctors Without Borders found that, among 14-to-18-year-old girls in high-crime zones, 1 in 3 had suffered sexual assault in the previous 12 months. Child victims of sexual violence are highly vulnerable to homelessness, sex trafficking, gangs or addiction. In its safehouse in Guatemala City, La Alianza (Covenant House) provides shelter and care to girls as young as 12; virtually all of them have been assaulted in their homes or trafficked for sexual exploitation. The Guatemalan government has responded to this epidemic by adopting new child protection standards in its protocols for prosecutors and designating a special police sexual assault unit in the capital. But police, prosecutors and courts remain dramatically under-resourced and undertrained; tens of thousands of cases are backlogged and going nowhere. International Justice Mission recently conducted a study of the 36,166 complaints of sexual assault filed in Guatemala’s Public Ministry (the country’s prosecution service) from 2008 to 2012 and found that the courts have successfully adjudicated a paltry 5.8 percent of these cases. Only one case in 10 even makes it to indictment, because law enforcement and prosecutors are unable to professionally question victims, gather evidence, apprehend perpetrators or secure appropriate forensic medical reports. Men who prey on impoverished children know they need not fear apprehension or prosecution. When kids aren’t protected at home, at least some of them will flee. A recent report from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees stated that 22 percent of the Central American child refugees they interviewed said they had survived abuse and violence in their homes. Congress is expected to increase funding for the Central America Regional Security Initiative, which has received $800 million over the past five years to combat the drug trade. But stabilizing this immigration crisis should not be limited to fighting narco-trafficking. Congress should seize the occasion to fund promising initiatives that could protect vulnerable children and stabilize slum neighborhoods where sexual violence is rampant. Guatemala City’s special sexual assault police unit should be replicated, funded and deployed throughout the country. Providing police with mentoring on actual, real-time child sexual assault cases and increasing their collaboration with prosecutors can raise competence and morale quickly. U.S. aid could also scale up Guatemala’s innovative first-response facilities for sexual assault victims, where prosecutors and judges receive testimony, forensic medical personnel collect evidence and defense attorneys represent the interests of suspects. There are nine of these facilities based in the offices of the Public Ministry. Additional assistance could be used to add a trauma care component to the model and take it to scale throughout the country. Investment is desperately needed for residences and drop-in centers offering shelter and protection for abused, trafficked or homeless children. High levels of violence in slum neighborhoods and sexual abuse at home have contributed to nearly 15,000 Guatemalan kids living on the street. They are easy targets for traffickers, pedophiles and gangs. These are the conditions that are pushing a substantial percentage of child migrants across international borders. The United States could and should help the government develop a functioning child protection service that collaborates with responsible nongovernmental organizations to offer refuge and education to at-risk Guatemalan youth. If the United States and European governments, donors and international development institutions do not prioritize taking predators off the streets and creating more safe residences and programs for vulnerable kids in the region, we can expect to see ever-growing numbers of unaccompanied children fleeing their terrifying homes and nations and seeking safety in ours. **Read more about this issue:** The Post’s View: Central American families must not be given false hope about immigration The Post’s View: Immigration reform will pay a dividend Dana Milbank: Immigration activists are hungry for reform

FBI shutters site prostitutes used to protect themselves, ostensibly to protect prostitutes

From CNN:    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday I’m skeptical of people who say they want to ban prostitution out of some alleged concerned for the well-being of prostitutes. Legalized prostitution would free sex-industry workers and Johns to report abuse, trafficking and the exploitation of minors without fear of subjecting themselves to criminal liability. No, legalization won’t eliminate those problems. But neither has prohibition. Allowing sex workers to operate openly could only help. It’s true that services like MyRedbook do facilitate the sex trade. But shutting such services down won’t eliminate prostitution, or really even slow it down. Human beings crave sex and need money. Parties who can offer one and who need the other, will always find a way to make an exchange, no matter what laws stand in the way. We have a couple thousand years of evidence for this. Shutting down MyRedbook only makes it more difficult for prostitutes to protect themselves. If you’re opposed to prostitution on moral grounds and want to shut sites down, go ahead and say so. But don’t pretend your efforts are benefiting women in the sex industry. Related: Former call girl, legalization advocate (and guest writer for The Watch) Maggie McNeill talks prostitution with writer and scholar Thaddeus Russell for Reason.tv.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday

Heartbreaking photos show what it’s like living in a walled city of a brothel

Bangladesh is one of the few Muslim countries in the world where prostitution is legal. The Kandapara brothel in the district of Tangail is the oldest and second-largest in the country — it has existed for some 200 years. It was demolished in 2014, but has been established again with the help of local NGOs. Many of the women were born there, grew up there and didn’t know where else to go when it disappeared. Supporters of the brothel believe that sex work is also work — and that these women don’t want to do something else. The women themselves demonstrated for their rights as workers, and so at the end of 2014, the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association convinced the High Court that the eviction of the sex workers was an illegal act. The sex workers quickly returned to their homes. Today, the area’s “brothel district” is surrounded by a wall. In the narrow streets, there are food stalls, tea shops and street vendors. The brothel is a place with its own rules and hierarchies of power which are completely different from mainstream society. For example, inside the brothels, the women are weak but also powerful. The most vulnerable stage is when a young sex worker enters the brothel — she is called a bonded girl. Bonded girls are usually 12 to 14 years old. These girls come from poor families and are often victims of trafficking. They have no freedom or rights. They belong to a madam, have debts and are not allowed to go outside or keep their money. When they have paid all their debts, which takes somewhere between one to five years, they become independent sex workers. Then, they can refuse customers and keep their own money. From the moment that a woman has paid her debts, she is free to leave the brothel. But these women are socially stigmatized outside their “homes” and thus often choose to stay and continue supporting their families with their earnings. More In Sight:

Senate launches bill to remove immunity for websites hosting illegal content, spurred by Backpage.com

The legislation, along with a similar bill in the House, sets the stage for a battle between Congress and some of the Internet’s most powerful players, including Google and various free-speech advocates, who believe that Congress shouldn’t regulate Web content or try to force websites to police themselves more rigorously. The bill, titled the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act of 2017, would amend the Communications Decency Act. It is sponsored by Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and a bipartisan group of 19 other senators, some of whom served on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which focused on Backpage.com in its probe of online sex trafficking. The subcommittee, chaired by Portman, issued a report in January saying that Backpage “knowingly facilitated the criminal sex trafficking of vulnerable women and young girls” by editing ads posted by pimps to remove offensive language. Backpage has fended off many civil and criminal actions aimed at shutting down its sex-related ads by citing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which states that no website “shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” Backpage has argued that it merely hosts ads created by others and so has no liability. The Washington Post revealed last month that Backpage uses a contractor in the Philippines to solicit sex ads from other websites and also posts sex ads on other sites to attract more customers.  The proposed law would clarify that Section 230 does not preclude prosecution of state or federal criminal laws dealing with sex trafficking of children; does not prohibit civil suits related to sex trafficking; and ensures federal liability for publishing information designed to facilitate sex trafficking. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has reported an 846 percent increase in reports of suspected child trafficking between 2010 and 2015, which it found “directly correlated to the increased use of the Internet to sell children for sex.” The center said that 73 percent of the 10,000 child sex trafficking reports it receives each year involve ads on Backpage. The Senate report said that more than 93 percent of Backpage’s ad revenue in 2011 came from its adult section, reaping $135 million in gross revenue in 2014, with projected revenue of nearly $250 million by 2019. “Stopping trafficking is one of the great humanitarian and human rights causes of the 21st century,” Portman said in a statement introducing the bill. “For too long, courts around the country have ruled that Backpage can continue to facilitate illegal sex trafficking online with no repercussions. The Communications Decency Act is a well-intentioned law, but it was never intended to help protect sex traffickers who prey on the most innocent and vulnerable among us. This bipartisan, narrowly-crafted bill will help protect vulnerable women and young girls from these horrific crimes.”  Backpage has stated that it monitors and removes thousands of ads and helps law enforcement track down pimps and rescue trafficked children. Some say that targeting Backpage will only displace the sex ads to other websites, that Backpage is more responsive to police than other sites, and that closing Backpage’s adult ads wouldn’t address the underlying problem of adult male demand for underage commercial sex.

30-year sentence for one of the most prolific sex traffickers in Va. history

The way federal prosecutors tell it, Robert Everett Bonner Jr. was a prolific sex trafficker, prostituting more than 55 women and girls as part of one of the largest such ventures law enforcement has ever discovered in Virginia. Bonner, 34, ruled with deceit, coercion and intimidation, prosecutors said. He recruited women with the promise of a better life, then got them hooked on drugs so he could more easily control them, they said. He used sodomy as a form of punishment, took away the women’s cellphones and IDs so they could not escape, and, in one case, had someone deliver a Fentanyl patch on which a prostitute overdosed, they said. Authorities in Stafford County encountered Bonner during a prostitution sting at the Days Inn hotel in Fredericksburg in 2013, and, after a lengthy investigation, he was charged federally the next year. On Friday, a federal judge in Alexandria sentenced him to 30 years in prison for his role in a prostitution ring that operated along the East Coast, authorities said. Prosecutors had asked for the stiff term and noted that had he not agreed to plead guilty in the case, they would have argued for a life sentence. “The venture was not simply a small-time, neighborhood operation by a part-time pimp,” prosecutors wrote. “It was a well-managed, financially-lucrative, interstate enterprise designed to maximize profits and evade detection by the police.” Sex-trafficking cases are startlingly prevalent in Northern Virginia. In another recent example, a 20-year-old Annandale member of the 18th Street gang admitted as part of an agreement with prosecutors that he had prostituted a teenager — with whom he had a sporadic sexual relationship — to pay back a drug debt. Andrew M. Stewart, Bonner’s defense attorney, argued in a court filing that his client deserved a sentence of 22 years. He wrote that Bonner was not as violent as some of his counterparts in the prostitution ring and that he had accepted responsibility for his actions and “acknowledged that it is a terrible life for everyone involved.” Bonner, Stewart wrote, has two children, and his friends and family members “describe him as a wonderful and caring father and friend who regularly takes the time to help those in need.” He wrote that Bonner had used drugs from an early age and turned to prostitution to make money after he was laid off in 2011. The Fredericksburg man worked before that in restaurants, operating a laser printer and sealing driveways, his attorney wrote. Prosecutors took a different view of the case. Bonner, they said, was “one of the leaders” of a sex-trafficking enterprise that operated from New York City to Alexandria to Louisiana and many other spots in between. The umbrella venture, prosecutors said, was called, “Horse Block Pimpin,” although Bonner dubbed his particular part “Ace Block Pimpin.” Bonner and others, they said, recruited women whose phone numbers appeared on backpage.com, then kept them in the enterprise with violence, threats and coercion. Prosecutors said Bonner “specialized in sex trafficking women who had substance abuse issues,” often getting them addicted to drugs and cutting off their supply if they balked at his demands. In one instance, prosecutors said, Bonner told his girlfriend to deliver a Fentanyl patch to a woman he was prostituting at a hotel in Spotsylvania County in 2013. That woman, 21-year-old Laurabeth Womack, died of an overdose. Womack’s father, Greg Womack, wrote in materials quoted by prosecutors that every day he relives the phone call by which he found out his daughter was dead. “I hoped I would see Lolo running up to me, telling me one of her funny stories that made me grin,” Womack wrote. “But my beautiful, happy little girl is dead. She will never do any of those things again.”

Backpage has always claimed it doesn’t control sex-related ads. New documents show otherwise.

A contractor for the controversial classifieds website Backpage.com has been aggressively soliciting and creating sex-related ads, despite Backpage’s repeated insistence that it had no role in the content of ads posted on its site, according to a trove of newly discovered documents. The documents show that Backpage hired a company in the Philippines to lure advertisers — and customers seeking sex — from sites run by its competitors. The spreadsheets, emails, audio files and employee manuals were revealed in an unrelated legal dispute and provided to The Washington Post. Workers in the Philippine call center scoured the Internet for newly listed sex ads, then contacted the people who posted them and offered a free ad on Backpage.com, the documents show. The contractor’s workers even created each new ad so it could be activated with one click. Workers also created phony sex ads, offering to “Let a young babe show you the way” or “Little angel seeks daddy,” adding photos of barely clad women and explicit sex patter, the documents show. The workers posted the ads on competitors’ websites. Then, when a potential customer expressed interest, an email directed that person to Backpage.com, where they would find authentic ads, spreadsheets used to track the process show. For years, Backpage executives have adamantly denied claims made by members of Congress, state attorneys general, law enforcement and sex-abuse victims that the site has facilitated prostitution and child sex trafficking. Backpage argues it is a passive carrier of “third-party content” and has no control of sex-related ads posted by pimps, prostitutes and even organized trafficking rings. The company contends it removes clearly illegal ads and refers violators to the police. The discovery could be a turning point in the years-long campaign by anti- human trafficking groups, and Congress, to persuade Backpage to stop hosting prostitution ads, which many teenage girls have claimed were used to sell them for sexual exploitation. Lawsuits and criminal prosecutions of Backpage in the United States have nearly all failed because Backpage cites in its defense the federal Communications Decency Act, which grants immunity to websites that merely host or screen content posted by others. An investigation by a Senate subcommittee revealed earlier this year found that Backpage was editing ads to remove language indicating underage girls were available, rather than removing the ads. “Backpage has been righteously indignant throughout our investigation,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a subcommittee member, “about how we were infringing on their constitutional rights, because they were a mere passthrough.” She noted, however, that Backpage was not only changing ads but also was also guiding posters in how to conceal their true intentions. “But that’s nothing compared to this” new information, McCaskill said after The Post described the data. “This is about as far from passive as you can get. This is soliciting. This is, really, trickery. . . . So I hope this opens the floodgates of liability for Backpage. Nobody deserves it more.” The Post provided parts of the seized data to Backpage general counsel Liz McDougall for her review. She declined to comment after seeing it. Backpage has frequently noted that it cooperates with and has been thanked by numerous law enforcement agencies for providing investigators with connections to pimps and other criminals. McDougall has said that Backpage acts as “the sheriff of the Internet” and that sex ads would be dispersed among sites in other countries if Backpage stopped posting them. Backpage, based in Dallas, is an online classified ad service similar to Craigslist, with sites operating in at least 97 countries and 943 locations, enabling users to buy and sell cars, audio equipment, concert tickets — and “adult services,” seemingly a smorgasbord of barely disguised prostitution ads. Though Backpage announced in January it was discontinuing its “adult services” page, the same types of ads still appear under the “dating” category. Backpage has said that content is protected by the First Amendment, a view which has been endorsed by the courts. Most ads on Backpage are free. But ads in the “dating” section cost at least $3, and they cost more for posting in more than one city or for periodically moving the ad to the top of the list. The Senate report said that more than 93 percent of Backpage’s ad revenue in 2011 came from its adult section, leading to $135 million in gross revenue in 2014, with projected revenue of nearly $250 million by 2019. Among the sex ads posted on Backpage.com are those for underage boys and girls, authorities and advocacy groups say. The National Association of Attorneys General has described Backpage as a “hub” of human trafficking, which involves children or adults who are forced or coerced into prostitution. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said that 73 percent of the 10,000 child sex trafficking reports it receives from the public each year involve ads on Backpage. “This is the commercialization of this crime against children,” said Yiota Souras, the center’s general counsel. “And it’s what businesses do — they grow internationally; they have marketing plans to beat the competition and offer incentives to get more clients; they seek legal protections for their business interests. This is a traditional business model, but here the transaction too often is selling children for sex online.” In January, Backpage’s top officials appeared before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Chief executive Carl Ferrer, co-founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin and general counsel McDougall all invoked their Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate themselves and declined to answer any questions. Ferrer, Lacey and Larkin are facing criminal charges in California for pimping and money laundering, though a court there threw out similar pimping charges last year. And among eight civil suits filed against Backpage this year is a wrongful-death action in Chicago by the mother of 16-year-old Desiree Robinson, who was slain in December after repeatedly being sold for sex on Backpage. “Every single day, we’re learning something new,” said Yvonne Ambrose, Desiree’s mother. “Not just what’s going on with Desiree, but what’s happening with Backpage, what they’re doing on this site. Everybody knows they’re doing it, and they’re not being held accountable.” Backpage has not responded to the suit, which was filed in May. In late June, federal agents arrested the man who allegedly had been posting Backpage ads for Desiree, which described her as “Nicki,” who was “new in town” and “looking for upscale Gentlemen to have a great time with.” The FBI alleged that Joseph Hazley, 33, would drive her to appointments for “commercial sex” and collected some or all of the money she was paid. “I’m in a situation where I’m being pimped,” Desiree wrote on Facebook days before her death. “He won’t let me leave.” Hazley was charged in federal court with sex trafficking of a minor. Hazley’s lawyer, Michael Schmiege, said in an interview that Hazley didn’t know that Desiree was a minor and had no role in her killing. The materials seized in December from the Backpage contractor, Avion BPO, a busy phone and online operation in Laoag City, Philippines, show workers focused on adding and promoting sexual ads. One manual apparently created for Avion employees provides step-by-step instruction on how to find ads on other websites and copy them (“you can now transfer the details of your advertisement from the other Classified Site to Backpage,” the manual states). The manuals suggest that other types of ads, such as for jobs, are also targeted, but the spreadsheets seized from Avion focus largely on sex ads. Then, after creating a fake user profile on the other classifieds site, the worker fishes for the advertiser’s email or phone number. Various translations of “Can you meet today?,” “Nice Pictures!,” “Want to have fun?” and other messages are then sent in the appropriate language to the advertiser. When the advertiser responds to the message, the workers in the Philippines either call or email with an offer to post their ad on Backpage free of charge, with the ad already created and ready to go. In one email, a person with a Backpage.com email address reminded Avion workers to search its competitors’ sites for the latest postings, noting that dozens can be added each day. In the email, the Backpage employee included a list of ads from Vivastreet, a similar classified ad website in Europe and Australia, including one titled “Hot and Sexy and Ready for You” and another called “Sweet Christine New in North harrow - all service for you.” The manuals also discuss creating and posting false ads on other sites. When potential customers respond, Avion workers responded with emails saying the poster had moved to Backpage. “Hey baby, Sorry i missed your email. I got locked out of my Vivastreet account,” one email said, “and just finally got them to open it back up for me . . . I have one on back page now too.” A link to Backpage is included, though the phony ad is not posted. Instead, the redirected customer is now presented with Backpage’s actual advertisers. There are also numerous spreadsheets that track the creation of fake profiles and fake ads on other sites and the responses to those ads, as well as a list of advertisers on other sites and their contact information. Backpage says it uses an automated program to strip objectionable words from ads, such as “lolita” and “teenage” and “rape,” the Senate subcommittee report found, while leaving the rest of the ad online. But Backpage also uses Avion to manually review ads, and the new documents show how Backpage strives to keep ads from being deleted. “I was reviewing deleted ads,” one Backpage employee wrote to Avion. “Here are a few removals that I restored. Some only needed pics removed,” meaning that Backpage republished ads that Avion agents had taken down. The discovery of the documents came about accidentally, as part of a lawsuit in Kansas City, Mo. A D.C.-based commercial real estate data firm, CoStar, claimed last year that a competing firm in suburban Kansas City, Xceligent, was delving into the CoStar website and stealing its data. Xceligent has denied the allegations in the pending case. CoStar said it believed that the actual alleged data theft was being committed by a contractor for Xceligent — Avion. In December, CoStar obtained a civil search order in the Philippines. CoStar executives say they assembled an 85-person team of Filipino officials, IT experts, lawyers and private security forces and raided Avion’s three-building complex in Laoag City, seizing 35 terabytes of information comprising some 6.5 million files. All of Avion’s computers were then bubble-wrapped and flown back to the United States to aid CoStar in its case. While analyzing the data about Xceligent, CoStar discovered huge amounts of Backpage data on the same computers. CoStar founder Andrew Florance started going through the files. “The word ‘Backpage’ was just all over the place,” he said. “We found organizational charts showing Avion’s two big clients are Xceligent and Backpage. So we googled ‘Backpage.’ ” CoStar turned over the Backpage data to the FBI. The FBI declined to comment on whether it is investigating. Xceligent officials said in a statement that “we do not own or control Avion’s business, we are not affiliated with Backpage, and we have no way of knowing about Avion’s purported work for Backpage.” Avion chief executive Von Nagasangan and chief operating officer Joy Nagasangan did not respond to requests for comment. After Ambrose sued Backpage in Chicago over the death of her daughter, her lawyers subpoenaed the Backpage data from CoStar for their civil case. Ambrose’s lawyers at Romanucci & Blandin then turned the data over to The Post. The documents include audio files of calls between Avion employees and people who have posted ads on other sites, apparently recorded for company purposes. “Hey Crystal,” an Avion employee said in one recorded call. “I just saw your ad you posted on Escorts South Africa and we would like to invite you to repost your ad for free at Backpage. All we need is your email address.” Crystal declined, saying she had been warned about such inquiries, “and don’t ever call me again.” But others agreed to the prospect of a free Backpage ad and provided their email addresses. Employee manuals and tracking spreadsheets show that in the follow-up email from Avion, a link is provided where the new advertiser can see what their ad will look like — Avion has already created it, having lifted the material from the original site, and it’s ready to go with just one click. Invoices and call sheets indicate Backpage was pushing Avion to get as many new listings as possible, generating ads from competing sites including Locanto in Europe, Australia and South America, Eurogirlsescort.com, Privategirls.com, PrivateRomania, Gumtree and many others. Virtually every attempt by sex victims or law enforcement to stop Backpage from facilitating such action has been shut down by Backpage’s reliance on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, written in 1996 during the Internet’s infancy. The law protects website operators from being held liable for content posted by their users. In recent federal appeals court rulings in both Chicago and Boston, courts have sided with Backpage, as they have in numerous lower courts for years. “Users provide all the content for ads they post,” Backpage lawyers wrote in the Boston case. “The website does not dictate or require any content.” The lawyers went further: “The law under Section 230 is clear that if an online provider has _actual_ knowledge of illegal content posted on its site, the provider is immune even if it fails or refuses to delete the content.” Congress is gearing up to try to amend Section 230, though it faces a powerful opponent in First Amendment proponents and websites wary of government regulation. Regardless of the law, Backpage has always claimed it has made “extensive efforts to prevent, screen and block improper ads from users,” as it wrote in one filing in federal court in Washington in 2015. “Backpage.com does not create or develop any of the advertising or discussion content,” it wrote in one presentation provided to Senate investigators, “but simply provides a forum for the online publication of users’ content.” Various authorities have tried different approaches to try to shut down Backpage’s sex ads. In Chicago, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart issued a cease- and-desist order to Visa and MasterCard, telling them to stop accepting payment for Backpage. Backpage sued the sheriff and won. In Boston, three women who were sold on Backpage sued the site’s owners, but a federal appeals court, with a panel featuring former Supreme Court Justice David Souter, ruled that the Communications Decency Act shielded Backpage from liability. But in Washington state, the state Supreme Court ruled that a suit by three victims of sex trafficking could proceed. Nacole S., whose daughter was trafficked on Backpage at the age of 15 for more than three months, was amazed by the new revelations. The Post is withholding her last name to conceal her daughter’s identity. “I find it morally disgusting,” she said. “Not only are they exploiting young women that are clearly vulnerable, but they’re furthering their exploitation by putting them on another website. It just shows the lack of morality of this company, how little they care about the victims. Which child is going to be enough to make this end?” _This article has been updated to reflect additional comment from Xceligent. An earlier version of this article incorrectly described the ad offering “fresh young sweet simple girl” as a phony created by Avion workers to lure business. It was an authentic ad posted on a competitor’s site, the documents show, and Avion sought to persuade the advertiser to post it on Backpage.com._ Read more: Hunting for sex-traffickers abroad — by posing as johns What life inside the Islamic State looks like for recruits Dirt-bike dealers battling brazen ‘wheelie boys’ in thefts

Why is Daniel Ford still a Massachusetts judge?

At the Boston Globe, defense attorney and civil libertarian Harvey Silverglate calls for justice in the sad case of Bernard Baran, a gay man who served 25 years behind bars after he was convicted of sexually abusing children at the day-care center where he worked. Baran’s conviction came at the head-end of a wave of national hysteria about sex abuse that would drag on for more than a decade and result in dozens of innocent people sent to prison, from Massachusetts to California. Baran said he was raped more than 30 times in prison. He was finally released from prison in 2006 after a state appeals court overturned his conviction. In 2009, Berkshire County District Attorney David Capeless finally dropped all of the charges. Baran didn’t have much time to enjoy his freedom. He died in September at age 49.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico The only real evidence against Baran was a series of interviews investigators conducted with the allegedly abused children. But as happened with so many other sex abuse cases of the era, the allegations were later shown to have come from the interviewers, not from the children. Silverglate, who was one of Baran’s appellate attorneys, explains: In other sex abuse cases from the era, similar interviews with children produced unimaginably gruesome allegations, including orgies that included children and animals, adults sodomizing children with knives, and ritual sacrifice. These allegations led to convictions, despite the fact that there were no bodies of the allegedly murdered children and no physical signs of abuse on the children making the accusations. Most of those convictions have since been overturned, but for the most part, the law enforcement officials responsible for them were not only never disciplined, many were reelected or moved on to higher office, sometimes _because_ of the notoriety they gained from those cases, which tended to be high-profile affairs. Examples include former attorney general Janet Reno, former Kern County, Calif., district attorney Ed Jagels, former Massachusetts attorney general Scott Harshbarger and his successor, current Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley. (Coakley didn’t prosecute the controversial case Harshbarger is known for, but she did fight to preserve the convictions. She also has a history of other questionably aggressive prosecutions and opposition to criminal justice reform.)    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico And then there is Daniel Ford, one of the two prosecutors who tried Bernard Baran. In late 2003, the other prosecutor in the case, former Berkshire County district attorney Gerard Downing, had a heart attack and died while shoveling snow. For years, Baran’s appellate attorneys had been asking Downing to turn over the interview tapes. He said he couldn’t find them. (He isn’t the only prosecutor who has had problems locating tapes of interviews with children that produced abuse charges, but later proved exculpatory.) After Downing died, Capeless found and turned over the tapes in a matter of months. Had Downing not had a heart attack, Baran could well have died in prison.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Through his attorney, Ford has insisted that he turned the tapes over to Baran’s attorney, who for whatever reason refused to use them in Baran’s defense. But as Silverglate points out, while the Massachusetts Court of Appeals ruling to overturn Baran’s conviction did fault Baran’s attorney, it also noted that “while the record does not settle the question of whether the unedited videotapes were deliberately withheld by the prosecution, there are indications in the trial transcript consistent with that contention.”    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Even if Ford did turn the tapes over, there remains the question of why he and Downing proceeded with prosecuting Baran, knowing that the only evidence against him was based on allegations coached from children who initially repeatedly denied Baran had done anything wrong. The answer may lie in another disturbing allegation against Ford that I detailed in a 2009 article about the case:    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Of course, these were allegations made by someone with a vested interest in Baran’s innocence. But the affidavit jibes with the homophobic atmosphere that permeated the trial, and with Ford’s behavior in the courtroom. The accusations against Baran came just as the accusations in the notorious McMartin preschool and Fells Acres day-care cases were also making headlines. In overturning Baran’s conviction, the appeals court added that the trial was rife with “speculative, stereotypical, and deeply insidious links between homosexuality, gonorrhea, and child molestation.” Yet as Baran was reportedly getting repeatedly sexually assaulted in prison, Downing was getting reelected and Ford was getting promoted. Just a few years after Baran’s conviction, Ford was appointed to the Massachusetts Superior Court, where he presides over criminal cases. He has also served on a committee that determines state rules for criminal procedure. As Silverglate points out, not only has Ford never been disciplined, he has never been publicly investigated, nor has the state considered the reforms that could cut down on future wrongful convictions. State bars are notoriously deferential to prosecutors and rarely hold them accountable. A regular commenter on my old blog once suggested that for a prosecutor, convicting an innocent person of a crime that carries a sentence of a decade or more in prison ought to considered akin to a surgeon who amputates the wrong limb. It may well be an honest mistake. And perhaps it shouldn’t be treated as a crime. But it certainly calls into question the attorney’s credibility and competence as a prosecutor, to the point where he or she ought to be removed from office. At the very least, it doesn’t seem like too much to ask that sending an innocent man to jail for 25 years ought to disqualify a prosecutor from serving as a judge.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico

The case for legal prostitution

Cindy McCain’s Aug. 14 op-ed, “There is no dignity in the sex trade,” criticized Amnesty International’s recent decision to advocate decriminalizing prostitution. Ms. McCain distorted the reasons behind Amnesty International’s decision and the broader reality of commercial sex work. The organization’s position is not, as Ms. McCain claimed, tantamount to endorsing “exploitation” and “degradation.” In fact, the decriminalization decision was motivated by a desire to reduce victimization in sex work. Ms. McCain, as have many others, conflated sex work with human trafficking and assumed that exploitation and victimization are inherent in sex work. The latter notion has been debunked by research documenting incredible variation in the world of prostitution. In treating Amnesty International’s proposal as a crazy idea, Ms. McCain ignored the fact that several countries (Australia, New Zealand, Germany, the Netherlands, etc.) have legalized prostitution because they concluded that government regulation is superior to criminalizing and marginalizing those involved. ****Ronald Weitzer** , Arlington** ● Cindy McCain’s logic was circular: We can’t legalize prostitution because it’s dangerous, even though reducing danger is the point of legalization. Rather than being enslaved to pimps, prostitutes could be licensed, with renewals contingent on regular tests for sexually transmitted infections. They could be insured, helping to defray the costs of drugs in the event they contract an infection. Representative agencies could conduct background checks on prospective buyers to weed out violent people. It’s a win-win. I suspect women who oppose legalization do so for more self-serving reasons. Since humanity began, women have exercised social power by controlling access to sex, which flies in the face of their demands not to be objectified. The rise of Internet pornography and hookup culture has severely damaged this power. Legalizing prostitution will destroy it completely, and female opponents of legalization know it. ****Michael Vann** , Alexandria**

A scandal of sexual abuse mars the U.N.’s exit from Haiti

THE U.N. PEACEKEEPING mission in Haiti, one of the world’s longest-running such deployments and the only one in the Americas, will end in a few months, but not before reckoning with a fresh scandal. A U.N. battalion of Nepalese peacekeepers in 2010 introduced a lethal strain of cholera  to Haiti, where it has since killed more than 9,000 people and infected hundreds of thousands. Now, the Associated Press reports that at least 134 U.N. peacekeepers from Sri Lanka took part in a sex ring in Haiti that victimized nine children, the youngest just 12, from 2004 to 2007. The report should serve notice that U.N. peacekeeping operations worldwide are badly in need of reform and oversight. The sex ring was part of what appears to have been a broader pattern of sexual exploitation and abuse, along with impunity, that has marked the U.N. mission in Haiti since it began in 2004 after an elected president was overthrown. The A.P. turned up hundreds of allegations of abuse in Haiti, many of them coldblooded and horrific, carried out by peacekeepers from Bangladesh, Brazil, Jordan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Uruguay and Sri Lanka. In very few cases did the troops face discipline. The U.N. announcement last week that the mission in Haiti would be wound down over the coming six months was unrelated to the A.P.’s nearly simultaneous revelations of sex abuse by peacekeepers. The troops’ withdrawal — they’ll be replaced by a much smaller contingent of police trainers — reflects both the country’s progress toward stabilization after successful elections and financial pressure to trim peacekeeping operations, owing partly to the Trump administration’s threat to cut U.S. contributions to the multinational organization by hundreds of millions of dollars. Even when the mission in Haiti is wrapped up, the United Nations will have more than a dozen peacekeeping missions worldwide; Haiti is by no means the only place peacekeepers have treated as a sexual playground. The United Nations must insist, as a precondition for accepting peacekeeping troops, that contributing countries will court-martial and punish soldiers who commit abuse. It should also sever payments to peacekeeping contingents implicated in sexual abuse if they fail to impose discipline. In the absence of such accountability, peacekeeping missions may do more harm than good. Haiti may have been especially vulnerable to exploitation by peacekeepers as the hemisphere’s poorest nation, leveled by a devastating earthquake in 2010 and a hurricane last year. Some children and teens reportedly were raped outright; others engaged in what victims called “survival sex,” coerced into trading their bodies for scraps of food or a few dollars. The United Nations insists it is making progress in holding peacekeeper-contributing countries to account; it said much the same thing a decade ago. **Read more on this issue:** The Post’s View: The United Nations comes clean(ish) on cholera in Haiti The Post’s View: The Herculean task facing Haiti Charanya Krishnaswami and Muneer I. Ahmad: U.N. hypocrisy in Haiti

Even without the warrant, Manassas ‘sexting’ case is outrageous

NOW THAT a potentially illegal warrant to photograph a teenager’s erect penis won’t be served, we should return to the equally outrageous “sexting” case itself. In January, the 17-year-old Prince William County resident allegedly sent a pornographic cellphone video of himself to his 15-year-old girlfriend, who had initiated the sexting. The mother saw the video on her phone — which her daughter was using — and confronted the boy. But he continued, police allege, and the mother filed a complaint, leading law enforcement to charge him with “manufacturing and distributing child pornography.” In order to ensure the video featured the teen, the police obtained a warrant two weeks ago to inject him with a drug to induce an erection and photograph it, but then backed down in the face of public resistance. They also decided not to use explicit photos that had been taken earlier. The teenager’s lawyer last week rightly criticized the warrant as “traumatizing.” But more traumatizing for the boy is the prospect of facing almost four years in prison and a lifetime on the state sex-offender registry — for an alleged video of himself. Child pornography laws are designed to protect children from exploitation. They’re to be used against adult predators or minors in specific situations, such as when a large age gap exists or pictures are coerced or mass-distributed against a minor’s will. Technology’s rapid development makes exploitation easier, raising new challenges for law enforcement. The 17-year-old’s sexts were clearly not welcome. Even if the girl had consented, her mother shouldn’t have been subjected to the videos. Even so, punishments must be proportional to crimes. There’s no Virginia sexting law, and these videos should not automatically fall under criminal child pornography laws. The teenager’s behavior puts him in the company of nearly 30 percent of his peers, according to one academic study. Yet according to the law, if convicted he would belong on a list featuring child molesters, rapists and sex predators — effectively derailing his employment and housing prospects and subjecting him to lifelong social stigmatization. The typical remedy to such disproportionality is sound judgment by prosecutors and police. None was demonstrated in this case. A more thoughtful response from Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul B. Ebert and Manassas Police Chief Douglas W. Keen would have been to talk to the children, alert their guardians and perhaps encourage their suspension from school. Only if the 17-year-old continued and developed malicious intent should filing charges have been considered. Courts usually sentence teenagers in sexting cases to supervised probation, not jail time, but that does not alleviate the gravity of a felony charge. This case demonstrates the need for a bill that specifically addresses sexting between minors. Some states have classified consensual sexting between minors as a misdemeanor, an innovation that Virginia briefly considered and killed in House subcommittee this year. Constructing a foolproof bill is difficult because of potential loopholes, but a new law is nonetheless overdue. **Read more on the topic:** The Post’s View: Congress needs to act to allow victims of child sex abuse to recover restitution Kathleen Parker: Anthony Weiner and defining deviancy down Arjun Sethi: Child pornography: Who should pay?

Social networks confront challenges in rush to attract youngest users

A growing number of social networks are racing to capture the loyalties of the Web’s youngest and most vulnerable users. Last month, Silicon Valley-based Kazaana launched with $3 million in funding and with hopes of attracting subscribers younger than 13 who will be addicted to friending, photo-sharing and farm-tending games. Kidzworld, with its 2.2 million users, has signed up advertisers such as Crocs and Crate & Barrel. Yoursphere boasts AT&T; and the American Youth Soccer Organization as paying sponsors who want to lend their services to the site’s 500,000 subscribers — from preschoolers to 17-year-olds. Then, of course, there’s Facebook, which is pondering whether to allow preteens to join its massive social network with their parents’ permission. On the fickle Web, most of the smaller social networks may not last, experts say. But Facebook and its rivals hope some of their staying power will come from children who will commit now and remain with them through the years. “Facebook probably isn’t going to make a lot of money advertising to children, but the strategy is to get children to use the platform before they get pulled away by others,” said Simon Mansell, chief executive of TBG Digital, an advertising and consulting firm for big corporate brands on Facebook and Twitter. The rush to capture young users has sparked fresh concerns from lawmakers and health advocates over whether social networks will keep children in front of computer and mobile-gadget screens for too long. They also worry about online predators. In June, Skout, an app designed for flirtation with local strangers, said adults accused of sexually assaulting youths had lied about their ages to gain access to the site’s teen section. Before those incidents, the company did not verify users’ ages. Facebook has also had to step up its monitoring of sexual predators. Facebook did not respond to requests for comments for this article. Networks that cater to children tout themselves as safe environments, although they acknowledge that there may be no foolproof way to block predators. Yoursphere, for instance, says it does a thorough background check on adults who register their children for the site. Under law, the sites must seek permission from parents to sign up users younger than 13. Facebook restricts users under that age, but an estimated 6 million underage users have lied about their age to get on the site, consumer groups say. In June, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) sent a letter to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg urging caution as the tech giant stakes out plans to open to children. “We believe strongly that children and their personal information should not be viewed as a commodity to be bought and sold to the highest bidder,” Markey wrote in June. The Federal Trade Commission is also attempting to strengthen protections for children. Last week, the agency proposed stronger child privacy rules that would prevent advertisers from collecting information about those 12 and younger without a parent’s permission. The online market aimed at children is lucrative, largely because it is untapped, investors say. Some analysts and companies such as Kazaana estimate that tweens — children between the ages of 8 and 14 — spend $43 billion a year, by doling it out themselves or influencing their parents’ buying habits. “These are users who aren’t locked into anything right now that is safe,” said Pete Thomas, a partner at Silicon Valley-based ATA Ventures, which funded Kazaana. “There is tremendous opportunity to create a platform that pulls them in.” Some social-network advertisers are moving beyond the traditional banner ad. Kazaana hopes to get companies such as Gap to pay for users to dress up their avatars in the clothesmaker’s jeans and khakis. Proctor & Gamble’s BeingGirl.com and its fan page on Facebook have attracted preteen girls who can find advice on menstruation and talk to peers. Even with these efforts, child-focused social networks are confronting the same financial challenge befuddling Facebook — how to survive as a business. Facebook has said it is having trouble making money off users who access the social network on smartphones and tablets, which are the favored platforms of youths. Making subscribers loyal will be a challenge, analysts say. Many early adopters of new social networks try multiple services at once. About 20 percent of Yoursphere users also have Facebook accounts. Still, advertisers say the new social networks have the potential to influence the spending habits of children and their families. If Abercrombie & Fitch sponsors a T-shirt design contest on Kazaana, they get children, as well as parents, to think about the brand. “We have a whiteboard with, like, 50 ways to monetize, and we envision the relationships — moms, grandparents and other family members on the site — as a big part of it,” said Michael Adair, the co-founder of Menlo Park, Calif.-based Kazaana.

How shutting down Backpage, ‘the world’s top online brothel,’ could hurt sex workers

These trends have continued despite law enforcement's best efforts. Authorities have periodically forced sites to close and on Thursday arrested the chief executive officer of one of the industry's most popular websites, Backpage.com.  Over the past couple of decades, advocates say online advertising has helped prostitutes avoid the dangers  of walking the streets to find clients, where they are easier targets for criminals. By meeting online first, sex workers can better negotiate terms of their service and weed out customers who seem suspicious.  Craigslist brought new competition for experienced prostitutes with well developed networks of clients, recalled Maxine Doogan, who is the president of the Erotic Service Provider Legal, Educational and Research Project, a California group that advocates for workers in the industry. "They're undercutting the already well-established erotic service providers," Doogan said.  Some of those more established sex workers were pleased by the news of Ferrer's arrest Thursday, Doogan said, since they hoped the arrest would limit competition. Doogan also warned, however, that if the site stops serving the sex industry, many of those now advertising on Backpage could be forced to return to streetwalking to find customers -- putting themselves in danger and losing an important opportunity to vet their clients before meeting them. "That's absolutely what happened when Craigslist went down," Doogan recalled. "You saw a bunch of people hit the streets." Systematic research on the illicit sex industry is scant, but there is evidence that legal obstacles to prostitution can create costs for society as a whole.  Law enforcement, however, has argued that shutting down sites such as Backpage will protect women from exploitation.  Whether shutting down Backpage and similar sites reduces trafficking is disputable. Experts suggest that allowing sex to be advertised online makes it easier for police to identify these victims -- who would otherwise be on the street or on other Web sites that are more difficult to monitor. "It seems like there are more reasons to allow it to continue to function, than to shut it down and close off that avenue," said Ronald Weitzer, a criminologist at George Washington University, in an interview in 2014.  "What terrifies me is the notion that what is going to happen is that this content, this advertising, is going to go to what are known as the 'black hat' websites, the underground websites, and ultimately the off-shore websites," she continued. "When that happens, not only will these websites not care to cooperate with law enforcement, but when they are off-shore, they are outside the jurisdiction of U.S. law enforcement." On Friday evening, McDougall provided a statement that read, "The raid of Backpage.com’s Dallas office and the arrest of its CEO is an election year stunt, not a good-faith action by law enforcement." The statement argued that the company was not legally responsible for the content of its users' listings. Doogan, of the Erotic Service Provider Legal, Educational and Research Project, denounced Harris's statement as "hypocrisy," saying that arresting senior Backpage officers would not make sex workers safer. "We're not her constituents. She doesn’t care about us," Doogan said. "We’re not making any big contributions to her Senate campaign."

The unacceptable abuse of child gymnasts

IN RIO DE JANEIRO, U.S. Olympic gymnasts are going for the gold. But the reputation of the organization that trains them has been deservedly tarnished: An investigation by the Indianapolis Star this week revealed USA Gymnastics has for years ignored allegations of widespread sexual abuse of athletes as young as 10. The report is a sorry reflection on the country’s athletic apparatus and a sickening testament to a threat that extends far beyond the gymnastics floor. According to the Star, when USA Gymnastics — the national governing body for gymnastics — is informed of an instance of sexual abuse by anyone other than the abused athlete or her parents, the organization compiles complaint dossiers and files them away in a drawer in Indianapolis. This approach, the Star found, has allowed coaches to molest minors for years, moving from city to city and athlete to athlete, before they finally face punishment. There is no national civil rights protection for club or Olympic sports, so USA Gymnastics’ obligation to report abuse comes from local laws. All 50 states have statutes that require abuse to be reported, but who is legally responsible for making the report varies. The ethical responsibility to report, however, does not. Children often do not or cannot admit to having been abused. Waving off reports that come from elsewhere is just an excuse to enable abusers. This is not the first time Olympic aspirants have been abused, only for authorities to turn a blind eye. When USA Swimming came under fire for a sex abuse coverup in 2013, Congress requested an FBI investigation. That didn’t happen. It would be well worth looking into practices across the athletic board to ensure that employees are properly trained to report abuse — and that they face consequences when they do not. The U.S. Olympic Committee launched its SafeSport initiative for independent investigations of abuse allegations in 2014, but advocates say the program has yet to provide substantive services. Releasing the names of coaches once they are banned, as some organizations have done, is not enough. USA Gymnastics claimed it kept reports quiet for fear of jeopardizing the reputation of its coaches. The reputation of a coach who brags about getting a 15-year-old girl in her underwear and smugly says he will soon be able to have sex with her does not need looking after. What does need looking after is the safety of countless young women who cannot compete without fearing exploitation and abuse. **Read more on this topic:** The Post’s View: Guarding young swimmers from sexual abuse The Post’s View: Was Rick Curl free to abuse?

An important step to reduce child sex tourism

_Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives._ As principal author of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 — a landmark law combatting sex- and labor-trafficking at home and abroad — I am deeply concerned that the United States has not done enough to address the rape and sexual abuse of children by convicted pedophiles who travel in secret to countries where child sex tourism thrives. That concern is shared by many, and it’s why a unanimous Congress recently passed legislation, which I sponsored as it was refined over eight years, to significantly expand protections for children worldwide. Now awaiting the president’s signature, H.R. 515 — the International Megan’s Law — authorizes the creation of a comprehensive, reciprocal notification system between U.S. and foreign law enforcement regarding the travels of those required by law to be on government sex-offender registries. This is a serious problem. State Department Trafficking in Persons Reports identify several dozen countries that are destinations for child sex tourism, including Mexico, the Philippines, Brazil and Thailand. Just last month the United Nations noted with alarm increasing child sex tourism in Peru. These governments need to know when convicted pedophiles cross their borders. A 2010 Government Accountability Office report found that at least 4,500 U.S. passports were issued to registered sex offenders in fiscal 2008 alone. Typically, a passport is valid for 10 years, meaning that currently tens of thousands of offenders could be traveling abroad as child sex tourists. Studies demonstrate that even when caught, some child predators have a propensity to reoffend. For example, a 2009 study by Mark E. Olver, Stephen C.P. Wong and Terry P. Nicholaichuk, one of many available on the Justice Department’s SMART Web site, found that untreated moderate- to high-risk sex offenders were reconvicted for sex crimes at a rate of 17.7 percent after three years and 32 percent after 10 years. The most remarked-upon provision of the law is a mandate that an “identifier” — defined as a “visual designation affixed to a conspicuous location” — be placed on passports to indicate that holders appear on a U.S. sex-offender registry for an offense against children. Concerns have been raised about impeding the rights of citizens to travel. U.S. law denies passports to delinquent taxpayers, deadbeat parents and drug smugglers; the law’s passport provision, however, does not go this far. It simply would add an identifier deemed appropriate by the executive branch. And when the legal duty for the sex offender to register ends, so does the requirement for the passport identifier. The International Megan’s Law honors the memory of Megan Kanka — a precious girl from my hometown of Hamilton, N.J., who was kidnapped, raped and brutally murdered in 1994 by a neighbor who, unbeknown to neighborhood residents, was a convicted sex offender. As a result of hard work by Megan’s parents, Maureen and Richard Kanka, and others, all 50 states passed Megan’s laws requiring public notification of convicted sex offenders living in a community. These registries have survived legal challenges across the country because of the compelling interest to protect children. Notably, the same arguments that failed to shut down sex-offender registries are now being employed against the International Megan’s Law. They were poor arguments then, and they are poor arguments now. **Read more on this topic:** Mark P. Lagon and Laila Mickelwait: The U.S. government turns a blind eye to policies that fuel sex trafficking Donald J. Brewster: The fight against child sex trafficking in Cambodia is far from over Colbert I. King: Washington D.C.’s serious sex-trafficking problem

How the daycare child abuse hysteria of the 1980s became a witch hunt

_Maura Casey is a former editorial writer for the New York Times._ By Richard Beck PublicAffairs. 323 pp. $26.99 TV news was no friend to those of us who had small children in the 1980s. Allegations of child sexual abuse in day-care centers swept the nation, with high-profile cases in California, North Carolina, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Minnesota and other states, leading to empty playgrounds, hyper-vigilant parents and the implication that behind every tree lurked a pedophile waiting to snatch our children. Sexual abuse is an awful crime, but the perpetrators are usually relatives or family friends, and fewer than 1 percent of cases take place in day-care centers. Nonetheless, 30 years ago America was described as experiencing an “epidemic” of sexual abuse in day care. Richard Beck, an editor at N+1, does a herculean job of investigating why this happened in his absorbing book “We Believe the Children.” Beck makes the case that the sexual abuse trials of the 1980s yoked numerous undercurrents in American society: fear of crime; the decline of respect for traditional authority; homophobia (being gay helped send some day-care workers to prison); the conservative backlash against feminism, which had encouraged women to work outside the home (with its resultant need for day care); and the reality that the patriarchal nuclear family had not just changed, it had become “incoherent.” Conservative evangelicals had just helped elect President Ronald Reagan, and many of them believed that “porn, gays, and women had run amok.” This is quite a laundry list, but Beck does a good job of marshaling the evidence. Throw in, for good measure, journalists who were slow to question allegations that emerged not only of sexual abuse, but also of Satanic rituals and even human sacrifice, particularly in the McMartin Preschool case in Manhattan Beach, Calif., which dragged on for more than six excruciating years. The allegations persisted despite the fact that there were no missing people, no bodies and, oh yeah, virtually no evidence to bolster the claims. Geraldo Rivera added to the hysteria by airing, just before Halloween in 1988, a two-hour special, “Devil Worship: Exposing Satan’s Underground.” “We believe the children” became both the unofficial motto of advocates for the prosecution and a catch-all response to those few who asked whether the accusers had completely lost their minds. The approach was based largely on the work of psychiatrist Roland Summit, who claimed that, of every 1,000 children who say they were sexually abused, only two or three are guilty of inventing or exaggerating. He also said it was normal for children who had been sexually abused to retract their claims and say they made it all up. The upshot: No matter what children said, they were sexually abused, and if you didn’t believe them, something was wrong with you. Yet “believing the children” glossed over the fact that, often, adults believed only what they wanted to hear. In the McMartin case, the social workers who interviewed children not only considered Summit’s theory as gospel but interrogated (not too strong a word) the children repeatedly, becoming more bullying with each session. When one child denied seeing a game called “Naked Movie Star” played at his preschool, the therapist replied: “Well, what good are you? You must be dumb.” Police were often no better. In one instance, when a child said “I don’t know” to a question about sexual games, the policeman said: “Did he take your underpants off? Can you say yes? Say yes.” As a Minneapolis Star Tribune story later reported, “Therapists acted like cops and cops acted like therapists . . . social workers went along on a search warrant party.” Predictably, many children subjected to repeat interviews “confessed” that the abuse happened. The McMartin case wasn’t the only example of such trauma inflicted on children. In Scott County, Minn., where 22 people were arrested on sexual abuse allegations, an 11-year-old boy was removed from his home after his parents became the target of allegations. He was interrogated on an almost daily basis for two months. Finally, he gave in and said that his parents had participated in orgies. “I was sick of being badgered,” he later explained. Another boy, after being interviewed 74 times, had a breakdown. Journalists began to question this by around 1990. It helped that a jury found the McMartin defendants not guilty on 52 counts and deadlocked on 13 others. But from time to time, the panic would resurface. In the mid-’90s in Wenatchee, Wash., a police lieutenant became convinced of the existence of a child sex ring in his small city of 22,000 and eventually filed more than 29,000 counts of child sex abuse against 43 people, resulting in 18 convictions. Nearly all the convictions were set aside by the end of the decade. The aftereffects continue. The cases added to the “get tough on crime” movement, which sapped power from judges as neutral arbiters of the law and gave police and prosecutors a vested interest in putting those accused in prison. And for all the day-care hysteria, the United States neither mandates paid family leave to help parents care for their babies at home nor subsidizes affordable child care. Motherhood may be sacred, but mothers are on their own. Some have drawn parallels between the Salem witch trials of 1692 and the false accusations of sexual abuse that swept America in the 1980s. The difference is this: Those falsely accused in Salem got public apologies from their accusers and reparations. No such luck for the dozens of day-care workers and others who were falsely accused and imprisoned in modern-day America. We should be ashamed.

The growing U.N. scandal over sex abuse and ‘peacekeeper babies’

BANGUI, Central African Republic — The neighborhood is a patchwork of low- slung buildings scorched and looted at the height of the civil war, a place where the United Nations was supposed to come to the rescue. But in a number of homes, women and girls are raising babies they say are the children of U.N. troops who abused or exploited them. “Peacekeeper babies,” the United Nations calls such infants. “A horrible thing,” says an elfin 14-year-old girl, who describes how a Burundian soldier dragged her into his barracks and raped her, leaving her pregnant with the baby boy she now cradles uncomfortably. The allegations come amid one of the biggest scandals to plague the United Nations in years. Since the U.N. peacekeeping mission here began in 2014, its employees have been formally accused of sexually abusing or exploiting 42 local civilians, most of them underage girls. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called sexual abuse by peacekeepers “a cancer in our system.” In August, the top U.N. official here was fired for failing to take enough action on abuse cases. Nearly 1,000 troops whose units have been tied to abuses have been expelled, or will be soon. Among them is the entire contingent from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But the victims appear to be more numerous than the United Nations has reported so far. In a corner of the capital city known as Castors, near the U.N. headquarters in the country, The Washington Post interviewed seven women and girls who described contact with peacekeepers that violated U.N. regulations against sexual exploitation and abuse. Five of them said they exchanged sex for food or money — sometimes as little as $4 — while their country was rocked by civil war and families were going hungry. Only two had reported their cases to the United Nations. Five of the seven interviewed by The Post said they had borne the children of their abusers. The 14-year-old mother said she was assaulted by a Burundian soldier, but the United Nations recorded her case not as rape but as “transactional” sex, in which acts are exchanged for money or food. “Sometimes when I’m alone with my baby, I think about killing him,” the teen said, holding the little boy. “He reminds me of the man who raped me.” The accounts by the women and girls could not be independently verified. But their stories are consistent with other accounts of abuse in the Central African Republic collected by independent groups and the United Nations. The Post does not identify minors who are alleged victims of sexual abuse or exploitation. The U.N. system responsible for handling and prosecuting such cases has been widely criticized as dysfunctional, even after scandals involving peacekeepers in other parts of the world. Only one criminal charge has been filed in relation to any of the 42 cases of sexual abuse or exploitation that have been officially registered in the Central African Republic, according to U.N. officials. U.N. officials did file a report on the 14-year-old mother’s **** case, and a U.N. spokeswoman, Ismini Palla, said the organization was “monitoring the case of the girl closely.” But nine months after the girl reported the alleged rape, investigators have not reported any results. U.N. officials had no comment on why they had classified the case as exploitation rather than assault. The sexual abuse scandal is the latest horrific development in a war already marked by extreme brutality. The conflict began in late 2013 when mostly Muslim rebels overthrew the government in this Christian-majority country, setting off a cycle of revenge killings that in Bangui fell largely along religious lines. About 6,000 people have been killed. The U.N. mission, a 12,000-member organization that includes troops from 46 countries and is known as MINUSCA, was established to provide security and protect civilians. In recent months, numerous allegations have emerged of peacekeeper abuse of vulnerable residents. Human Rights Watch issued a report this month documenting the cases of eight women and girls allegedly raped or sexually exploited by U.N. peacekeepers in late 2015 in the central city of Bambari. Amnesty International said last August that it had obtained evidence of a U.N. peacekeeper’s rape of a 12-year-old girl in the capital. U.N. officials recognize that they are grappling with a serious breakdown in their peacekeeping forces. This month, they said they were investigating the cases of four girls who were allegedly exploited or abused at a camp for internally displaced persons in central Ouaka prefecture. In January, they said that at least four peacekeepers had allegedly paid girls as little as 50 cents for sex at a camp in Bangui. Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, the newly appointed head of the U.N. mission, said he fears that the cases discovered so far may be the “tip of the iceberg.” “We’re going to be flooded by paternity claims,” he said in an interview. It is not the first deployment in which U.N. forces have been accused of sexual abuse. In Bosnia in the 1990s, peacekeepers were accused of soliciting sex from women who had been trafficked and virtually enslaved in local brothels. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the early 2000s, more than 150 allegations of abuse and exploitation were registered against peacekeepers, and U.N. investigators found that many of the alleged victims were orphans. U.N. missions in Kosovo, Haiti, Liberia and other places also have been tarnished by such allegations. The United Nations has conducted internal investigations and revamped training programs. But the complaints continue to roll in. Perhaps no mission in recent U.N. history has been as quickly tainted by abuse allegations as the one in the Central African Republic, which is expected to cost $814 million this year. The first cluster of sexual abuse cases appeared within months of the mission’s September 2014 launch. Even before the U.N. mission officially began, French troops were accused of sexually abusing a number of local children. In a report issued last year, a United Nations-appointed review panel sharply criticized U.N. officials in the Central African Republic as failing to take action or report the cases after uncovering them. “The welfare of the victims and the accountability of the perpetrators appeared to be an afterthought, if considered at all,” the report said. U.N. bases in the Central African Republic are now plastered with posters that list the rules that troops are already supposed to know. “Sex with anyone under the age of 18 is prohibited.” “Exchanging money, goods or employment for sex is prohibited.” “Zero tolerance for sexual exploitation.” But the Castors neighborhood is a shocking illustration of how brazen the peacekeepers became. Residents say that troops skulked around the neighborhood looking for girls during the day and sneaked out at night to meet them in rented rooms or abandoned houses, or to take them into the barracks. Moroccan troops broke holes in the perimeter wall of their bases, witnesses said, so that they could leave undetected. “There are so many girls here who slept with [peacekeepers],” said Thierry Karpandgei, a resident. “You can see their babies all over here.” Most of the alleged cases of abuse and exploitation occurred at the peak of the conflict, in 2014 and 2015, when the fighting pushed residents to the edge of survival. “There was no way to get food or money at the time, and they promised to help us if we slept with them,” said Rosine Mengue, who explained that she received the equivalent of $4 in each of two encounters with a peacekeeper. She was 16 at the time. She spent the money on cassava leaves, which fed her family for two days. Mengue, who is now 18, told The Washington Post it could use her full name. Like the rest of the women, Mengue never heard from the man after she became pregnant, she said. He went back to Morocco. She dropped out of school and is raising her son in her family’s home, surrounded by charred palm trees and the ruins of half-destroyed buildings. “We don’t have enough food for everyone,” her mother said. U.N. officials have said that peacekeeping contingents from about 10 countries have been implicated in the sex-abuse scandal. Most of the women interviewed by The Post said they did not report their cases to the United Nations because they felt ashamed and did not think the organization would be able to help them. One of the women did approach the United Nations seeking financial assistance for her baby after his father returned to the Congo Republic. But U.N. officials say she did not specify that she had received money from the peacekeeper — as she later told The Post — so the case was not recorded as involving exploitation. Such an act would have violated U.N. rules for peacekeepers on sexual relationships. Castors is along the road from the sprawling U.N. headquarters, where Onanga- Anyanga, 55, a veteran U.N. official from Gabon, is scrambling to solve the problem. In an interview this month, he sat in front of a sheet of paper that said in bold print: “Talking points — Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.” When he looked up, he spoke angrily. “We inherited troops that we cannot call troops. I realized that what was sent here was trash,” he said. There are a range of explanations for the rampant abuse, including the poor training and discipline of many battalions, which are dispatched here for years-long rotations, said U.N. officials and analysts. Some troops were sent in 2013 as part of an African Union operation and then were “re-hatted” as U.N. peacekeepers with little or no additional instruction. “We can’t just put a blue helmet on them and assume their mind-set will change overnight,” Onanga-Anyanga said. U.N. officials here have tried to encourage the reporting of sexual abuse by setting up a hotline for victims and buying radio ads in which they are encouraged to come forward. Victims of abuse whose cases are documented are eligible for medical and psychological help and possibly other assistance. But many women are still unaware of how to register complaints. Even as the United Nations has tried to improve training on sexual abuse, there have been mistakes. Many of the new lessons, for example, are taught only in English and French, and some troops lack fluency in either language, said one U.N. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the issue. Perhaps most problematic is that the United Nations leaves the adjudication of sexual abuse allegations to the troops’ countries of origin. But those nations’ investigations are often weak, U.N. officials said. That has contributed to a sense of impunity, according to U.N. officials and outside experts. For peacekeepers in the Central African Republic, “the message is clear: You can rape or abuse women and girls, and you can get away with it,” said Lewis Mudge, an Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Until troop-contributing countries bring peacekeepers accused of these crimes to justice, we can expect more of these cases in the future.” The 14-year-old mother still watches the troops drive near her faded-yellow home, where broken beer bottles are glued on top of the outside wall to keep trespassers out. She and other residents said they first saw the peacekeepers as a sign of security, proof that the world hadn’t forgotten about them. But when the soldiers began arriving in 2014, there was still a massive food shortage. Some peacekeepers recognized their leverage over a city of starving women and girls. Two teenage girls recalled approaching a base of Moroccan peacekeepers to beg for food. Neither had ever had sex, they said in a recent interview, but they agreed to sleep with the soldiers after the men suggested they would give the girls water, food and money. The older girl, then 16, said she met one man in a vacant house. The younger girl, then 15, said she met another soldier next to a base. Both girls said they regretted what they had done almost immediately. “You just feel used,” said the younger girl. The 14-year-old said that when she went to a U.N. base last year to ask for food, a Burundian soldier gently beckoned to her from his barracks, calling, “Come here.” Then, she said, he pulled her into a room full of empty beds. He ripped off her clothes. The teenager and her aunt said that three months later, they told two U.N. employees what had happened. The pregnant girl was then taken to a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders, the medical group said. But aid workers who followed the girl’s case over the next few weeks said they were dismayed at how little help she received from the United Nations. “There was absolutely no immediate or concrete measure of assistance available to this girl,” said Ondine Ripka, an international legal adviser with Doctors Without Borders. A UNICEF spokesman, John Budd, said the organization does not comment on aid provided to individuals. The 14-year-old mother said she had not received any psychological counseling or financial assistance. In a 2005 internal report recognizing the problem of “peacekeeper babies,” U.N. officials wrote that “there is a need to try to ensure that fathers, who can be identified, perhaps through blood or DNA testing, bear some financial responsibility for their actions.” But it is often difficult to identify offenders who have returned to their home countries, U.N. officials say. Even if victims know the names of their abusers, armies in many nations have proved uncooperative in pursuing DNA tests, U.N. officials say. The teenage mother’s case was referred to the Burundian military, which appointed an investigator, according to U.N. officials, but no results have so far been reported. That country has been consumed in civil strife in recent months, and experts said it was unlikely the military would follow through on an investigation. That leaves girls like the 14-year-old to raise their babies on almost nothing, as the war rages on. Earlier this month, she sat outside her home, five rooms where more than 20 relatives sleep. Nearby, a man sold liquor from a plastic table. A white U.N. surveillance blimp flew overhead. Two hundred yards away, a group of Burundian troops was on patrol. The teenager handed her baby to her mother, who looked at the ground. She fears that her daughter has been ruined by the abuse. “If someone destroys what you love, what do you do?” the mother said. The hospital at the center of a Muslim-Christian war in Africa The Central African Republic’s complex war, explained in the journey of a baby girl Tens of thousands of Muslims flee Christian militias in Central African Republic

Afghan women imprisoned by their culture

_Gabriela Maj is a Polish-Canadian photojournalist whose book “Almond Garden: Portraits from the Women’s Prisons in Afghanistan” was published in June._ The first thing you hear as you approach Badam Bagh women’s prison in Kabul is children’s laughter. The closer you get, the more the building sounds like a kindergarten class during recess. Over the past five years, I visited a half-dozen women’s prisons in Afghanistan and met hundreds of women who were arrested while pregnant and gave birth in prison, along with hundreds who came into the system with toddlers. Afghanistan’s prisons are filled with mothers who have been rejected by their families because they are accused of “moral crimes”: women who have been raped or fled abuse or forced marriages, women accused of adultery, unmarried women who have become pregnant with partners their families didn’t approve of. In Afghanistan, such victims of abuse are penalized instead of protected. When a woman’s body, in Afghanistan or elsewhere, is considered the property of her father, husband, community, religion or state, any action she takes without first being given permission by the men who wield power over her becomes a threat to the authority of those men. In Afghanistan, such threats are often met with incarceration and violence. Whenever I asked a female prisoner what she would do when released, the most common response was: “I will be killed.” The justice system in Afghanistan is a funhouse-mirror reflection of what a justice system should be. Women who run away from their homes to escape abuse or forced marriage are tracked down by the police. Victims are transformed into criminals, and the limited resources that should be used to bring perpetrators of violence against women to justice are instead spent to keep young women behind bars. When I first began visiting women’s prisons in Afghanistan, I focused on these “moral crimes.” But as I spent hours seated on prison floors in conversation with prisoners, I met more and more women who had been incarcerated for crimes they actually did commit — such as one 20-year-old who cut the throat of the sleeping husband who forced her into prostitution, unable to withstand another day of the abuse he had inflicted on her for years. I came to realize that I needed to abandon the categories of guilty and innocent. Nearly every woman accurately accused of murder, drug or drug-related offenses said she had been physically abused or raped, or had survived extreme poverty, or had been forced into marriage and motherhood, often while still a child herself. Each of them had been denied control over the direction of her own life from girlhood. If these women had been able to control their destinies, and had access to basic education and protection from abuse, they would have chosen different paths and would not have been in prison to tell me their stories. In 2009, the Afghan government formulated groundbreaking legislation called the Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW). This law criminalized harmful practices such as rape, forced marriage, domestic violence, the sale of women and girls and the denial of the right to education and work. It was enacted by presidential decree but because of conservative resistance was never ratified by parliament. The resulting confusion about its status has made its application inconsistent at best. Without a firmly established legal framework of protection and basic human rights, Afghan women have no hope of securing gender equality or a justice system in which their rights can be defended. As the international community continues to withdraw from Afghanistan, it is urgent that the law be ratified and implemented. But the solution is not only legal. It is also cultural. The monitoring of women for “moral crimes” perpetuates a system of marginalization and legitimized violence. If women were free to choose their intimate partners, their communities, husbands, fathers and the entire justice system would no longer be in the business of safeguarding their virginity and their bodies. So long as a woman’s body is regarded as property, gender equality — and basic human rights — cannot exist. **Read more here:** Rachel Newcomb: Book review: ‘The Underground Girls of Kabul,’ by Jenny Nordberg Afghani Barakzai: Afghan women need the power of the purse Ruth Marcus: Afghanistan’s quietly forceful first lady Laura Bush: Afghan women’s gains are at risk

Ask Amy: Young girl is at risk during visitation with her father

DEAR AMY: I have a 6-year-old granddaughter whose parents are not together. In a couple of months, when she goes to visit her dad (my son), she may be in proximity to a man who was incarcerated for molestation. This man is the brother of my son’s girlfriend, and the two siblings live together in their parents’ home. I am very anxious about this. I plan to tell my son that it would be best for his daughter’s safety and security if he would change the visitation location. I have spoken to my granddaughter (when she visits me) about speaking up strongly and loudly if anyone makes physical overtures toward her. However, I am concerned about whether I spoke appropriately and specifically enough. I usually spoke to her when giving her a bath and used the correct terminology for the body parts. Where can I get some information and training on how to raise awareness and educate my granddaughter on protecting herself? -- Anxious Grandma DEAR GRANDMA: I appreciate your desire to teach your granddaughter to “protect herself,” but a 6-year-old cannot protect herself from a pedophile, and your training puts the burden on her to somehow fend off molestation. Body awareness, age-appropriate information and confidence-boosting encouragement is all good; this might help the girl in all sorts of ways. But a 6-year-old cannot realistically protect herself from an adult predator. The person you need to “train” is your son. His daughter is not safe in any proximity to a sex offender. You don’t say where the child’s mother is, but she should be informed. If you believe your son will take his daughter anywhere near the household where the sex offender lives, or if he allows the offender any contact at all with the child in another environment, you should call the police or child protective services, and (in my opinion) the whole crew should be charged with child endangerment. And if you know this contact might happen and don’t do everything in your power to prevent it, then you are culpable too. In addition to the child’s safety, the terms of the offender’s legal status might mean that if he comes in any contact with a child (even unintended), he could be rearrested. Your son’s visitation with his daughter should take place at your home, which sounds like a safe environment for everyone. A straightforward book on this tough topic is “Predators and Child Molesters: What Every Parent Needs to Know to Keep Kids Safe,” by former sex crimes prosecutor Robin Sax (2009, Prometheus Books). DEAR AMY: When dining out recently with my wife, her phone rang. She abruptly got up from the table and left the food and went to another part of the restaurant and talked and talked and talked. I eventually finished my meal, paid the bill and left the restaurant and waited in the car while she was still talking somewhere else in the restaurant. Do you have any suggestions for this husband, who is feeling very neglected? -- The Engineer DEAR ENGINEER: If your wife explained her phone call, saying, “Honey, I am so sorry, we had a flood at the hospital where I work, and I was directing the evacuation of the pediatrics wing,” then I would give her a pass this time. Otherwise, what she did was incredibly rude and hurtful, and you should tell her so. When you talk to her about this, it might help to abandon what I imagine to be your analytical engineer’s reserve and speak from the heart, using “I’’ statements: “I felt embarrassed, neglected and alone when you did that. Honestly, it really hurt my feelings.” You might not be the kind of person who discusses feelings often, but you should try because you have them, and your wife doesn’t seem to realize it. DEAR AMY: What’s the difference between a reason and an excuse? -- Wendy DEAR WENDY: A reason is a plausible explanation for someone’s behavior. An excuse is offered when a person doesn’t have an actual reason to justify behavior and its consequences. An excuse is usually given as a substitute for personal responsibility. Amy’s column appears seven days a week at www.washingtonpost.com/advice. Write to  Amy Dickinson  at askamy@tribune.com or Ask Amy, Chicago Tribune, TT500, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611.

Taking the fight to end human trafficking to the federal, state and local levels

_Amy Klobuchar is a Democratic senator from Minnesota and authored the Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act. Cindy McCain is co-chair of the Arizona governor’s task force on human trafficking._ Joy Friedman was 15 years old when she was first sold for sex. A pimp found her and made all kinds of promises — promises that sounded pretty good to a scared kid away from home. Unfortunately, Joy’s story is not unique: Every day, girls and boys are sold in this country for sex. Their average age? Thirteen. That’s not old enough to get a driver’s license or go to a high school prom. While Joy was eventually able to escape, and has since devoted her life to helping victims of sex trafficking, many others are not so lucky. This week, girls even younger than Joy are being advertised and sold for sex in the days leading up to the Super Bowl. Any major event attracts these trafficking rings, and the massive influx of people and the advertising blitz surrounding the Super Bowl make it an ideal setting for criminals who sell women and girls for sex. They plaster Web sites with ads boasting of “Super Bowl specials.” One study of online sex-for-sale ads at the 2011 Super Bowl, played outside Dallas, found that the number of ads nearly tripled from a Saturday in mid-January to the Saturday before the Super Bowl. That’s why we met recently with officials from the National Football League (NFL) to discuss ways to fight sex trafficking, which has thousands of victims in the United States. We have been working at the state and federal levels to fight this crime, and we asked the NFL to support strong anti-trafficking legislation to help these efforts. The NFL committed to doing so, and we look forward to partnering with it in the future. We are pushing to pass legislation in states across the country. State legislation and coordinated law enforcement efforts make a difference. Legislation has recently been introduced in Arizona, the site of next year’s Super Bowl, to strengthen law enforcement officers’ and prosecutors’ options when going after traffickers. Gov. Jan Brewer (R) has said that Arizona would offer training to first-responders and would sponsor a public awareness campaign highlighting where victims and witnesses of trafficking can get help. Minnesota has been a leader in coordinating efforts between law enforcement, shelters, advocacy groups and hotels. This work has led to a number of successful prosecutions, including one recent case in which a longtime leader of a trafficking ring was sentenced to 40 years in prison. But these rings don’t operate solely within state or even national borders, which is why comprehensive federal legislation is necessary. The bipartisan Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act creates incentives for states to adopt the successful “safe harbor” laws like those passed in Minnesota and a dozen other states already. Right now, minors who are sold for sex can be prosecuted as criminals in many states. This is simply outrageous. These kids are not criminals — they are victims of exploitation. Safe harbor laws make sure they are treated as victims who need help, which in turn leads to better prosecutions of the johns and perpetrators who run the trafficking rings. Many local, national and global organizations, including the McCain Institute’s Humanitarian Action program, are working to tackle this issue head-on. Getting law enforcement officers, prosecutors, officials and advocates to coordinate their strategy makes a big difference. The Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act would create a national strategy to combat human trafficking to encourage cooperation among all the different agencies — federal, state and local — that work on this problem. Working with other countries to combat trafficking is critical and should continue to be a State Department priority. It’s hard to believe that this crime happens in our states, cities and neighborhoods. But even as we write, girls across the country are being subjected to unspeakable acts of violence. We cannot sit back and let this happen — and we will do everything in our power to stop it. With hard work and cooperation, we can make a real difference — not just at the Super Bowl but in every community across the country. **Read more about this topic:** The Post’s View: Russia, China continue to allow human trafficking The Post’s View: D.C.’s challenge: Keep its children from becoming victims Charles Lane: Legalizing prostitution doesn’t make it safer Holly Burkhalter; The U.S. should pressure Russia to end orphan trafficking Katherine Chon and Derek Ellerman: Soccer with a side of slavery Holly Burkhalter: We’re winning the fight against child sexual exploitation The Post’s View: Human trafficking is a scourge that needs greater attention

Orphanages are no place for children

_Laurie Ahern is president of Disability Rights International._ An estimated 8 million to 10 million infants and children live in orphanages around the world, and aid agencies, churches and governments provide hundreds of millions of dollars in the hope that they can help vulnerable children find sanctuary in these institutions. This hope is badly misplaced. Orphanages are not safe places for children. My organization, Disability Rights International, is working to dispel the widespread myth that building and filling an orphanage is a compassionate way to use charity or government money. In work in dozens of countries over two decades, we have witnessed thousands of children who live in disabling conditions, with heartbreaking consequences. We have seen neglected babies who rock back and forth, bite their hands and gouge their eyes as the result of mind-numbing boredom and neglect. We have seen infants and children, unable to feed themselves, left to starve because there is no one to feed them. In Romania and Turkey we found teens who weighed less than 30 pounds. The examples of cruelty and neglect are almost endless: Babies tied to their cribs. Children with disabilities who go without medical care and are left to die. Infants who don’t cry when they wake because they learn there is no point in crying because no one will come. Over and over, the world’s orphanages become dumping grounds for poor children and those with disabilities. In many countries, owning and running an orphanage has become a profitable business, with foreign donations serving as “revenue.” Many orphanages are unlicensed, with government subjecting them to little or no oversight. Babies and children can be subject to sexual abuse , organ harvesting and illegal adoptions. In Ghana, a government study found that 90 percent of orphans had living parents and that 140 out of the 148 orphanages in the country were unregistered. According to a UNICEF child-protection worker, “Running an orphanage in Ghana has become a business enterprise, a highly lucrative and profitable venture.” Western involvement itself can pose a danger. The uptick in companies offering “voluntourism” — vacations to orphanages where volunteers pay to have unfettered access to these children — exposes already-vulnerable and traumatized children to traffickers and pedophiles. Even in facilities with the best of intentions, damage is done. The custodial setting itself, no matter how humanely or responsibly run, causes lasting psychological and physical damage. In many cases, for every three months a baby or toddler is institutionalized, that child loses one month of development. Even in clean, well-managed, “good” orphanages, children can never get the direct care that a parent, family or caring guardian can provide. For many children who enter these facilities, there is little realistic hope for a fulfilling life. Institutionalized children with disabilities are rarely, if ever, adopted or put in foster care; if they manage to survive childhood, they spend the rest of their lives languishing in adult institutions. Those children without disabilities who “graduate” from orphanages, usually around the age of 16, have few skills and minimal support to face the world. They commit suicide, are trafficked for sex, become drug addicts and commit crimes at exceedingly high rates. It is a tragedy on a massive scale, and it demands a response. Rather than throwing money at orphanages, groups can and should do the more-complicated work of helping to find ways to keep children with their families. Up to 95 percent of children in orphanages  have at least one living parent and an extended family. Poverty, disability and social exclusion push most children into orphanages, state institutions and other so-called children’s homes. In many countries, the families of children with disabilities have few resources. Parents unable to afford the therapy a child requires can feel they have no choice but to give up their child. Others, mired in poverty, hope their children will have a better life in an orphanage — a warmer home, more food or an education. We need a paradigm shift in how we help vulnerable children. Several international and faith-based charitable organizations already are changing their approach from investing in orphanages to investing in families, which require less money to support a child than an institution does. Some of these organizations, for instance, provide mechanisms for donors to provide monthly stipends to families so they can raise a child at home. But many misguided donors continue to fund the construction, renovation, furnishing and staffing of orphanages around the world. The evidence is vast and overwhelming: Orphanages are dangerous for children. In fact, they can be deadly. Donors need to support families – the less expensive, safer and more humane solution. **** Holly Burkhalter: The U.S. should use its ability to pressure Russia to end orphan trafficking Anne Applebaum: Polish orphans provide unlikely lessons in thriving The Post’s View: Getting D.C. children the mental health they need

No “strict liability” for soliciting minor online for sex, if minor claimed she was above the age of consent

Say you are trying to pick someone up online for sex. You’ve never met in person, but she tells you in your online conversation that she’s above the age of consent (16 in most states, 17 in some others, 18 in still others). Let’s say that you have no reason to think she’s lying, but she is: It turns out that she’s underage. You never meet and you never have sex. Can you still be prosecuted for soliciting a minor for sex, on a “strict liability” theory — i.e., that you were trying to pick up someone who turns out to be underage, even though you didn’t know this or have reason to know it?  The court acknowledges that there are two areas were strict liability is traditionally allowed: “public welfare offenses” that tend to carry relatively low punishments (such as “failing to produce proof of insurance on an automobile” or “the sale of contaminated or adulterated foods or drugs”), and statutory rape laws. But the court concludes that this felony sex offense statute can’t qualify as a “public welfare offense.” And the statutory rape analogy, the court says, doesn’t work because the statutory rape exception rests on the theory that people who meet others for sex can reasonably determine their prospective partner’s age; that’s not possible when people are just soliciting sex online, before a meeting: And the court also argues thus: A few other states have similarly held that strict liability is unconstitutional (perhaps with some exceptions), though other courts have disagreed. It will be interesting to see whether the Minnesota Supreme Court (or perhaps even the U.S. Supreme Court) agrees to hear the case. My view: I’m ambivalent on whether strict liability statutes generally violate the Constitution, but I do think that strict liability in criminal cases — except perhaps for minor infractions, such as traffic offenses — is bad policy. If we think that a defendant knew or even should have known the facts, then he could be properly punished under a statute that requires some culpable mental state (even if just negligence). But if the defendant violated the law only because of a reasonable, nonnegligent factual mistake, I don’t see how he can be properly condemned as a criminal.  I also think that there is a very strong constitutional argument against strict liability when the behavior, as the defendant reasonably believed it to be, was substantively constitutionally protected. The Supreme Court has recognized this as to speech: If you reasonably believe that what you’re saying is true, you can’t be prosecuted for criminal libel (or even sued for libel, if the statement is on a matter of private concern); a strict liability rule, the Court has held, unduly chills constitutionally protected speech. If you reasonably believe that the pornography that you are possessing or distributing depicts an adult, you can’t be prosecuted for child pornography (though some lower courts have reached a different result as to production, rather than just possession or distribution). If you reasonably don’t know the content of the book you’re selling (it’s just one of thousands in your bookstore), and it turns out to be obscene, you can’t be prosecuted for obscenity.

Why Facebook and other big sites are opposing this rape victim’s lawsuit

When Jane Doe first appealed the case last year, it seemed unlikely that the judge would allow her to continue with the lawsuit because of the CDA, and more specifically, Section 230 of the law, which frees websites from such liability. Big name websites eBay, Facebook and Tumblr urged the court not to allow Jane Doe's lawsuit to go through on account for the chilling effect it might have on other internet businesses. Facebook declined to comment for this story but pointed a reporter to several passages in its legal brief. The company and other websites "have a substantial interest in the legal rules governing whether providers of interactive computer services may be subjected to lawsuits for alleged harms resulting from online exchanges of information," the brief stated. "The success of these online businesses—and the vitality of online media and online free speech generally—depends on their being shielded from the risks, burdens, and uncertainty of lawsuits that would hold them liable for hosting or facilitating online exchanges of third-party information that may result in harm.” The brief also stated that Facebook and other websites condemn "the violent acts perpetrated against [the victim] and applaud the criminal justice system for putting the perpetrators behind bars." But, the filing said, "the contemptibility of those acts does not justify an end-run around Section 230.”  A vital piece to this case is that the two men behind the rape operation were arrested and charged in 2010, but released due to insufficient evidence. The pair went back to ModelMayhem.com to continue their scheme after their first arrest. Because of this previous arrest, Jane Doe may be able to sue based on the "failure to warn" concept: that the website should have somehow notified its users about the criminal complaint.  "This ruling is a refreshing  departure from the deference judges usually show toward online service providers, but it is not a departure from the age old legal tenet of accomplice liability," said lawyer Carrie Goldberg, who specializes in internet privacy and sexual assault rights. "As a victims’ rights attorney many of my most horrible cases involve 'I met him on the Internet.' Just as we would hold a homeowner liable if they knew their guest was inviting somebody over every day to be murdered, the same should be true of acts of exploitation happening on websites."  "They would be charged with knowledge about everything they learn in the screenings, yet in theory they would be obligated to disclose every bit of screening information about each member to ensure they satisfied an obligation to warn other members about any potential problem, no matter how remote," he said. "I don't quite know online dating services would manage that risk, to be honest with you." But Jamie Lee Williams, a lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, thinks that this case will have little impact on the laws set up to protect these online services. "The court's decision was fact specific and stressed that any liability for failure to warn here would be based on information the website learned from outside sources, including a criminal complaint, not any information posted on its website," she said. "In other words, the court found that this is not a Section 230 issue. Any liability here does not arise from content posted on the website, which the court made clear." She says she feels that the scope of this case is small and has little to do with larger issues of the right to hold websites responsible for its users. Whether or not the lawsuit will successfully go through is still up in the air. The case was sent back to the trials court, where it waits for a final ruling.

Online harassment of women is a problem. Here’s what to do about it.

If you're male, you might not realize how common it is for women to experience online harassment. The problem is particularly severe for bloggers, journalists and others who build a public profile online. And lest you dismiss "online harassment" as a mere annoyance, a new piece from writer Amanda Hess lays out just how frightening the experience can be:    *[WSU]: Wayne State University Unfortunately, Hess discovered something many other women in her situation have: Police are rarely either willing or able to take this kind of incident seriously. Specific, credible threats of violence are illegal in many jurisdictions. But online harassment — even in this extreme form — is rarely a high priority for police departments. And many police officers lack the basic information — like "what's Twitter?" — needed to effectively investigate online harassment. Hess cites the work of Danielle Citron, a legal scholar who has argued that the hostile reception women receive online should be viewed through the lens of the civil rights movement. In her view, online harassment discriminates against women online in much the same way sexual harassment creates a hostile environment in the workplace.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University Thinking about the issue in those terms might motivate people to action, but actually extending civil rights law to cover online harassment could be a legal quagmire. The courts are likely to hold that some online harassment is constitutionally protected speech. And Congress had good reasons to exempt intermediaries such as Twitter from liability for the vile comments of their users. A more fruitful approach would be to focus on deterring the most extreme forms of abuse, those that cross the line into outright threats. In California, for example, "immediate and specific” threats of violence are already illegal, and the threats Hess describes in her article were pretty specific. The problem is that police and prosecutors haven't made it a priority to prosecute those who make threats online. If people who wrote this kind of thing started winding up in jail, it would make the Internet a little more hospitable for our mothers, sisters and daughters.

Remember the children

IT IS estimated that 100,000 children each year are trafficked for sex in the United States. Lax laws and modern technology enable the predators, while their young victims often are treated like criminals instead of getting the help they need. Congress last week seemed poised to do something about this. Then politics intervened. This week the question will be whether senators can put the interests of scared, abused children ahead of the chance to score political points. The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015, introduced by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) with an impressive bipartisan roster of co-sponsors, would strengthen the ability of law enforcement authorities to go after those who purchase sex from someone who has been trafficked and would direct criminal fines paid by perpetrators into a fund to help victims. The bill won unanimous approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee. “The most comprehensive and thoughtful piece of anti-trafficking legislation currently pending,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said last Monday. Within a day, Democrats were threatening a filibuster, claiming Republicans had sneaked anti-abortion language into the bill — a provision that essentially applies Hyde Amendment restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortions to the victim restitution fund . Maybe Republicans should have called more attention to that provision, but it was in the bill when it was released in January, it was there when the bill was marked up in committee and it was there when the 68-page bill was unanimously passed; Democrats have only themselves to blame if they overlooked it. Far more significant, though, is whether the provision justifies the defeat of this important legislation. We wish Senate Republicans had not chosen a bill about human trafficking as a vehicle for abortion politics; a House-passed version contains no such language or restrictions. But Democrats overstate the extent to which this provision would lengthen the reach of the Hyde Amendment. True, the money in question would come from fines and not federal taxpayer dollars, but since the fund would be a federal creation, is that such a stretch? Also true, this anti-abortion provision would be in effect for five years, while the Hyde Amendment must be reauthorized annually. But since the Hyde Amendment has been in force for four decades, the practical difference again is slight. There is a reasonable way for the two sides to compromise. The bill should make clear that the exceptions for abortion written into the Hyde Amendment — for rape, incest and when the mother’s life is in danger — are broadly enough defined in this bill. Girls and young women who are sold into prostitution are victims of rape, and the law needs to reflect that. The question is whether the senators who want to accomplish something can overcome the advocacy groups and politicians who would rather use this controversy as one more opportunity to raise funds and sharpen divisions. ****

Time to draw back the curtain on child welfare system

If the murder had happened in Los Angeles, we might know whether the accused 12-year-old boy had a history of violence. If it was in Michigan, we might find out if the 2-year-old he allegedly beat to death was repeatedly abused. If the foster parents lived in Illinois, we might be able to sit in court and hear whether the family realized that their 12-year-old son was a danger to the foster child they were supposed to shelter, protect and nurture. But the foster parents of Aniyah Batchelor, a toddler who was killed in their home last week, live in Fort Washington. And in Maryland, the courts, documents, records and lips of everyone who has any say in the lives of nearly 7,000 children who have been taken from their homes are sealed. You know that a lot probably went wrong here. Aniyah was put into foster care because of alleged abuse of another child in her home. And no, we don’t know the details of that abuse and probably never will. It’s all a big secret. And that’s why it is worth looking at the way child dependency courts are open to the public in Los Angeles, Michigan, Illinois and a handful of other places where legislators believe transparency leads to a more accountable child welfare system. In California, Judge Michael Nash, the chief presiding judge of Los Angeles County’s children’s court, simply ruled this year that all courtrooms would be open unless an individual judge can prove a child would be harmed by this. Has it harmed anyone? “Confidentiality tends to protect the system, rather than the children in the system,” Nash told me. He’s seen more scrutiny, attention and discussion of the way child welfare cases are decided since he opened the courts. Vivek Sanakaran saw the difference right away when he moved to Michigan. “I practiced in D.C. for five years,” said Sanakaran, a clinical assistant professor of law in the Child Advocacy Law Clinic at the University of Michigan. “When a system is beyond scrutiny, there is a certain amount of lawlessness that pervades.” “You’ll see lawyers who never talked to their clients, social workers who didn’t have time to make visits,” and yet, he couldn’t talk about it to anyone. Until a child is dead, we rarely get the full story when it comes to child welfare cases. And sometimes, even then, the details remain murky. We don’t know whether the foster family in Fort Washington was in trouble before. We don’t know the history of the child. Maryland won’t even tell us whether the family was certified as suitable foster parents by an embattled government contractor — Contemporary Family Services — that was pinpointed in a recent Baltimore Sun investigation. “Is there a systemic problem? We can’t find out,” said Matthew Fraidin, a professor at the University of the District of Columbia law school and longtime advocate of transparency. “Would Maryland do better at this if they knew their decision-making process would be visible to outsiders? Of course they would, just like the rest of us. The psychology research says decision-makers are more careful and deliberate, and seek out more information, if they know they’ll have to justify their decision later.” This is the same state that thought Shelby Lewis, a Temple Hills 45-year-old, would make a great foster dad. Turns out he was a pimp who was convicted in 2009 of sexually abusing and pimping out his 13-year-old foster daughter, alongside his other workers — 14 and 16-year-olds. Sounds a bit like the case of Renee Bowman, who was convicted of beating and abusing one of her adopted daughters and killing the other two, then storing them in her freezer. She was arrested in 2008, convicted in 2010 and has carried her silence with her into prison. We never really learned why the D.C. government — in this case represented by an independent contractor that got paid by the investigation into prospective foster families — thought it was OK for this woman to adopt three children. It’s a complex issue. Melissa Rock, the child welfare director at the Maryland nonprofit Advocates for Children and Youth, doesn’t want to subject children to the trauma of testifying in open court about abuse or neglect. “So we shouldn’t necessarily have open courtrooms,” she said. But Rock’s group is actively fighting for more transparency and more data in these cases. “It’s not that hard to just redact the names of the family involved,” she said. That’s right. As for the adults who are making these decisions, they don’t need the protection of secrecy. They need to step into the light.

Charles Lane: Legalizing prostitution doesn’t make it safer

In 2001, the German parliament almost totally deregulated prostitution. The majority, left-wing coalition of Social Democrats and the Green Party trumpeted the new law as a reform that would end prudishness about “sex work” and bring the business into the open so prostitutes could bargain for higher pay and claim social insurance. Things haven’t quite gone according to plan. Large brothels have popped up in various cities, packed with women and girls lured by human traffickers from poverty-stricken Eastern Europe and handed over to pimps upon arrival. Sex tourists from around the globe flock to German establishments that offer unlimited sex for a “flat rate” of 100 euros (about $135) or, sometimes, “gang-bang” parties, according to extensive exposés of what some in the German press call “modern slavery.” Meanwhile, there has been no increase in prostitutes signing up for social benefits. Amid a growing backlash from women’s rights advocates, Chancellor Angela Merkel is promising tougher rules. A likely reform is the elimination of flat- rate brothels, though how that would be enforced is anyone’s guess. Now the Supreme Court of Canada is trying its hand at prostitution reform. The justices unanimously struck down the country’s prostitution laws and ordered parliament to rewrite them within a year. Will this experiment end better than Germany’s, or will it confirm that there’s something inherently exploitative about prostitution that neither market forces nor enlightened legislators and judges can eradicate? Prior to the court’s ruling, Canadian law took a characteristically middle-of-the-road approach. Performing sex acts for money was not a crime. But it was illegal to solicit customers, operate a brothel or live off the “avails” of prostitution — Canadian for pimping. Basically, prostitution was permitted but contained. To the Supreme Court, however, this “arbitrary” scheme “imposed dangerous conditions” by preventing prostitutes from working indoors, from hiring drivers, receptionists or bodyguards, and from talking to would-be clients ahead of time to screen out potential abusers. The imposition of these risks was out of proportion to any social benefit, thus violating Canada’s 1982 Charter of Rights, the court ruled. In contrast to the knee-jerk libertarianism that informed the 2001 German law, the Canadian court professed its intent to protect the vulnerable. It was not in denial about the fact that poverty, addiction or other problems leave “many prostitutes . . . no meaningful choice” about selling their bodies. And the justices had a point when they called out parliament for letting people sell themselves but not necessarily as safely as possible. One obvious remedy — banning prostitution — was never on the court’s agenda, however. That’s because the plaintiffs in the case were self-styled sex workers who claimed theirs is a profession like any other and were trying to use the case to eliminate limitations that the law had placed on it. So the court ordered parliament to make life safer for prostitutes without offering any ideas for how to do that. Allowing prostitutes to hire “drivers” or “bodyguards” would mean de facto legalization of pimping, as Canada’s prosecutors unsuccessfully argued. Citing the notorious case of serial killer Robert Pickton, who preyed on prostitutes in British Columbia, the court implied that repealing existing laws could be justified if doing so saved “one” woman. What are the justices going to say the first time a prostitute gets killed by her driver? As for brothels, they may be safe havens, as the court claims. Then again, they may be virtual prisons, as with some in Germany. For all of its confusion, the Canadian ruling may have done a service: reminding us that modern norms about sex and the law push in potentially conflicting directions. We want maximum privacy; the state has no business telling consenting adults what they can and can’t do with their own bodies in their own homes. On the other hand, we want gender equality and maximum protection of vulnerable individuals, especially children. The German experience demonstrates that outright legalization of prostitution strikes the wrong balance. Yet German-style deregulation is what Canada will get unless parliament acts by the court’s deadline. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government should learn from Germany’s experience and that of other countries, including Sweden. There, what’s illegal is buying sex — so the burden of law enforcement falls on customers (mostly men), not prostitutes (mostly women). Since Sweden passed that rule in 1999, human trafficking and prostitution have declined in that country. In November, Harper’s party called for a “plan to target the purchasers of sex and human trafficking markets,” which sounds very much like the Swedish approach — and a promise that a lawsuit intended to legitimize sex work will end up doing the opposite. _Read more fromCharles Lane’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook._ **Read more about this issue:** Margo Kaplan: The joyless law of sex Sudhir Venkatesh: Five myths about prostitution Betsy Karasik: The consequences of laws addressing sex between students and teachers

Backpage.com shuts down adult services ads after relentless pressure from authorities

Fighting accusations from members of Congress that it facilitated child sex trafficking, the classified advertising site Backpage.com abruptly closed its adult advertising section in the United States on Monday, saying years of government pressure left it no choice but to shutter its most popular and lucrative feature. The decision came shortly after a Senate panel released a report alleging Backpage concealed criminal activity by removing words from ads that would have exposed child sex trafficking and prostitution. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is scheduled to hold a hearing on the report Tuesday morning. Backpage’s founders and executives will appear in the hearing but do not plan to testify, according to their attorneys.  Backpage said in a statement that scrutiny of the site by government officials has made it too costly to keep operating the adult section. The company rejected the subcommittee’s findings, saying the decision was the result of “unconstitutional government censorship.” “For years, the legal system protecting freedom of speech prevailed,” Backpage said, “but new government tactics, including pressuring credit card companies to cease doing business with Backpage, have left the company with no other choice but to remove the content in the United States.” Backpage has been the target of multiple lawsuits and investigations in recent years focusing on its adult ads, and its founders and executives are currently fighting money-laundering and pimping charges in California.   The federal Communications Decency Act provides immunity to website operators that publish third-party content online, but multiple lawsuits have argued that the 1996 law does not protect Backpage because the site contributes to illegal activity — claims Backpage has vigorously denied. The Senate subcommittee raised similar concerns Monday. Its report alleged that Backpage knowingly hid child sex trafficking and prostitution by deleting incriminating terms from its ads before publication. The report found that the company used a feature that automatically scrubbed words such as “teenage,” “rape” and “young” from some ads, while manually removing terms from others. The subcommittee also alleged that Backpage founders James Larkin and Michael Lacey still own financial stakes in the company, despite claiming that they sold their shares roughly two years ago. The panel has been investigating Backpage since June 2015. Initially, the company refused to turn over subpoenaed documents, but a federal court ordered the company to comply with the probe last summer. Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who spearheaded the investigation, said Backpage’s decision to close the adult section showed that it was “complicit” in online sex trafficking.   In a separate statement, Larkin and Lacey cited Backpage’s list of legal battles, saying courts in multiple states have sided with the site in litigation over its adult ads. “Today, the censors have prevailed. We get it,” Larkin and Lacey said in a statement. “But the shut-down of Backpage’s adult classified advertising is an assault on the First Amendment. We maintain hope for a more robust and unbowed Internet in the future.” Backpage contends that its adult section has become a resource for law enforcement agencies and says the closing of its adult section will not reduce human trafficking. According to Backpage attorneys, local and federal authorities around the country have turned to the site for help tracking down people who have “impermissibly sought to use the internet as a platform to commit abhorrent crimes.” The site has long collaborated with law enforcement officers, the attorneys said, and has donated to Children of the Night, an organization whose mission is to rescue children from prostitution. Children of the Night Founder and President Lois Lee called the site a “critical investigative tool” that has helped authorities arrest pimps and recover missing children. “The ability to search for and track potentially exploited children on a website and have the website bend over backwards to help and cooperate with police the way Backpage did was totally unique,” Lee said in a statement. “It not only made law enforcement’s job easier, it made them much more effective at rescuing kids and convicting pimps.”

Porn isn’t a public health hazard. It’s a scapegoat.

Is pornography a public-health crisis? Of course not. While it is not surprising to see the Utah legislature unanimously declare it one — the anti-pornography movement has been quietly building momentum for a state-by-state takeover for some time — what remains shocking is the perceived legitimacy of anti-porn activists, despite the profound unreliability and inconsistency of their hyperbolic claims about porn’s harms to society. How has a movement based on such shaky theoretical ground succeeded in a massive campaign to convince the public that sexually explicit media is responsible for an epidemic of sexualized violence against women and children; the rise of a zombie army of emotionally robbed and sexually desensitized men; and the explosion of an underworld of prostitutes trafficked directly from porn sets to street corners across the nation? This is not real. This is what a sex panic looks like.     So why do some people want to make it illegal? Why do they go to such great lengths to claim its social harms when it is clear that many more people find expression, release, connection, identity and even sexual freedom within it? No other form of media and popular culture is as scrutinized as porn is under obscenity law.     Anti-porn logic never gets to the important questions about how sexual media dynamically reflects and shapes our lives and how we think about and use porn in complex ways. Instead of continuing to allow anti-porn activists to prescribe the discourse and policy about porn, proper sex and sexual danger, we might actually turn our attention to the deeper and more complicated problems of gendered sexual exploitation and violence, and our abysmal record on youth sex education in this country. Porn is a scapegoat, and scapegoats never make us more free or safe.

The real war on women

_Christopher H. Smith, a Republican, represents New Jersey’s 4th District in the U.S. House. He is a co-sponsor of the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act._ It is a sad day in America when the president of the United States endorses sex-selection abortion by opposing the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act. It is no less sad that this bill did not pass the House — although a significant majority, 246 members, did vote for it — given its laudable aim of outlawing this egregious assault on baby girls. Sex-selection abortion is cruel, it’s discriminatory and it’s legal. It is violence against women. Most people in government are unaware that it is part of a deliberate plan of population control. This is the real war on women. Last year, an undercover sting operation by Live Action exposed several Planned Parenthood affiliates who were eager, ready and willing to facilitate secret abortions for underage sex-trafficking victims — some as young or younger than 14. As the prime sponsor of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, I found the willingness of Planned Parenthood personnel to exploit young girls and partner with sex traffickers to be absolutely appalling. Now Live Action has released new sting-operation videos — part of a new series, “Gendercide in America” — that show Planned Parenthood personnel advising undercover female investigators how to procure a sex-selection abortion. Caught on tape, one staffer tells an investigator to wait until her baby is 5 months along to get an ultrasound that reveals the sex of the child. Then, if it’s a girl, kill it. This week, a Planned Parenthood spokeswoman said in a statement to the Huffington Post: “No Planned Parenthood clinic will deny a woman an abortion based on her reasons for wanting one, except in states that explicitly prohibit sex-selection abortions.” In other words, Planned Parenthood is okay with exterminating a child in its huge network of clinics simply because she’s a girl. What a dangerous place for little girls. Let’s not forget that Planned Parenthood aborts approximately 330,000 children every year. For most of us, “it’s a girl” is cause for enormous joy, happiness and celebration. But in many countries, this phrase can be a death sentence. We can’t let that happen here. In her book “Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men,” Mara Hvistendahl traces the sordid history of sex-selection abortion as a means of population control. “By August 1969, when the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Population Council convened another workshop on population control, sex selection had become a pet scheme,” Hvistendahl writes. “If a reliable sex-determination technology could be made available to a mass market,” there was “rough consensus” that sex-selection abortion “would be an effective, uncontroversial and ethical way of reducing the global population.” Fewer women, fewer mothers, fewer future children. These cruel, anti-woman policies have had horrific consequences. Hvistendahl writes that today “there are over 160 million females ‘missing’ from Asia’s population. That’s more than the entire female population of the United States. And gender imbalance — which is mainly the result of sex-selective abortion — is no longer strictly an Asian problem. In Azerbaijan and Armenia, in Eastern Europe, and even among some groups in the United States, couples are making sure at least one of their children is a son. So many parents now select for boys that they have skewed the sex ratio at birth of the entire world.” A study of immigrant Indian women in the United States who had tried to learn their unborn babies’ gender, published in 2011 by Sunita Puri and three other researchers, found “that 40 percent of the women interviewed had terminated prior pregnancies with female fetuses and that 89 percent of women carrying female fetuses in their current pregnancy pursued an abortion.” According to Puri, “One-third of women described past physical abuse and neglect related specifically to their failing to produce a male child. The most common forms of neglect were the withholding of food, water, and rest during a woman’s pregnancy with a female fetus, although women also described being hit, pushed, choked, and kicked in the abdomen in a husband’s attempt to forcibly terminate a pregnancy. Some women reported that they were denied prenatal care if the fetus had been identified as female, and four women reported that their families either did not take them to the hospital when they were in labor with a female child or pick them up after delivery.” It is inconceivable to me how our Nobel Prize-winning president utterly refuses to protect little girls from the violence of sex-selection abortion. **More on this debate:** Dana Milbank: Republican’s abortion bill risks alienating Asian Americans Debra W. Hafner: Turning from patriarchy to full inclusion of women

‘The Guest Room’ review: A bachelor party devolves into murder

International sex slavery is a nasty, brutish and illegal business. As many as 2.4 million  young women, men and children are victims of sex trafficking for the profit of organized crime. In this lucrative business, the unwitting are lured into captivity by the promise of jobs, marriage and educational opportunities — or they are simply bought and sold as property. In the United States, most sex slaves come from South America, Southeast Asia and the former Soviet Union, but even vulnerable Americans are drawn into this sometimes lethal trade. Chris Bohjalian has often gone to the well of current social issues for his plots — e.g. “Midwives” (midwifery), “Before You Know Kindness” (animal rights). If he doesn’t exactly rip his stories from the headlines, he cuts them with care and studies his subjects thoroughly. In “The Guest Room,” Bohjalian’s newest, we learn a great deal about human trafficking, and for those who value the well-researched novel, the author’s 18th book will please. Richard Chapman, good husband, father and investment banker, offers to let his brother hold his bachelor party at his regal Tudor in Bronxville, N.Y. Before the event, Richard’s biggest worry is that a dancing stripper and a few drunken men might mess up his living room. After the party, Richard’s worries are legion: The one stripper turns out to be two prostitutes; the party-goers have sex with them in various rooms; his home is wrecked; and two Russian bodyguards lie dead on the floor. Adding to his anxieties is his brief encounter with one of the prostitutes. Still worse, and the focus of Bohjalian’s novel, is that the two young women, both of whom have to flee for their lives, are captives in a Russian sex-slave ring. The author has given prostitute Alexandra her own voice. In her sections — the only ones written in the first person — we hear of the tragic, all-too-common trajectory from innocence to slavery. Her tale is the most affecting of the primary stories (Richard’s and his wife’s being the other two). It starts with Alexandra’s love of ballet in Yerevan, Armenia, where she lives with her mother and grandmother. When her mother dies, the young girl is bereft, and her grandmother can’t take care of her. Her mother’s boss promises her training with a special teacher of ballet in Moscow, even hinting at a position with the Moscow Ballet. The girl naively boards an Aeroflot jet, but she swiftly learns her future when she is confined to a small bedroom, raped and trained to offer men a menu of sexual gratification. She is only 15. By the time Alexandra reaches New York, all innocence is gone, and she wants only to meet one of the bachelors of the eponymous TV series. While on the job in Bronxville, she instead meets Richard, who extends an ear and his attention. Despite the terrible risks involved, Alexandra wants to see him again. Richard, however, does not want to see Alexandra again, though he can’t keep himself from remembering his lustful moments with her. His growing dread is palpable as he prepares to meet with his wife, Kristin, deal with the police and explain the events to his 9-year-old daughter. Richard’s problems, with their attendant complications, give “The Guest Room” an edge-of-the-seat momentum that propels the reader straight to the last page. The state of Richard’s formerly happy marriage becomes a delicate dance of forgiveness and recrimination that also needs a resolution. Did Richard have sex? Can Kristin find it in her heart to take him back? Will his daughter understand? Can Richard forgive himself for his lust and stupidity, the latter being, in this reader’s opinion, his only crime? (Who in his right mind would allow a bachelor party with a stripper in his own living room?) Unfortunately, “The Guest Room” reads like an X-rated episode of “Law & Order.” Fortunately, the episode is a good one. There’s the party in the upscale home that goes rogue; the emotionally flayed wife; the guilt-ridden husband; and the tall, scholarly detective we trust will get to the bottom of this case. There are few perfect novels, and Bohjalian’s newest isn’t one of them. But for readers who can stomach the sad and ugly subject, “The Guest Room” promises to enlighten and entertain. ******Anita Shreve** ’s latest novel is “Stella Bain.” On Jan. 17, at 5 p.m., Chris Bohjalian will be at Politics and Prose Bookstore, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington. **Read more:** Review: ‘The Light in the Ruins,’ by Chris Bohjalian Review: ‘Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands,’ by Chris Bohjalian By Chris Bohjalian Doubleday. 318 pp. $25.95

To curb prostitution, punish those who buy sex rather than those who sell it

_Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, is founder of the nonprofit Carter Center._ It is disturbing that some human rights and public health organizations are advocating the full legalization of the sex trade, including its most abusive aspects. I agree with Amnesty International, UNAIDS and other groups that say that those who sell sex acts should not be arrested or prosecuted, but I cannot support proposals to decriminalize buyers and pimps. Some assert that this “profession” can be empowering and that legalizing and regulating all aspects of prostitution will mitigate the harm that accompanies it. But I cannot accept a policy prescription that codifies such a pernicious form of violence against women. Normalizing the act of buying sex also debases men by assuming that they are entitled to access women’s bodies for sexual gratification. If paying for sex is normalized, then every young boy will learn that women and girls are commodities to be bought and sold. There is a much better policy option. In my 2014 book “A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power,” I described the approach known as the “Nordic model,” which is consistent with advancing human rights and healthy societies. Pioneered in Sweden and adopted most recently in Canada and France, this strategy involves decriminalizing prostituted women and offering them housing, job training and other services. Instead of penalizing the victims, however, the approach treats purchasing and profiting from sex acts as serious crimes. Another key component is public education about the inherent harms of prostitution for those whose bodies are sold. In Sweden, demand for prostitution has fallen dramatically under this model. Conversely, Germany and New Zealand, which have legalized all aspects of prostitution, have seen an increase in sex trafficking and demand for sexual services. Critics of the Nordic model assert that mature adults should be free to exchange money for sex. This argument ignores the power imbalance that defines the vast majority of sex-for-cash transactions, and it demeans the beauty of sexual relations when both parties are respected. Sex between people who experience mutual enjoyment is a wonderful part of life. But when one party has power over another to demand sexual access, mutuality is extinguished, and the act becomes an expression of domination. As author and prostitution survivor Rachel Moran explained in her book, “Paid For,” once money has exchanged hands, a woman must deliver whatever service the customer demands. In May 2015, when the Carter Center held a global summit to end sexual exploitation, sex-trade survivors, including Moran, described their painful journeys through exploitation. They told of the abuse they suffered — abuse that should be understood as torture. They expressed their determination to speak not only for themselves but also for those who are either too traumatized to come forward or who perished as a result of homicide, suicide, drug abuse or disease. They compare their movement to the abolition of slavery, an institution that once also seemed like a permanent fixture in society. Prostitution is not the “oldest profession,” as the saying goes; it’s the oldest oppression. Those survivors told us that they once believed that selling sex was their choice but that this attitude was a requirement for survival — that only once they were fully free from the fetters of the trade were they able to fully understand their lack of choice. If full legalization is adopted, it will not be the “empowered sex worker” who will be the norm — it will be the millions of women and girls needed to fill the supply of bodies that an unlimited market of consumers will demand. Where do we think these young girls in the sex trade will come from? (Most victims are girls, though some boys are exploited, too.) It is simply naive to oppose sex trafficking of children and women and at the same time support decriminalizing the buyers who create the demand and the pimps who profit from the supply of girls and women. I believe it is better to help women and girls avoid a life of prostitution and to deter men from buying sex acts. We must not abandon the equal dignity of each human being by simply regulating a form of abuse. There is a better way. **Read more on this issue:** Lagon and Mickelwait: The U.S. turns a blind eye to policies that fuel sex trafficking Colbert I. King: Washington D.C.’s serious sex-trafficking problem The Post’s View: How our system punishes sex-trafficked girls for suffering abuse Cindy McCain: Amnesty International’s dangerous plan to decriminalize the sex trade The Post’s View: Solving prostitution Malika Saada Saar: There is no such thing as a child prostitute

Jared Fogle admitted to sex crimes against minors. Why wasn’t he charged with rape?

The accusations are spelled out in sickening detail by federal prosecutors in court documents charging former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle with possessing and distributing child pornography and “commercial sex acts with a minor” or paying to engage in sexual activity with someone who is younger than 18 years old. Two of the victims, prosecutors said, were 16 when Fogle committed sex crimes against them. Fogle admitted to those charges and has agreed to plead guilty. But why wasn’t he charged with rape? In many states, if a 37-year-old man victimizes a 16-year-old girl, it would be considered rape. But the charges announced against Fogle this week were federal. And according to Tim Horty, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana, there is no applicable federal law. “There is no federal statute for rape in this situation that would have applied,” Horty said. “What always applies is that you cannot cross state lines to engage in commercial sex with anyone under 18.” _[Jared Fogle charged with paying for sex with minors, possessing child porn]_    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico At the state level, things are different. According to federal documents, Fogle admitted to engaging in the criminal activity in two swanky New York hotels: the Ritz Carlton and the Plaza. According to the federal documents, the girls were victims of criminal sex trafficking through a Web site that carries ads for “erotic services.” New York law defines the age of consent as 17, and Fogle has admitted to victimizing both girls before — and after — they reached that age. (In other places, like Fogle’s home state of Indiana, the age of consent is sometimes defined as 16.) The New York District Attorney’s Office declined to comment when asked whether state prosecutors would consider charges against Fogle in light of the allegations revealed in the federal complaint. But legal experts said Fogle could face prosecution in the state for statutory rape and other charges — including charges related to sex trafficking. “I’m of the opinion that, technically, he could be prosecuted in state court, specifically New York County,” said Matthew R. Smalls, a defense attorney in New York City. James B. Jacobs, a law professor at New York University, said that because of the dual sovereignty principle, federal and state governments can prosecute Fogle for his actions connected to Victims 13 and 14 without violating either state or federal double jeopardy prohibitions. But a new prosecution would mean a new investigation, and according to Smalls that makes a state case against Fogle unlikely. “In a case like this, it’s unlikely, simply because you’re dealing with rape victims and you’re dealing with victims of prostitution,” said Smalls, who has also served as an assistant district attorney for Manhattan. “The state prosecutor would really be tone deaf to ask those victims to once again tell their story and once again possibly testify in front of a grand jury or a trial jury.” Fogle faces at least five years and up to 12½ years in prison under the federal charges. State rape charges are punished with terms of between 1½ and four years in prison. _[The Jared Fogle case: Why we understand so little about child sex abuse]_    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico As a legal matter, Fogle may never be charged with rape — or legally labeled with having committed that crime. The scenario raises tough questions about the language that is being used to describe what Fogle has admitted to doing. In the absence of a rape charge, Fogle’s actions have been described in The Washington Post and elsewhere as paying for sexual activity with victims who were younger than 18 and engaging in sexually explicit acts with minors. (Fogle has also been charged with receiving and distributing child pornography.) But according to activist Erin Matson, what Fogle admitted to doing should be called rape. With a pen and paper, Matson edited a Washington Post story on Fogle’s charges at the breakfast table and snapped a photo. It went viral on Facebook and Twitter, with more 35,000 people sharing the image. Matson, co-founder of the abortion and reproductive rights advocacy group Reproaction, noted that the Fogle story has highlighted a need for changing laws and editorial practices that dictate how society talks about rape. “It’s clear that there are gaps in the way that we talk about rape, sexual assault, and sexual misconduct,” Matson told The Post in an interview. “What I think is so frustrating is that you see rape and sexual misconduct being presented in the language of consensual sex, which is really dangerous and it is definitely part of the problem.” If Fogle does not face rape charges for the activities alleged in the federal complaint, it will be yet another example of how the law benefits the powerful and not the victims, Matson said. “This is just a clear, unfortunate and sad example of the inadequacy of our legal framework around sexual misconduct, rape, and sexual assault,” Matson said. “Unfortunately and unsurprisingly it seems that those who stand to benefit the most are those who are considered the most powerful and well-liked among us.”

Stopping child abuse

BECAUSE A DRUGSTORE film processor alerted police to photos of blindfolded and gagged children, a Los Angeles teacher has been stopped from allegedly sexually exploiting students. The teacher was arrested last month after police say they found DNA evidence linking him to the abuse of 23 students. This shocking episode, along with the Penn State University case, in which school officials are accused of covering up allegations that a former assistant coach raped a boy, again raise questions about how to prevent and deal with such crimes. Teachers, physicians, day-care employees and other adults who are in close contact with children are typically and correctly required to report incidences of suspected abuse. Some states levy criminal sanctions against those who fail to carry out this duty. Eighteen, including Maryland, require all adults to report “known or suspected” abuse. Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) has introduced a bill that would withhold federal funds from states unless they enact laws requiring all adults to report. Some advocates worry that such an approach could be counterproductive, overwhelming government agencies with false or flimsy allegations that could take resources away from cases of abuse. Educating adults about the law and about signs of abuse is key to holding perpetrators accountable and getting children the care that they need. Providing a clear path for reporting is also essential. One smart possibility: Create a nationwide emergency number, similar to the 911 system, that would direct calls to local authorities. States could designate the entity – such as a child services agency or law enforcement – that would receive the calls. The approach used by the National Children’s Alliance (NCA) should be considered a model. The NCA certifies and audits “children’s advocacy centers,” which bring together social workers, law enforcement officers, health professionals and a variety of other specialists once an abuse complaint has been filed. A professional trained in questioning children gathers information as law enforcement officers look on, reducing the need for repeated, and often traumatic, interrogations. These centers also serve as first responders for the child, providing health care and counseling, as well as follow-up services. Although NCA claims some 750 centers nationwide, including several in Virginia and Maryland and one in the District, the organization reports that 1,000 counties (about one-third of all those in the country) have no access to them. States also should consider hiring a child protective services ombudsman to monitor, report and address systemic failures. Only half currently do. These initiatives are not free, which is why Congress should allow more of the approximately $700 million available in the Crime Victims Fund to be used to advance them. The fund is replenished through court fees and fines. ****

In Virginia classrooms, should parents block sexually explicit literature for their kids?

RICHMOND — Lawmakers in Virginia moved forward Thursday with legislation that could make it the first state in the country to allow parents to block their children from reading books in school that contain sexually explicit material. The bill would require K-12 teachers to identify classroom materials with “sexually explicit content” and notify parents, who would have the right to “opt out” their children and request that the teacher give them something less objectionable to study. Opponents call it a slippery slope toward book banning; advocates say it is a parent’s right to control their children’s exposure, even if the books are considered classics. It all started with Laura Murphy, a Fairfax County woman who said she was horrified to discover that one of her sons, a high school senior, had been assigned to read the 1988 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Beloved.” The seminal work of fiction, by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, is about a former slave after the Civil War, and it contains scenes of bestiality and gang rape and an infant’s gruesome murder. Murphy said that makes the book inappropriate for young readers, and she ticked off other critically acclaimed works in the same category: “The Bluest Eye,” also by Morrison, “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison and “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy. Schools in Virginia follow a similar procedure that allows parents to withdraw children from sex-education class. “It just stands to reason when walking across the hall to English class, to be consistent, the same policies should apply,” Murphy said. About half of Virginia school districts already require teachers to give parents advanced warning of “potentially sensitive or controversial materials in the classroom,”according to a 2013 survey by the state Department of Education. After a spirited debate in a Senate committee Thursday, lawmakers approved the bill 9 to 6, along party lines, except for Lynwood W. Lewis Jr. (D-Accomack), who voted yes with the Republicans. Sen. Charles “Bill” Carrico (R-Grayson) said he had not read “Beloved” but based his opinion on excerpts, which he said could poison the minds of young people. “Evil is just — when you plant the seed, it’s a kitten,” he said. “You feed it, it becomes a lion and it eats you.” Sen. Janet D. Howell (D-Fairfax) said she reread the book over the weekend and praised Morrison for her place in the pantheon of American novelists. “I think it’s a slippery slope that’s icy,” she said. “Great literature is great because it deals with difficult human conditions, not because it’s easy.” Earlier this month, the House unanimously passed the legislation in a block of uncontested bills without debate — an indication that most lawmakers were unaware of the potential for controversy. The bill has a good chance of Senate approval if Republicans, who have a one-vote advantage, stick together and Lewis continues to back it. It is scheduled for a Senate vote on Monday. House lawmakers would get a last chance to voice objections before the bill reaches the desk of Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), whose spokesman declined to say whether the governor would veto it. There is a long history of parental concerns about material taught in the classroom, and some individual schools and districts around the country have taken steps to remove “Beloved” and other novels from reading lists. But this appears to be the first attempt by a state legislature to regulate curriculums in this way, said James LaRue, director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association, which tracks such legislation. The Virginia bill could become a model for the nation, LaRue said. While his association believes parents have the right to decide what their children read, LaRue said he worried that educators would find the process so difficult that they would decide not to teach certain books anymore. “The focus of this effort might be to discourage the use of this book altogether — and that’s the chilling effect,” he said And he said the approach could also give the false impression that the most important thing about a particular work of literature is its sexual content. In that case, Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” becomes nothing but “teen sex and suicide,” he said. Millie Davis, director of the Intellectual Freedom Center at the National Council of Teachers of English, said parents have gotten used to ratings on movies, based on instances of profanity and violence, but books should be considered for their educational value. “Whatever happened on Page 32 of a book is not why the book was chosen,” she said. Under the proposed legislation, it would be up to the state Board of Education to write guidelines — including the tricky task of defining “sexually explicit” — for local school districts. In a letter to lawmakers, the National Coalition Against Censorship and like-minded groups said public schools can’t eliminate an idea simply because society finds it disagreeable. The groups also questioned how the government is supposed to determine whether material is “sexually explicit,” calling it an “over-inclusive and vague” standard. “Under this standard, titles as varied, valuable, and time-honored as Anne Frank’s ‘The Diary of a Young Girl,’ Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘The Canterbury Tales,’ and most works by William Shakespeare could be flagged,” the letter said. Del. R. Steven Landes (R-Augusta), chairman of the House Education Committee, sponsored the legislation at the request of House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford). “My job is not to judge the literature, it’s just to provide the option to the parent,” he said. Murphy’s initial effort to remove “Beloved” from Fairfax County classrooms in 2013 was unsuccessful. She took her cause to the state Board of Education, which began deliberating whether to amend state regulations. While she waited for her idea to clear procedural hurdles, Murphy said that she lobbied legislators for a new law. In the meantime, the Fairfax County school system amended its rules and now notifies parents about sexually explicit books. Asked about whether a state law would have a chilling effect on materials that teachers choose for their classrooms, Landes said: “That’s up to them.”

Sex abuse and the seduction of power

Regarding the May 24 Metro article “Ex-swim coach gets 7 years in sex case”: “I loved him.” Those were the three most important words in Rick Curl’s sentencing hearing. Kelley Currin’s sentiment has been echoed by victims everywhere, including Jerry Sandusky’s. “It was awesome. I loved it,” one boy said of his relationship with the football coach. I felt the same way about the coach who abused me. In my 14-year-old mind, we were having a love affair. Parents must understand: Children can be manipulated and seduced. All of us crave love and affection, especially from charming, successful adults. Statutory rape laws are based on this premise: Young people are not developmentally capable of handling complicated and dangerous emotional situations. Our message should not be, “If someone makes you feel uncomfortable, tell me.” Unfortunately, they’re not going to tell us. Even in the face of disturbing and damaging sexual contact, they’re going to preserve their “special” relationships with beloved mentors, coaches, teachers and priests. Instead, we need to give children and teens this message: We know how powerful love can be. Then we need to demonstrate the power of our love by protecting them. ****Mariah Burton Nelson** , Arlington**

The illusion of justice for sexual abuse victims

_Paul Mones is a Los Angeles lawyer who represents victims of sexual abuse._ After decades of representing victims of sexual abuse, I was convinced that Jerry Sandusky’s arrest at Penn State in 2011 would put to rest the belief that child molesters are slovenly, leering guys wearing dirty raincoats and lurking outside playgrounds. But when word leaked last year that former Republican House speaker J. Dennis Hastert had paid hush money to a high school student he had allegedly sexually abused decades earlier, while he was a high school wrestling coach, the reaction by many in his home town of Yorkville, Ill., in Congress and elsewhere proved that the myth was alive and well. Not Denny Hastert, the beloved coach. Impossible! The enduring fantasy that nice guys don’t molest children provides dangerous cover to perpetrators and engenders abject hopelessness in victims. Hiding behind a facade of kindheartedness, child molesters know they are committing the perfect crime, one that silences most of its victims forever. For those few able to muster the strength to come forward years later, it is not their perpetrator but the law itself that denies them justice. Maryland is a case in point: It gives victims just seven years after their 18th birthdays to file civil lawsuits — a period when few victims are yet able to acknowledge the horrific violation they experienced. Remember, none of Hastert’s victims ever came forward to report him; it was a banking compliance officer who alerted federal officials to him after noticing unusual account activity. As the U.S. attorney in this case noted, by that point the federal and state statutes of limitations regarding the sexual-abuse-related offenses had long since expired, making it impossible to prosecute Hastert for any of the underlying sexual crimes. Child molesters are a patient lot. A 2015 study on offenders in youth organizations found that more than half joined specifically to gain access to children. In no rush to achieve their goal, they are willing to spend months working their way into the fabric of a child’s life. Constantly proving “nice- guyness” is essential to abusers. They exploit the child’s inherent lack of life experience by lavishing him or her with gifts and adulation. The molester then manipulates the child’s reality — soon making an “innocent” rub of the shoulder, or a casual tousle of the hair, a normal part of his relationship with the child. Then the more invasive forms of abuse begin, and the child’s fate is sealed. If you need a primer on how these molesters operate, read the U.S. attorney’s sentencing brief detailing not just the way Hastert allegedly went about sexually abusing the victim to whom he was paying the hush money, but also the tactics he used on other teenagers on his team. One victim, who was 14 at the time, alleged that Hastert told him to get up on a table so he could “loosen him up,” then in the process molested him. If the molester has done his job right, he can count on his victim’s embarrassment, fear and shame to extinguish any thought of reporting the abuse, then or at any time in the future. This trap was perfectly illustrated by Jolene Burdge, the sister of one of Hastert’s victims. She quoted her brother as saying the reason he didn’t tell anyone about the abuse was: “Who is ever going to believe me?” Given the initial reaction of those in Hastert’s home town to the allegations, he was 100 percent correct. Because decades-old sexual abuse cases are infrequently prosecuted, the only real justice for victims of institutional abuse, such as children abused in schools or churches, are civil lawsuits. Considering the immense psychological hurdles a victim has to get over to take action, Maryland — along with New York, New Jersey and many other states — has so narrowly drawn its statute of limitations that it effectively excludes untold numbers of victims from ever seeing justice. Passage of Maryland House Bill 1215 and Senate Bill 69, which would give such victims until their 38th birthdays to file a suit, would give them back their voices. Anything less serves to protect perpetrators of sexual abuse and the institutions that failed to supervise them. Hastert’s supporters probably believe the 15-month sentence he received was too harsh, considering his ill health and his career in Congress. But in reality the coach fared infinitely better than a group of Yorkville High wrestlers whom he wounded for life so many decades ago. **Read more here:** Bruce DeSilva: I got an early tip about a priest’s sexual abuse. And I sat on it. The Post’s View: The Catholic Church’s defiance and obstruction on child sex abuse Colbert I. King: Penn State scandal veering off track

Porn has been declared a ‘public health crisis’ in Utah. Here’s why.

Pretty much since Internet was invented, there’s been pornography on it. Today, it’s so widely available that the decades-old debate over porn's ills on society has largely faded from the public eye. The courts long ago decided it's constitutional to consume it and unconstitutional to regulate it. Two laws Congress passed to regulate who can see porn were shot down by the Supreme Court. Most state legislatures have moved on to address Internet crimes against children, like child pornography, which is illegal.  It's already shown some promise, as Utah demonstrates, and for reasons we'll get into. But given how widespread and, frankly, popular porn has become, it might be coming too late. First, here's the case for making the case against porn: Maybe lawmakers can't keep porn off the Internet or severely restrict who can consume it, anti-porn advocates' thinking goes. But they can talk about its still-debated effects on a generation of people who grew up with it at their fingertips. Utah did just that, they say. "This represents a turning of the tide against pornography," said Dawn Hawkins, executive director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, after Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) signed the resolution Tuesday. In the absence of legislation to restrict porn, Herbert said, this resolution was a necessary step to let "our young people to know that there’s a particularly psychological and physiological detriment that comes from addiction to pornography." (More on that claim later.) It’s not that advocates are giving up on fighting the legal battle; they think there's wiggle room in blocking some porn via federal obscenity laws. But shifting the debate away from 1st Amendment rights and toward porn's public health impacts could be a smart way to modernize their arguments.  Today's anti-porn advocates have largely dropped the free speech and morality debate in favor of talking about porn's ubiquity which gives them an opening to tie it to headlines of sex gone wrong. Teen sexting. Tales of porn addiction. Campus sexual assaults. Divorce. Hypersexualized teens. Barely clothed pop stars. Sexual violence. All these problems can be tied back "young men [who] have been getting a regular diet of rampant pornography since their adolescence," Hawkins says. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation started prominently making that link two years ago, and so far it seems it's getting some traction. Utah is the first state to pass a resolution declaring it a public health crisis. Tennessee is considering as similar one. This fall, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops decided to take a more proactive approach to combating pornography, calling it a "widespread problem." Dani Bianculli, the director of the law center at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, helped draft Utah's resolution. She said community activists from 10 other states have already asked her for help to draft their own. "We're very confident it's going to move beyond Utah," she said.  Debating porn's ills on society seems like a game of choose-your-own-study. There are studies that claim to show a link between pornography and a myriad of sexual, mental and emotional problems. And there are studies that claim to show porn watching actually helps people's relationships. In Denmark, some teachers actually use the topic of porn to teach students about the difference between consensual and non-consensual sex, the Economist reports. Branding porn as a public health hazard, though, also doesn’t change advocates’ fundamental problem: They have little legal recourse to limit it. Suppose a majority of Utah residents heed their governors' advice. Those who were watching porn turn it off, and everyone starts having conversations with their children about its harmful effects. There's still no way Utah lawmakers and community leaders can keep people from accessing it on their phones or laptops.  That brings us to the third reason this new messaging campaign might fall short: Porn is everywhere. It's quite possible its place in our culture has reached a critical mass that may be impossible to turn back.  Porn's proliferation is exactly why those who oppose it say now is the time for lawmakers and community leaders to find ways to keep people off it. Internet fantasy sex is seeping into our daily lives with terrible results, they argue. They've already had some success in getting their point across in a new way. But given porn already seems to be a mainstay of American culture, it's fighting an uphill battle, to say the least.

Vilifying Backpage.com won’t help fight sex trafficking

Regarding the July 15 editorial “Protect children first”: The editorial board doesn’t know the first thing about how Congress should fight child sex trafficking on the Internet. Jumping on the ever-popular bandwagon to vilify Backpage.com is just avoiding hard decisions. The editorial claimed that “experts” have long alleged that Backpage ads have facilitated human trafficking, citing an estimate by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that 73 percent of the 10,000 child-trafficking reports it receives annually involve Backpage. As a human-trafficking expert witness who has been retained or testified for criminal, defense and civil human trafficking cases across the United States, including one upcoming case where I will testify in favor of Backpage.com, I know there is no evidence that Backpage actually facilitates sex trafficking. The majority of child sex-trafficking reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children involve Backpage because the website is most frequently used by law enforcement and victim-service providers as a catalyst for arrests and rescues. It is a tool for law enforcement, not a hindrance. While there is no data to indicate that shutting down Backpage will have any effect on the prevalence of sex trafficking on the Internet, anecdotes suggest there is a high likelihood of displacement if we continue to vilify Backpage. Displacing Backpage ads to websites based offshore that undoubtedly would be less cooperative with law enforcement would create new barriers for anti-trafficking advocates. This is not how Congress should fight sex trafficking on the Internet. ****Kimberly Mehlman-Orozco** , Montclair**

The best way to protect Md. schoolchildren from sexual predators

Maryland lawmakers are working to close a loophole in state law that gives a free pass to teachers and others in schools in positions of authority to sexually exploit students: Part-time teachers, coaches and volunteers cannot be prosecuted for sexual conduct with students who are 16 or 17 years old. Action to address this glaring oversight is badly needed, but on Friday, the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee decided to keep part of the loophole that gives volunteers a free pass to have sex with students off campus. Why make this exception? If I had a 16- or 17-year-old child, I wouldn’t want school volunteers to view him or her as legally available sexual prey. It doesn’t take much of an imagination to see how some vulnerable students could be flattered or pressured into having sex with an adult working in a school program. These students need our protection. I urge the Senate to conform its bill to the version approved by the House Judiciary Committee so that old loopholes are closed and no new loopholes are created. Maryland students deserve a strong bill that Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) can sign with a good conscience. ****Eileen King** , Silver Spring ** The writer is executive director of Child Justice.

How to talk to kids about sexual abuse, and how you can help prevent it

One of my clients came into my office one day for a last-minute appointment and he sounded anxious. I had been working with him as his psychotherapist for several months and we had just started to delve into some deeper issues as our therapeutic bond became stronger. It was in that session, for the first time in his life, at age 29, that he told me about multiple acts of sexual abuse that he endured when he was 4 years old, by someone he knew very well. Therapists come to care about their clients, and the thought of him experiencing that, and keeping it silent for so long, upset me. This story particularly struck me because my son had just turned 4. The day before my client disclosed this abuse, I had been sitting outside at my son’s school with some of the other parents, watching the kids play with a joyful, carefree innocence. As my client told me his story, it was all too easy to picture exactly where he was when this happened to him.  Here are suggestions from experts on how parents can talk to their children about sexual abuse and their bodies.  Experts emphasize that these conversations are ongoing and evolving and should never stop. Dalal Musa, a social worker at the Center for Post-Traumatic and Dissociative Disorders Program at the Psychiatric Institute of Washington, adds that parents should avoid spanking their children. “The use of corporal punishment profoundly undermines children’s sense of dignity, safety, and privacy — this practice is completely contrary to teaching children to respect their own and other’s bodies and self-esteem,” Musa says.     “What’s worse is that more and more often, younger teens — especially young girls — are sharing explicit “selfies” with their boyfriends,” says Stacie Rumenap, president of Stop Child Predators, a nonprofit group that combats the sexual exploitation of children nationwide. “In extreme cases, these same teens are being arrested for possession and distribution of child pornography. It’s important to warn teens against sending raunchy photos as jokes or as love notes. Too often when a relationship disintegrates, those pictures can be sent maliciously elsewhere. Kids’ lives are being ruined as a result.”   “A child I worked with was in fourth grade and would not make friends with other children, even after other children made significant overtures. This closing down is an example of a typical behavior,” she says. “Sometimes an abuser will make threats if a child tells the truth and they can be afraid. This type of threat might be harming the child or people they love. It should be addressed directly by asking the child if this has happened. If a child is very young, play therapy can be helpful.” Rumenap adds, “Really listen to your child and trust he or she is telling the truth. Too often parents think their child couldn’t possibly be abused, especially by someone they know. If your child comes forward, make sure they know for certain that you’re on their side and assure them you’ll get them help and bring their perpetrator to justice.”

China court: Rape risk higher for women with ‘bad habits’ like smoking, drinking

Women who smoke, drink and dress provocatively are more likely to be raped, a court in China has concluded, drawing ridicule from Web users. After a review of 162 defendants in 151 rape cases over the past three years, Haidian district court in Beijing put the onus on women to change their habits rather than on the attackers -- who were described by the court as youths whose sexual needs were not being satisfied and didn’t know any better. The mocking backlash on the Internet is the latest glimpse into China's parallel worlds: Old-style official pronouncements and often feisty dissent online. “Some victims have bad habits such as smoking and drinking,” the court said. “Defendants easily target these people, based on the habitual perception that victims who smoke and drink, especially victims who are drunk, could easily become targets.” What it didn't note: that smoking and drinking are far from fringe activities in Chinese culture, although more common and generally seen as more socially acceptable for men.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Some women who were raped, the court went on, “had an open sexual attitude and didn’t take protective measures when men made advances.” Meanwhile many defendants confessed that “criminal intent arose when they saw that the victims were young, beautiful and dressed revealingly,” the court said in an article published on its social media accounts. Earlier this year, a police bureau in the central city of Wuhan suggested on its Sina Weibo microblogging account that “being ugly is the safest way” to avoid getting raped. The court in in Beijing also appeared to blame women for being too “bold” in meeting with people they barely know or have only chatted with online. In almost half of the cases, the offender was a coworker, friend or client, the court said. But instead of suggesting workplace harassment education for the offenders, the court concluded that rape occurred because the women failed to reject the offenders right from the beginning, causing misunderstandings. The court found that 64 percent of the offenders were between the ages of 18 and 30, who “due to physical reasons had strong physical needs” but were “repressed.” These men were mostly from out of town, either single or married but not living together with their spouses, and therefore their needs couldn’t be “satisfied normally.” Over half of the defendants didn’t have stable jobs or income and rarely spend what they do earn on activities to enrich their spiritual life, the court concluded. The numbers also showed that most offenders were not well educated and had little legal awareness. There have been many similar campaigns in the past -- sometimes with pushback. In 2012, two women in Shanghai started a campaign called “I can flirt but you can’t disturb” in protest after local subway authorities reminded women not to invite sexual harassment by dressing provocatively. But when a group of women tried to hand out stickers and posters to raise awareness against sexual harassment this year, they were arrested. The five activists -- who had spoken up for victims of domestic violence victims, and for gay rights and gender equality -- were held for more than a month in detention and only released after an international uproar. Web users responded with ridicule. One user asked, “So there won’t be any rape after a woman quits drinking and smoking?” Another Web user commented, "Those with hair are more likely to be sexually assaulted than those with no hair; those with teeth are more likely to be sexually assaulted than those who don't have teeth. “But most importantly, women who are alive are way more likely to be sexually assaulted than female corpses. So out of self-love and self-protection, we have to drop dead." Read: China releases five women’s rights activists after global uproar    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico This Chinese feminist wants to be the country's first openly lesbian lawyer, and police harassment won't stop her    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Battered women in China could finally get a measure of legal protection    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Chinese woman given legal reprieve after killing abusive husband    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico

Washington D.C.’s serious sex-trafficking problem

Human trafficking is a cruel and inhumane practice found in countries around the world. So it should come as no surprise that President Obama proclaimed this month National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. The exploitation and coercion of girls and young women into prostitution, however, is not limited to places overseas. Right here in the nation’s capital, our most vulnerable residents — children — are subjected to sex slavery. Their stories don’t make the evening news or even warrant blurbs in your morning paper. But human trafficking is, and has been, a shadowy and seamy part of D.C. life. Let me tell you about “Stacks” and “Kandy.” In 2012, Kandy posted ads on the Internet offering sexual services byyoung girls. When contacted at the number in the ad, Kandy negotiated a price to have a minor and another female prostitute go to a Northwest D.C. location. At 2:30 a.m. on June 23, two teenagers, 16 and 19, knocked on the door of a D.C. hotel room. Members of the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force were waiting inside. Interviewed by authorities, the teens told their stories: Stacks and Kandy had traveled with them throughout the D.C. region, providing sex to male clients in exchange for money. In between “dates,” Stacks and Kandy gave the teens marijuana and ecstasy. Stacks would remain in the car with a handgun and a scope-attached semiautomatic firearm while the girls provided sexual services. Dominique Emanuel Bell, then 22, aka “Stacks,” and Candice Ponder, then 26, aka “Kandy,” both of Laurel, were sentenced to prison in 2012 for seven and four years, respectively. Then there’s the story of “Smoke” and “Cupcake” and what they did with a 14-year-old runaway from another state, whom they encountered in 2011. They didn’t take her back to her home. Instead, Smoke took her around the District and Maryland to prostitute for him. That’s after Cupcake had taught the teen how much to charge and how to conduct herself as a prostitute. So happens, the D.C. police picked up the girl for truancy, and she told on Smoke and Cupcake. “Smoke” — Robert Braithwaite, then 37, of the District — was sentenced to 10 years in prison; “Cupcake” — Tavia Crudup, then 23, of Suitland — got one year and a day for tampering with evidence: having the victim’s clothes thrown away and schooling her on how to obstruct the investigation. Ah, but that was five years ago. Old stuff. Oh yeah? Try these three on for size. Four months ago, Daraya Marshall, 35, and Jarnese Harris, 29, both of the District, were indicted in U.S. District Court on charges that they engaged in sex trafficking of three children and transported them between the District and Maryland for prostitution. Marshall was also indicted on charges of child sexual abuse and production of child pornography. Both pleaded not guilty and are being held pending a Feb. 4 hearing. Marshall and Harris could face life prison terms if convicted. And why not? They allegedly began trafficking one of the children in the summer of 2014, and the other two last year. The indictment also alleges that Marshall engaged in sexual acts with two of the children while they were younger than 16. He also is charged with producing and possessing child pornography depicting one of the children. In 2014, the same year in which Marshall and Harris allegedly began their trafficking, Jason Whren, then 33, of the District was sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually abusing and prostituting a 15-year-old girl. Whren enticed the child to travel from Seattle to the District, having contacted her via the Internet and phone. When she got to town, Whren immediately sexually abused her, then forced her to walk D.C. streets to find clients. Undercover agents busted him. A Superior Court judge and jury did the rest. Then there’s Linwood Barnhill, then 47, who resigned from the D.C. police department after his arrest in December 2013 on charges of pimping two D.C. girls, ages 15 and 16. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in 2014 to seven years in prison. Isolated cases? U.S. attorney spokesman Bill Miller told me this week, “Since 2009, about 70 defendants have been prosecuted in [federal and D.C. courts] on charges related to human trafficking . . . including abducting or enticing a child into prostitution.” “The overwhelming majority of those cases” he added, “resulted in convictions.” The U.S. attorney’s office has a large task force and an active outreach program on human trafficking, and is urgently scheduling training sessions with D.C. police and schools. Seven churches are joining the Faith Coalition Against Sex Trafficking in our Nation’s Capital to sponsor a meeting Jan. 30. They can’t do it alone. Let’s help the president and the prosecutors: Human trafficking is in our region, in the nation’s capital, in your ward, on your block. Open your eyes. Don’t look abroad. Look down the street. _Read more fromColbert King’s archive._ **Read more on this issue:** Cindy McCain: Amnesty International’s proposal to decriminalize the sex trade Holly Burkhalter: A safer home for Cambodia’s girls Malika Saada Saar: There is no such thing as a child prostitute Amy Klobuchar and Cindy McCain: The fight to end human trafficking

The new chapter of ‘Game of Thrones’ is a brutal critique of fairy tales

_This post discusses events from “The Winds of Winter,” the unreleased sixth book in George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series. Martin released a new chapter of the book last week._    *[WSU]: Wayne State University George R.R. Martin has never shied away from the ugly side of human experience in his epic fantasy series “A Song of Ice and Fire.” Set in a fictional medieval kingdom and following a conflict inspired by the War of the Roses, the series has given readers a world where children are murdered, slavery is practiced on an appalling scale and sexual violence is rampant. But even after thousands of punishing pages, the chapter in the sixth book in the series, “The Winds of Winter,” which Martin released last week, feels even sadder than usual. It follows Arya Stark, once the youngest daughter of a noble house and now a near-anonymous trainee in a mysterious fraternity of assassins. During the brutal series of events that trailed Arya on her journey from her home kingdom to an independent island nation, Arya acquired a list of enemies, men and women who killed her friends and family. In the new chapter, one of those men, Rafford, travels to the city-state where Arya lives now. Though still a child, she seduces him into leaving a theater with her, then murders him. Even given the awful events that precede this murder, the chapter is a striking entry in Martin’s critique not just of chivalric fantasies but also of fairy tales. Bad things happen to children in fairy tales, of course. As with Cinderella, they lose their mothers and acquire stepparents who are prejudiced towards their own children. Like Hansel and Gretel, their own parents may abandon or abuse them, making them vulnerable to people who would prey upon them. And as with Little Red Riding Hood, they may encounter grave dangers simply in going about the world. But while fairy-tale children may be eaten or beaten, the dangers they face are usually decidedly different from those that face young women of marriageable age, whose sexual maturity means they are exposed to violent and unwanted advances or cruel husbands. That distinction has always been somewhat collapsed in “A Song of Ice and Fire.” Marriages are regularly contracted — if not consummated — when the parties are children. Sansa Stark, Arya’s older sister, is stripped and beaten by her first fiancee, the psychotic King Joffrey Baratheon. She is married off to another much older man shortly after she begins to menstruate but long before she is psychologically prepared to be sexually active. She is astonishingly fortunate that her husband is kind enough not to insist that they have sex before she is willing. But this latest chapter from “The Winds of Winter” tears down that boundary even further. To get close to Rafford, Arya offers herself up to him. “This one is a child,” one of the other man in his entourage insists. “I am not,” Arya lies. “I’m a maiden now.” She lets Rafford touch her and kiss her and she touches his genitals before stabbing him in the thigh. Arya has had harsh experiences before this and has done other very adult things. She witnessed her father’s public execution, the murder of her young friend and the deaths and torture of adult men. She herself has killed, both in self-defense and for revenge. And she has been subject to vicious language and threats, including threats of sexual assault. But this is one of the first times we have seen Arya, the little girl who was so tomboyish that she was able to pass for a military recruit, put herself forward as a sexual being. And it feels like a tremendous tragedy that she is doing so before she is ready, physically or mentally, and in a situation that has nothing to do with pleasure or affection, just violence. I have long argued that “A Song of Ice and Fire” and its television adaptation, “Game of Thrones,” have as one of their primary subjects the ways in which sexual violence contributes to the decay of all sorts of societies, from monarchies that see themselves as enlightened to nomadic, raiding kingdoms to merchant cities. If this chapter is a true indication of what is to come, “The Winds of Winter” may push this insight into dreadful new frontiers. Even if Arya Stark survives to the end of George R.R. Martin’s epic, her experiences do not just diverge from the difficulties of her fairy- tale counterparts: They are the sorts of traumas that make it even harder to imagine any sort of truly happy ending.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University

U.N. says some of its peacekeepers were paying 13-year-olds for sex

NAIROBI — 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 U.N. peacekeepers in the Central African Republic allegedly paid girls as little as 50 cents in exchange for sex. The case is the latest to plague the U.N. 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 United Nations maintains nine peacekeeping operations in Africa, employing more than 100,000 people on the continent, and the abuses threaten to erode the organization’s legitimacy. Other sex-crime cases have occurred in Mali, South Sudan, Liberia and Congo in recent years. Last month, the United Nations published a damning independent investigation that said that poor enforcement of policies in place to deter and report abuse meant that “the credibility of the U.N. and peacekeeping operations are in jeopardy.” Experts and officials say systemic problems still hinder the investigation   and prosecution of alleged abusers, leading to a perception of impunity. The abuse “undermines everything we stand for,” said Anthony Banbury, the U.N. assistant secretary general for field support. The mission in the Central African Republic, where U.N. troops and civilians were sent in 2014 to help end a civil war and support a fledgling government, stands out for its record of sexual abuse and exploitation. “They are preying on the people they’ve come to protect,” said Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, the top U.N. official in the country. 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 accused troops or provided details of the alleged abuse. But in interviews, U.N. 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 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. Some officials say there may be many more cases of exploitation by peacekeepers that have gone unreported. Because there is no regular U.N. presence in M’poko, it has been difficult to gauge the scale of the problem. M’poko had already had a problem with sexual abuse before the recent cases were reported. Its population had grown sharply since September, when violence erupted between the warring parties in the Central African Republic. 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, a Human Rights Watch researcher focused on the Central African Republic. But this marks the first time that the United Nations has acknowledged the involvement of its employees in the camp’s underworld of commercial sex work, which is driven by abject poverty and a lack of law enforcement. “The M’poko camp is unfortunately a place where horrible, unacceptable things happen to women and children,” said Banbury, the assistant secretary general. “In some cases, we have credible allegations that there are U.N. personnel that have committed these crimes.” Banbury said U.N. troops plan to begin patrolling M’poko more frequently and will attempt to dismantle the prostitution ring. The U.N. mission in the Central African Republic has been plagued by sexual abuse allegations. The previous U.N. special representative there, retired Senegalese general Babacar Gaye, was fired in August over his team’s handling of the accusations. The organization has dispatched special investigators to Bangui to better understand what has gone wrong. The United Nations was also strongly criticized for failing to react to offenses by peacekeepers in the country. As many as 14 troops from France, Chad and Equatorial Guinea allegedly raped and sodomized six boys between the ages of 9 and 15 in 2013 and 2014, before the U.N. mission formally began. The United Nations took no action after learning about the cases until a whistleblower leaked an internal U.N. investigation to French authorities, according to U.N. officials. Last month, the report by a panel including former Canadian Supreme Court justice Marie Deschamps found that U.N. staff in Bangui had “turned a blind eye to the criminal actions of individual troops” in that case. In August, two women and one girl accused three U.N. peacekeepers of rape in the war-torn town of Bambari. That same month, a U.N. police officer allegedly raped a 12-year-old girl during an operation in Bangui’s main Muslim neighborhood. She had been hiding in a bathroom while peacekeepers searched her house, according to Amnesty International. “When I cried, he slapped me hard and put his hand over my mouth,” the girl told an Amnesty International researcher. For years, the United Nations has been trying to stop the sexual abuse perpetrated by its employees and troops under its command. It has ordered a series of reports to identify weaknesses in enforcement and mandated that a component on sexual exploitation and abuse be included in training for peacekeepers. Ban has also encouraged harsher penalties for the peacekeeping units to which the abusers belong. But the slow pace of investigations into abuse has “severely undermined enforcement,” according to a report last year from the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services. Even more problematic, some experts say, is that the prosecution of alleged offenders falls to the governments of the countries that provide the peacekeepers. In many cases, those governments conduct halfhearted investigations and fail to convict offenders. “To say that it is immensely frustrating is a tremendous understatement,” said Banbury. “The U.N. should stop tiptoeing around, trying not to offend governments, and instead put the victims of sexual exploitation and abuse at the heart of their policy,” said Sarah Taylor, an advocate in the women’s rights division at Human Rights Watch. Some argue that the lack of enforcement encourages a sense among U.N. employees that they can commit sexual crimes with impunity while based overseas. “They think ‘We’re in a special class,’ that sexual abuse is not that serious,” said Paula Donovan, who leads Code Blue, an advocacy campaign working to expose the issue of sexual abuse by U.N. personnel. The number of alleged cases of sexual exploitation and abuse committed by U.N. personnel declined from 2008 to 2014, dropping from 83 to 51, which U.N. officials say is evidence of increasingly effective intervention. But critics say that those numbers are incomplete and that many cases go unreported. “The data is not just porous. It’s a joke,” Donovan said. Other analysts say that getting civilians to report sexual crimes in war-torn environments, where there is a mistrust of authority and a lack of law enforcement, is an enormous challenge. The victims might “fear retaliation by the perpetrator, who in some cases carries a weapon,” said a report last year on U.N. abuses by the Stimson Center, a Washington-based research organization. In many other cases, impoverished girls and women accept food and money in exchange for sex. “This is already a society whose social fabric has totally collapsed, with youngsters left to fend for themselves,” said Onanga-Anyanga. “This is putting salt into an open wound.” _**Correction:** An earlier version of this article had an incorrect name for the organization that published a report last year on U.N. abuses. The Stimson Center came out with the report._ **Read more** Pope Francis visits mosque in war-torn Central African Republic Tens of thousands of Muslims flee Christian militias in Central African Republic Christian-Muslim marriages are latest casualty of strife in Central African Republic

The U.S. should use its ability to pressure Russia to end orphan trafficking

_Holly Burkhalter is vice president for government relations at International Justice Mission, a nongovernmental organization focused on human rights._ When Russian President Vladimir Putin banned U.S. adoptions of his country’s orphans in December, he consigned thousands of children who might have had families to institutions where they are abused, neglected and all too frequently trafficked into sexual exploitation. The U.S. government now has a choice: It can pressure Russian authorities to end orphan trafficking by giving Russia the lowest possible ranking in the State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons(TIP) report due out next month. Or it can reward Russia with an undeserved passing grade. When Congress created the State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons in 2000, it authorized a global report on trafficking and slavery and a tiered ranking process that provides diplomats with an effective tool for encouraging foreign governments to rescue children, women and men in bondage and to punish traffickers and slave owners. The report has contributed to substantial improvements in dozens of countries. Ten years ago, Cambodia was a disaster. Prepubescent children were easily purchased for sex, and the country was a haven for foreign pedophiles. Facing the likely loss of U.S. foreign aid because of its designation as Tier III, the lowest ranking, Cambodia changed course. Its national anti-trafficking police unit has rescued hundreds of children from sex establishments, and its courts have convicted scores of perpetrators. International Justice Mission, the human rights nongovernmental organization for which I work, recently conducted a prevalance survey in three Cambodian cities. It showed that there are virtually no young children to be found in the bar, brothel or other establishment-based sex industry, and there are dramatically fewer older teenagers. The achievement is Cambodia’s, but the TIP office, with its fearless reporting and strong diplomacy, deserves some praise. When assigned honestly, the TIP tier rankings have encouraged significant reforms. The office’s candor on labor trafficking in Gulf Cooperation Council countries contributed to Middle Eastern governments acknowledging problems and, beginning in 2009, widening political space for nongovernmental organizations, unions and migrant-worker associations. The Philippines, which stood a real chance of losing U.S. foreign aid in 2011 if it fell to Tier III, cracked down on sex traffickers, creating effective anti-trafficking units and adopting victim-friendly court procedures. But while other countries are improving, Russia is moving backward. By Russian police estimates, there were 50,000 sex-trafficking victims — the majority of them age 16 or younger — in Moscow in 2007, according to the organization MiraMed. Hundreds of girls have disappeared from orphanages into prostitution, some lured with promises of jobs and others abducted. Many of them are trafficked abroad: The Protection Project, a Washington-based human rights institute, ranks Russia among the top 10 countries of origin for trafficked human beings. Meanwhile, Russian authorities are methodically dismantling the country’s once-robust civil society. Human rights groups are required to register as foreign agents if they receive foreign assistance, and their leaders are increasingly harassed, hounded and jailed. The U.S. government has financially supported Russian anti-trafficking organizations in the past but can no longer do so because of restrictions enacted in November. Russia has been on a ranking watch list for nine years and, under the law, must be moved either up to Tier II or down to Tier III. Diplomats recognizing that the United States needs Russian cooperation on a host of national security matters aren’t eager to irritate Putin. Obama administration officials are reportedly debating whether to graduate Russia to Tier II or to rank the country where Russia watchers understand it belongs — and risk roiling a complicated bilateral relationship. It is clear from the tension within the executive branch on this issue that tier rankings matter tremendously to foreign governments. This should be good news: When leaders care about their trafficking record, they are much more likely to do something about it. But the United States will have little influence on Russian trafficking issues if Moscow gets a pass in the State Department’s upcoming report. It would be manifestly dishonest to give Russia Tier II status — and nobody knows that better than Putin. The TIP tier rankings should not be used as a diplomatic carrot to reward countries for progress they haven’t made. To counter this trend, Congress should upgrade the trafficking office to a State Department bureau so that our country’s leading experts on slavery can sit at the grown-ups’ table when issues such as Russia’s record are being discussed. In the meantime, Secretary of State John F. Kerry and President Obama should tell the truth about slavery and let the chips fall where they may. **Read more on this topic:** David J. Kramer and Arch Puddington: Russian children: Pawns in Putin’s power play The Post’s View: The Russian Duma’s ill-considered adoption bill Paul Pennington: Hope after Russia’s adoption ban: Adopting justice

The anti-porn movement is growing. The public is just catching up.

Unlike the 1960s, when protests about pornography were based primarily on moral grounds, science and research have now become central to the national dialogue on the effects of porn use — in fact, every sentence in the Utah resolution contains citations to peer-reviewed research. This shift resulted in part due to the rapid escalation of harm after the advent of the Internet. Before the Internet, most pornography was only accessible if you walked to the “wrong side of town” and furtively ducked into a porn shop. Now, the only barrier between you and millions of free pornographic videos is the click of a mouse. As a result, rising generations have experienced an unprecedented onslaught of hard-core pornography, not only through intentional searches but also through accidental exposure from pop-ups and “recommended” videos online. These experiences have manifested in numerous neurological, physiological and sociological harms, which are being recognized by individuals of diverse political and philosophical backgrounds, and which call for a public health approach.   While the Utah resolution is non-binding, it serves as a statement of intent and as a framework for future policy decisions, such as potentially ensuring public libraries and schools have Internet filters. It is also an educational tool to raise local awareness about the harms of pornography so that individuals and families can become better equipped to take preventative measures. This is a significant step forward for state policies on pornography, though there is still much ground to cover. In the future, enforcement of existing obscenity laws (which outlaw the sale and distribution of hard-core pornography), as well as state funding for compulsive porn use recovery programs and further research into topics such as porn-induced erectile dysfunction and pornography’s link to increased demand for sex trafficking, would be markers of overwhelming success in the movement against pornography. The public health approach to pornography is multi-disciplined — medical professionals, psychologists, law enforcement officials and more have begun to speak out about the ways pornography harms and how it is linked to other forms of sexual exploitation — and so it has the potential to create substantial change not only in governmental policies, but also in health-care professions, educational institutions and the culture at large. Because the movement to address the harms of pornography is multifaceted, policy advocacy efforts are creating change in both the private and public sector.  As people become aware of the harms to public health and to society, pornography is poised to follow the trend of tobacco in public consciousness. In the 1950s, smoking was pervasive, and some doctors and “experts” even claimed that it was healthy. Now the same ilk of “experts” defend big-business pornographers, rather than recognizing the real-life harms experienced by their friends and neighbors. While public opinion about pornography is currently in flux, the volume of research and personal testimonies about its destructive forces continues to grow, and the movement to address the public health crisis of pornography has only just begun.

My nail salon may be a front for a brothel

Experts say that human trafficking is everywhere, hidden in plain sight, if you don’t see it, you’re not looking. The American public has no idea how true these statements really are. I earned a PhD in criminology and have conducted extensive research on human trafficking for the past 10 years. Yet, despite a decade’s worth of experience, I still have difficulty recognizing human trafficking when I see it. Recently, I learned that my nail salon may be a front for a brothel. I’ve patronized the same nail salon for nearly four years, even taking my daughters there for manicures and pedicures. You would think I would have known what was going on, considering that I’ve trained law enforcement, victims’ service providers and college students on human trafficking identification, but I didn’t. Perhaps I took the salon’s legitimacy for granted. This salon is in a quintessential bedroom community, surrounding a man-made lake and golf course and not far from the District. It’s not where you would expect a brothel to operate. The salon is sandwiched between a coffee shop and a cafe. The lack of identification on my part wasn’t because I was being inattentive; every time I visited this location, I noticed that the clients were nearly 100 percent female, of all ages, races and ethnicities. There was no reason for me to suspect anything illicit. Until there was. Recently, while I was relaxing in a spa-pedicure seat, a young, good-looking military man walked in and asked for a massage. My ears perked up, as I hadn’t known the salon offered massages. Also, I was curious as to how this young man chose this nail salon for his needs, especially when there was a well-known massage business in the same shopping center. Because I knew that some nail salons provide a cover for illicit commercial sex and human-trafficking enterprises, I looked my salon up at the Internet’s No. 1 erotic massage review site, where, the site’s operators claim, “fantasy meets reality.” Lo and behold, there were reviews by 17 “johns,” some dating back more than two years, claiming to have received illicit services at my nail salon; the most recent review was from June. One person wrote a particularly graphic description of the erotic services he had received. I couldn’t believe how naive I had been. Prince William County Police are investigating the salon for commercial sex and trafficking. With more than 100 erotic massage parlors in Virginia, there is no reason any community should think it is immune to the human trafficking scourge. Incredibly, many of these businesses have been investigated, raided and prosecuted, and yet they remain open. Proprietors receive short terms of incarceration, if any, and typically open a new parlor under a different name, sometimes in the same location. These illicit industries will continue infecting the United States unless law enforcement becomes more effective. Human trafficking really is everywhere. Despite increases in awareness campaigns, traffickers continue to hide in plain sight, fooling even those of us who remain vigilant to exploitation. Even experts in the field, law enforcement officials and victims’ service providers fail to recognize human trafficking on a regular basis. Better understanding the clandestine nature of this crime is imperative to reducing its incidence. In this day and age, we can’t take for granted that all businesses are free from commercial sexual exploitation. The writer is a member of the Greater Prince William County Human Trafficking Task Force. She is writing a book about human trafficking. **Read more about this issue:** Donald J. Brewster: The fight against sex trafficking in Cambodia is far from over Mark P. Lagon: Clamp down on illegal fishing to curb human trafficking Melissa Saada Saar: There is no such thing as a child prostitute Amy Klobuchar and Cindy McCain: Fighting human trafficking on all levels

Va. human trafficking panel to offer warnings, information on protecting potential victims

For most people, the phrase “human trafficking” calls to mind scenes of impoverished laborers in foreign countries. On Saturday, the Soroptimist Clubs of Manassas and Woodbridge will host a forum urging Prince William County residents to take precautions against trafficking in their back yard. Laura Jones is vice president of the Woodbridge chapter of the international women’s organization, whose mandate is improving lives of girls and women worldwide. After learning about the victims of trafficking in the United States — including domestic workers smuggled into the country under false pretenses and runaway youths forced into prostitution by abusive pimps — she started asking everyone from legislators to parents about their knowledge of the topic. “There are still people out there who will say, ‘I didn’t know that existed,’ or, ‘I thought it only existed in other countries,’ ” Jones said. “My goal in bringing it to the public is to increase public awareness.” To raise local awareness of the issue, Jones organized a screening of Robert Bilheimer’s 2011 human-trafficking documentary “Not My Life.” After the half- hour film, several representatives of local nonprofit organizations will discuss their encounters with trafficking in the Washington region. Greg Bristol, a former FBI agent who will be one of the panelists, said he will talk about human trafficking cases he investigated in Falls Church and the District. He will encourage attendees to be on the alert for signs of abuse in their communities and report them. “There’s a lot of red flags,” Bristol said. “If you have a business next to a massage parlor, and you see that the massage parlor is open at midnight or one in the morning, and there’s a van with women getting out, call the police. If you’re at a truck stop on I-95, and you see a truck with young girls getting in, call the police or a national hotline. If people offering to clean your house speak very little English, and it’s much lower than the usual price, it’s probably domestic servitude. There’s a lot of signs here.” Jones will also tell parents how they can protect their children. “I get very upset when I see parents not paying attention to their child in the store. It only takes seconds for that child to be abducted. Don’t let your 11-year-old go to the mall and hang out,” she said. Rather than focusing on scare tactics, she said, the panel will offer positive messages for parents. The best way to prevent children from being victims of abusive schemes or to one day prey on others is to ensure that they have high self-esteem. “It sounds sappy,” she said, but it’s important. “Make sure your children know to respect others [and] treat them equally and with love and kindness.”

“Childism: Confronting Prejudice Against Children” by Elisabeth Young-Bruehl

Although the United States claims to be a child-friendly society, the evidence is mixed. No other society spends as much money on schooling, toys or children’s health care — or on child protective services and juvenile detention. Each year, child protection agencies substantiate over 400,000 cases of child abuse and neglect, the foster care system absorbs more than a quarter million children, and juvenile detention facilities incarcerate over 90,000 boys and girls. Unlike Western Europe, the United States still prosecutes many juvenile offenders as adults. Nor does any other advanced society allow so many children to grow up in soul-stunting poverty. But it is not just the well-being of low-income children that troubles many observers. There is a sense that well-meaning parents, driven by guilt and exaggerated anxieties over their children’s safety, self-esteem and future success, discourage childhood risk-taking, over-indulge their kids with toys, and seek to ensure that they are never unhappy or bored. Sometimes these moms and dads even complete their children’s school projects and rewrite their college application essays. According to the late Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, the well-respected psychoanalyst and biographer of Hannah Arendt and Anna Freud who died on Dec. 1, all of these problems have similar roots — a disregard for children’s developmental needs so widespread and so destructive that it should be seen as a form of discrimination akin to racism, sexism and homophobia. She labels this prejudice childism. Part of the problem, in her view, lies with parents who do not treat their children as individuals. There are the angry, frustrated narcissists who treat their children as extensions of themselves and as instruments for fulfilling their own needs. There are the repressed, rigid obsessives, given to faulty generalizations, including a belief that children lack reason and must be punished physically. Then there are the dependent, depressed hysterics who project their authority issues and aggressive impulses onto children. Childism, however, isn’t simply confined to authoritarian parents who regard children as “wild animals that should be physically controlled.” Whenever adults treat children as possessions or expect the young to conform to exaggerated ideals of innocence, they, too, are guilty of childism. As Young-Bruehl astutely observes: “People as individuals and in societies mistreat children in order to fulfill certain needs through them, to project internal conflicts and self-hatreds outward, or to assert themselves when they feel their authority has been questioned.” “Childism” combines case studies, which graphically describe how abused children experience their mistreatment (and their sense of being unwanted, manipulated and denied the right to be who they are), with capsule histories and critiques of the academic study of child abuse and of federal efforts to combat child maltreatment. The book closely examines how child abuse got caught up in the culture wars of the 1980s and ’90s, and how the discrediting of charges of satanic ritual abuse in day care centers and of recovered memory therapy left many people baffled about how to distinguish true and false claims of abuse. The book concludes with a clarion call for programs of parent education and abuse prevention, for expanded parenting support services, and for closer attention to children’s voices. Among the book’s key insights is that many behaviors that we don’t think of as abuse are in fact abusive because they place parental needs above children’s developmental needs. For example, there are the overly ambitious helicopter parents who push their children intellectually and socially before they are developmentally ready. There are the educators and physicians who are too quick to label normal childish behavior as pathological. There is an aggressive commercial culture that colonizes children’s imagination, distorts their body image, and encourages precocious sexuality, rampant materialism and unhealthy eating habits. Although I strongly agree with Young-Bruehl’s goal — to educate the public about the ways that a child’s potential for development can be promoted or impeded — I have some misgivings about her broader argument. Her psychoanalytic approach leads her to blame the problems she sees on individual attitudes and prejudices rather than to investigate the social and economic factors that produce different patterns of parental behavior in various sectors of society. Sociologists have long recognized that even the most well-intentioned parents can mistreat or neglect children when faced with job loss, poverty and economic stress. More affluent parents face a different set of pressures. As it becomes increasingly difficult for middle-class families to transmit their class position to their children, many have come to regard childrearing — like the economy — as a zero-sum game, where they must pit their children against other people’s offspring. This has encouraged parents to view their child as a project to be perfected and other children as a problem. Meanwhile, now that minorities make up nearly half the children born in the United States, many older adults show diminished interest in children’s well-being, while programs to aid poor children frequently flounder because of hostility toward helping those parents. For more than a century, the United States was a world leader in promoting child welfare. From the creation of non-sectarian, tax-supported public schools to the formation of juvenile courts, societies for the prevention of cruelty toward children, and aid to families with dependent children, the United States stood at the forefront of efforts to advance children’s well-being. It is one of history’s bitterest ironies that the nation that established the world’s first Children’s Bureau, pioneered legal adoption, uncovered child battering as a widespread problem, and invented and championed the notion of children’s rights is now the only one in the world to fail to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, a document which declares that children not only have needs that must be respected but are autonomous rights-bearers who should have a voice, appropriate to their level of maturity, in decisions that influence their development. Today’s lack of concern for America’s children presents parents with a host of anxieties and dilemmas which makes it hard for them to live up to their highest ideals about childhood. ** Steven Mintz  **, a Columbia University historian and a former chair of the Council on Contemporary Families, is the author of “Huck’s Raft: A History of American Childhood.” **CHILDISM** **Confronting Prejudice Against Children** ****By Elisabeth Young-Bruehl Yale Univ. 353 pp. $28

Yes, we should protect transgender people but we’re going about it in a dangerous way

Allowing biological men to use women’s restrooms and changing rooms — what could possibly go wrong? Plenty. As a compassionate society, we believe that transgendered people should be protected from discrimination. We also believe that women and children should be protected from sexual exploitation and assault. Creating a new “right” for biological men to use women-only facilities is an open invitation to sex predators pretending to be transgender in order to get access to vitcims at their most vulnerable. It is happening already even without an invitation. Take the case of Taylor Buehler, a man who was arrested in 2012 after entering a women’s bathroom at Everett Community College in Washington state dressed in a bra and wig. He claimed that he was just there to use the facilities, but under police questioning, Buehler “admitted to officers that he was the suspect in an earlier voyeurism incident … [in which] he took a shower in the girls’ locker room for sexual gratification.” Or take the case of Norwood Smith Burnes, a 51-year-old Rome, Ga., man who was arrested for undressing in front of children in a Walmart women’s room. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution , Burnes was wearing a short skirt, high heels, red nail, polish, and green eye shadow and was found in “stages of undress . . . in the presence of several young children.” After his arrest, the paper said, police discovered that he “had a long record of indecent exposure and was on probation for public indecency.” Under the new norm that the Obama administration wants to establish, all either man would have had to say to avoid arrest was that he “identified” as a woman and was exercising his civil right to use the facility corresponding to his preferred gender. Moreover, each of these alleged predators was caught because women complained that there was a man dressed as a woman in the women’s room. If the Obama administration had its way, the women might never have complained for fear they would be accused of being bigots or violating civil rights. Don’t believe it? Just look to our neighbor up north, where in 2012, the province of Ontario changed its Human Rights Code to bar discrimination against anyone because of “gender identity” or “gender expression” — giving anyone who claimed to be transgender the legal right to use women-only facilities. That allowed Christopher Hambrook to dress like a woman and sign into several Toronto area women’s shelters, where he sexually assaulted women seeking refuge from domestic violence. Police later discovered that he had been convicted in Montreal of sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl and a mentally challenged 27-year-old woman. He was not transgender; he was a sex predator pretending to be transgender. But nobody dared to question him, because to do so would have been a violation of his “human rights.” It used to be that authorities judged who belonged in which bathroom by an objective criteria: their anatomy. But in its recent “guidance ” to public educational institutions, the Obama administration declared that “gender identity” is determined by “an individual’s internal sense of gender.” It’s all about how you feel. And no one can question those feelings. Indeed, the Obama administration said, doing so is unlawful. The Justice and Education departments declared that in public educational institutions “there is no medical diagnosis or treatment requirement that students must meet as a prerequisite to being treated consistent with their gender identity” and that “requiring students to produce such identification documents . . . may violate Title IX.” Moreover, how you feel can change — because, we are told, “gender is fluid.” According to CNN , “For some people . . . how one identifies can change every day or even every few hours.” For sex predators, that is awfully convenient. If gender identities can change by the day or hour, then what is to stop pedophiles and voyeurs from simply saying that their gender is “fluid” — and they were feeling like a woman that day? And how are police supposed to discern who is actually transgender and who is pretending to be transgender? Last year, after Washington state passed a law opening public bathrooms to transgender people, a man walked into the women’s changing room at a Seattle public pool and began undressing while young girls were changing for swim practice. He wasn’t even dressed like a woman. When staff asked the man to leave, he told them “the law has changed and I have a right to be here.” The flummoxed staff did not even call police. By all means, schools should be required to provide access to bathrooms and changing areas where transgender people can feel safe. And there is a simple solution. As one transgender young man put it in The Post this weekend, “Imagine a room with a toilet, a sink and a door with a lock. Suddenly everyone’s problems go away.” But that is not good enough for the Obama administration, which insists that biological males who identify as women have a fundamental right to access to women’s facilities. That is a recipe for disaster. Sex predators are devious; they will use any excuse to gain access to their victims. Government should not be opening the bathroom door for them. Yes, we should find ways to protect transgender people — but we must do so without endangering everyone else. _Read more fromMarc Thiessen’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook._ **Read more on this topic:** Elishe Wittes: One bathroom for all: Install gender-free, single-user restrooms Jack Drescher: Five myths on being transgender

The U.S. government turns a blind eye to policies that fuel sex trafficking

_Mark P. Lagon is president of Freedom House and a former U.S. ambassador at large for human trafficking from 2007 to 2009. Laila Mickelwait is director of abolition at the advocacy group Exodus Cry._ The International Labor Organization reported in 2014 that forced commercial sexual exploitation generates a startling $99 billion per year. Every day, millions of women and girls around the globe are being coerced to have sex for the financial gain of the pimps and traffickers who abuse and exploit them. Whenever strategies for the elimination of sex trafficking are discussed, one theme consistently emerges: the importance of prevention through demand reduction. It seems like a no-brainer that reducing demand for commercial sex will reduce the exploitation of women and girls in the commercial sex industry. When a country allows for the legal purchase of sex, demand increases, as does the supply of women and girls needed to meet that demand. The reverse is also true: When countries prohibit the purchase of sex, fewer men buy, and fewer women and girls are trafficked. Legislation aimed at curbing demand for commercial sex can prevent sex trafficking. In 2004, the State Department noted that, “where prostitution is legalized or tolerated, there is a greater demand for human trafficking victims and nearly always an increase in the number of women and children trafficked into commercial sex slavery.” This view has been shared by Republican and Democratic administrations. Last year, the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons reiterated: “If there were no demand for commercial sex, sex trafficking would not exist in the form it does today. This reality underscores the need for continued strong efforts to enact policies and promote cultural norms that disallow paying for sex.” So the State Department continues to talk the talk, but unfortunately it is unwilling to walk the walk. Year after year, the department sidesteps the most critical aspect of determining whether nations are truly “making serious and sustained efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex,” as the Trafficking Victims Protection Act mandates. Punishing those who seek to purchase commercial sex is the one proven indicator of whether a country is making efforts to reduce demand. But it seems the department doesn’t want to ruffle feathers by turning words into action. Take Spain, where purchasing sex is legal and most detected trafficking cases are for the purpose of prostitution. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime noted that 39 percent of the male population in Spain admitted to purchasing sex at least once. According to a 2007 Spanish government study, sex is purchased between 900,000 and 1.5 million times a day in a nation of 47 million. Cities attract and cater to tourists for whom purchasing sex is an expected part of the nightlife. Club Paradise in La Jonquera, one of the largest brothels in Europe, boasts of having more than “200 girls” who work in 101 rooms to cater to the desires of men who are free to buy sex without consequence. According to the State Department’s global Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, there may be as many as 400,000 women being prostituted in Spain, and up to 90 percent of these women are trafficked and coerced into prostitution by organized crime — meaning up to 360,000 women are victimized. Yet for the past 14 years, Spain has received a “Tier 1” ranking in the report, meaning the country is in full compliance with minimum standards set forth to eliminate trafficking. There has been no mention of the fact that the legality of purchasing sex in Spain is a magnet for human trafficking. In the 2014 TIP report , the department even gives Spain credit for prevention of trafficking: “the government [of Spain] continued prevention efforts through a variety of public awareness campaigns involving flyers, banners, exhibits, and other displays.” No amount of flyers should warrant giving a nation that allows men to buy sex with impunity a “passing” grade on prevention of human trafficking. Enough is enough. Any national government having the authority to criminalize the purchase of commercial sex should do so. It’s time for Congress to pass pending legislation sponsored by Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.) that would update the Trafficking Victims Protection Act to require future TIP reports to assess sex-purchase laws when determining whether nations are making serious efforts to reduce demand for commercial sex. The grades that the United States gives in its global TIP report matter. They can sometimes cause diplomatic indigestion, but they have propelled nations to improve their conduct. They would be a stronger tool if they took seriously the need for nations to hold to account the men who would buy women and girls for sex. It is high time to stop saying “boys will be boys” and recognize that abolishing sex trafficking requires placing the stigma on the purchaser rather than the commodified women and girls they buy. **Read more on this topic:** Colbert I. King: Washington D.C.’s serious sex-trafficking problem Donald J. Brewster: The fight against child sex trafficking in Cambodia is far from over The Post’s View: Remember the children Amy Klobuchar and Cindy McCain: Taking the fight to end human trafficking to the federal, state and local levels

Monica Lewinsky still doesn’t understand that she is a victim

Regarding the May 7 Style article “Rewriting her own story”: There is no such thing as a consensual relationship between a White House intern and the president of the United States. Period. This is not a subtle point, and it is troubling that, after all these years, Monica Lewinsky still doesn’t get it. An excerpt from her upcoming article in Vanity Fair suggests that the aftermath of ugly publicity made her a victim, not the affair itself (since she “consented”). It is a testament to the power of denial in cases of victimization. On the surface, it would seem that realizing you were a victim would be a relief: It wasn’t your fault. But the evidence doesn’t support that. Even very young children who are the victims of sexual predators carry with them the idea that it was somehow their fault, and it often takes years of painful therapy before they can stop feeling guilty. Often it is easier to forgive the abuser than yourself. Being older than 18 doesn’t make a person immune from being a victim. Inequality of power makes “consent” not possible, regardless of the victim’s age. ****Rhoda Ruttenberg** , Takoma Park**

This map shows where the world’s 30 million slaves live. There are 60,000 in the U.S.

We think of slavery as a practice of the past, an image from Roman colonies or 18th-century American plantations, but the practice of enslaving human beings as property still exists. There are 29.8 million people living as slaves right now, according to a comprehensive new report issued by the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University This is not some softened, by-modern-standards definition of slavery. These 30 million people are living as forced laborers, forced prostitutes, child soldiers, child brides in forced marriages and, in all ways that matter, as pieces of property, chattel in the servitude of absolute ownership. Walk Free investigated 162 countries and found slaves in every single one. But the practice is far worse in some countries than others. The country where you are most likely to be enslaved is Mauritania. Although this vast West African nation has tried three times to outlaw slavery within its borders, it remains so common that it is nearly normal. The report estimates that four percent of Mauritania is enslaved – one out of every 25 people. (The aid group SOS Slavery, using a broader definition of slavery, estimated several years ago that as many as 20 percent of Mauritanians might be enslaved.)    *[WSU]: Wayne State University The map at the top of this page shows almost every country in the world colored according to the share of its population that is enslaved. The rate of slavery is also alarmingly high in Haiti, in Pakistan and in India, the world's second-most populous country. In all three, more than 1 percent of the population is estimated to live in slavery. A few trends are immediately clear from the map up top. First, rich, developed countries tend to have by far the lowest rates of slavery. The report says that effective government policies, rule of law, political stability and development levels all make slavery less likely. The vulnerable are less vulnerable, those who would exploit them face higher penalties and greater risk of getting caught. A war, natural disaster or state collapse is less likely to force helpless children or adults into bondage. Another crucial factor in preventing slavery is discrimination. When society treats women, ethnic groups or religious minorities as less valuable or less worthy of protection, they are more likely to become slaves. Then there are the worst-affected regions. Sub-Saharan Africa is a swath of red, with many countries having roughly 0.7 percent of the population enslaved -- or one in every 140 people. The legacies of the transatlantic slave trade and European colonialism are still playing out in the region; ethnic divisions and systems of economic exploitation engineered there during the colonial era are still, to some extent, in place. Slavery is also driven by extreme poverty, high levels of corruption and toleration of child "marriages" of young girls to adult men who pay their parents a "dowry." Two other bright red regions are Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. Both are blighted particularly by sex trafficking, a practice that bears little resemblance to popular Western conceptions of prostitution. Women and men are coerced into participating, often starting at a very young age, and are completely reliant on their traffickers for not just their daily survival but basic life choices; they have no say in where they go or what they do and are physically prevented from leaving. International sex traffickers have long targeted these two regions, whose women and men are prized for their skin tones and appearance by Western patrons. Here, to give you a different perspective of slavery's scope, is a map of the world showing the number of slaves living in each country: Yes, this map can be a little misleading. The United States, per capita, has a very low rate of slavery: just 0.02 percent, or one in every 5,000 people. But that adds up to a lot: an estimated 60,000 slaves, right here in America. If your goal is to have as few slaves as possible -- Walk Free says it is working to eradicate the practice in one generation's time -- then this map is very important, because it shows you which countries have the most slaves and thus which governments can do the most to reduce the global number of slaves. In that sense, the United States could stand to do a lot. You don't have to go far to see slavery in America. Here in Washington, D.C., you can sometimes spot them on certain streets, late at night. Not all sex workers or "prostitutes" are slaves, of course; plenty have chosen the work voluntarily and can leave it freely. But, as the 2007 documentary "Very Young Girls" demonstrated, many are coerced into participating at a young age and gradually shifted into a life that very much resembles slavery.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University A less visible but still prevalent form of slavery in America involves illegal migrant laborers who are lured with the promise of work and then manipulated into forced servitude, living without wages or freedom of movement, under constant threat of being turned over to the police should they let up in their work. Walk Free cites "a highly developed criminal economy that preys on economic migrants, trafficking and enslaving them." That economy stretches from the migrants' home countries right to the United States. The country that is most marked by slavery, though, is clearly India. There are an estimated 14 million slaves in India – it would be as if the entire population of Pennsylvania were forced into slavery. The country suffers deeply from all major forms of slavery, according to the report. Forced labor is common, due in part to a system of hereditary debt bondage; many Indian children are born "owing" sums they could never possibly pay to masters who control them as chattel their entire lives. Others fall into forced labor when they move to a different region looking for work, and turn to an unlicensed "broker" who promises work but delivers them into servitude. The country's caste system and widespread discrimination abet social norms that make it easier to turn a blind eye to the problem. Women and girls from underprivileged classes are particularly vulnerable to sexual slavery, whether under the guise of "child marriages" or not, although men and boys often fall victim as well. One of the world's most vulnerable populations for enslavement is Haitian children. Haiti has the world's second-highest rate of slavery -- 2.1 percent, or about one in every 48 people, many of them underage. There's even a word for it: "restaveks," from the colonial French for "reste avec" or "stay with." Traditionally, the word refers to a poor family sending their child to live with and work for a wealthier family. Often it is innocuous. But it can also encompass parents who feel they have no choice, typically because they have no income other than what they derive from selling their children into forced labor conditions that strongly resemble slavery. About one in 10 Haitian children are believed to participate. Those who run away, according to the report, are often "trafficked into forced begging and commercial sexual exploitation." What's perhaps most amazing about the prevalence of slavery around the world is how similar it can look across very different societies. The risk factors might change from one place to another, the causes varying widely, but the lives of the enslaved rarely do.

Members of Congress press Sessions to investigate sexual ads at Backpage.com

Five members of Congress who head anti-human-trafficking groups called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to launch a criminal investigation of Backpage.com after a trove of documents revealed that the website hired a company in the Philippines to lure advertisers and customers seeking sex. Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who lead a subcommittee that has investigated Backpage since 2015, along with Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.) and Reps. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) and Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) demanded on Thursday that the Justice Department examine the classifieds site after information about the documents was reported by The Washington Post this week. Wagner and Maloney, co-chairs of a House task force on human trafficking, accused Backpage of “knowingly advertising and financially benefiting from participation in sex trafficking.” “Backpage.com has long argued that it is a mere third-party platform with no responsibility for the sex trafficking ads that are posted on its website,” the congresswomen wrote in a letter to Sessions. “This is an utter lie.” The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Portman, found in January that Backpage was removing offensive terms from its sex ads but allowing the ads, some with possible child-trafficking content, to remain posted. The committee wrote to Sessions saying that it had “determined that there is reasonable cause to believe that violations of law may have occurred.” The newly revealed documents, obtained through an unrelated lawsuit, show workers at Avion BPO in the Philippines focused on adding and promoting sexual ads. In some instances the workers used language including “Let a young babe show you the way” and “Little angel seeks daddy” in fake ads they posted on other sites to attract customers to Backpage. A Backpage attorney did not respond to a request for comment on the letter Thursday. In various court cases, Dallas-based Backpage has contended that it aggressively screens for improper ads and is legally protected by the federal Communications Decency Act, which shields website operators against liability for content posted by their users. Backpage has long claimed that it was not involved in the creation of content on its site. The company also has stressed that when police or federal agents request help with cases, it complies quickly. Backpage and some advocates say that having the ads in one location is preferable to having the ads dispersed to sites in countries with less enforcement. Wagner and Maloney have also proposed an alteration to the Communications Decency Act clarifying that the 1996 law “was never intended to provide legal protection to websites that facilitate traffickers” and enabling “vigorous enforcement” under both criminal and civil law for websites with content “relating to sexual exploitation of children or sex trafficking.” The bill was introduced in April and has 30 co-sponsors. It would also allow states to pursue criminal cases and victims to seek civil remedies. The Senate, whose Homeland Security Committee issued a scathing report on Backpage in January, is expected to introduce its own legislation. Both bills are certain to face serious opposition from those fearing abuse of the law and First Amendment violations that would inhibit the freedom of the Internet. In a speech on the Senate floor Thursday, Portman said he supported the Communications Decency Act but that it was not intended to protect people engaged in criminal activity. He cited the Post report as evidence that “Backpage workers were active co-creators of many of these sex advertisements including those that seek to traffic women and underage girls. I believe the legal consequences should be that they should lose their immunity under the Communications Decency Act. And that’s why we’ve asked the Justice Department today to review this matter.” The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. Backpage is an online classified-ad site similar to Craigslist. In 2010, after Craigslist closed its “adult services” section under intense pressure, many of the ads migrated to Backpage. The ads now in Backpage’s “dating” section are seen by many as thinly veiled offers of prostitution, and underage women who have been trafficked on the site have come forward in recent years to detail their ordeals. In their letter to the attorney general, Wagner and Maloney urged Sessions to go after Backpage under an existing criminal law banning sex trafficking of children. “We see no reason,” the congresswomen wrote, “why a criminal case should not be brought against Backpage.com for its criminal role in sex trafficking in America.” Backpage has said that it uses automated filters and human moderators to remove ads potentially involving trafficking of minors and other illegal activity.

Why Hollywood studios are taking a stand against an anti-revenge-porn bill

"The bill in its current form could limit the distribution of a wide array of mainstream, Constitutionally-protected material, including items of legitimate news, commentary, and historical interest," said the MPAA's statement. "For example, images of Holocaust victims, or prisoners at Abu Ghraib, or the Pulitzer-Prize winning photograph entitled 'Napalm Girl,' which shows a young girl running screaming from her village, naked, following a Napalm attack, could be prohibited under the terms of this legislation."    And then there's the MPAA's support for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in 2011. This bill, which expanded government rights to shut down websites that might post infringing material, had many freedom of speech activists up in arms for its broad language regarding what kind of content the government could remove. The MPAA didn't seem all that concerned with protecting freedom of speech back then; now, the MPAA seems to be coming out in favor of protecting it. So what does Hollywood stand to gain by opposing this bill? Law professor Christine Corcos,who teaches media and entertainment law, sees the connection between the MPAA's strong anti-piracy stance and the revenge porn bill. "Support for free speech, or support for free expression, can be and often is support for constitutionally or legally permitted speech, even when it is speech that is objectionable, disliked, offensive, or otherwise displeasing to the community or to some within the community or to the government," she said. "You might take the position that in order to support free expression, you might need to protect your intellectual property through legislation, just as you might need to resort to the legal system in other ways, precisely in order to disseminate what some might consider objectionable ideas and thus to protect free expression." The MPAA might see government protections of any content producers, even in the case of those who might be distributing revenge porn, as a step in the right direction in terms of legislative power over intellectual property, Corcos said.   Yet the "long memory" of the Internet makes this strategy challenging in practice. The virality of images makes the erasure of nudes online very challenging, and as these photos pop up from site to site, removal can be like a game of Whac-A-Mole. Additionally, the DMCA does not require that a website monitor its content for any users that might post copyright-infringing images. As long as it responds to take-down notices, which places the onus on the image owner, it's fine to keep running a site that is flush with stolen content.  Carrie Goldberg, a lawyer who specializes in revenge porn cases and contributed to shaping the Minnesota revenge porn bill, sees the MPAA's actions as evidence of hypocrisy. "In Flavaworks, the MPAA was worried about an unlicensed on-demand Internet service that attracted an audience for infringing content. They wanted to suppress the spread of copyrighted content. Yet, they now are attacking revenge porn laws which ultimately would also reduce copyright infringements," she argues. "Without laws criminalizing nonconsensual porn, nothing will deter bad actors from spreading it, resulting in more copyright infringements." She added that the copyright tactic of removing revenge porn ultimately fails because offenders have no legal pressure to stop disseminating these images. It's one reason why she says the Minnesota bill needs to go through. "Unfortunately, the MPAA doesn’t care about copyright infringements when it comes to the private and personal material that belongs to ordinary people." "It is disturbing that MPAA favored the expansion of criminal penalties for online copyright infringement (i.e. SOPA) and the trafficking of counterfeit goods, but feels that sexual privacy is not equally worthy of protection," Goldberg says. "On the one hand, they say somebody should go to jail for five years for streaming 'Men In Black II' without the studio’s consent, but yet if nudes of a 19-year-old girl from rural Minnesota have gone viral on the Internet without her consent, she should fend for herself. As a society, we need to regard private intimate material with a legal framework as robust as what we see in the commercial realm."

If we took ‘Gamergate’ harassment seriously, ‘Pizzagate’ might never have happened

The alleged gunman came from a corner of the Internet that is utterly convinced that Comet is harboring a child sex trafficking ring that implicates Hillary Clinton, John Podesta and other Democratic Party operatives. Media reports to the contrary are viewed as additional evidence of collusion. Comet, its owner, any bands that have played there and even neighboring businesses have become targets of harassment, too. But “Pizzagate” isn’t the first time the darker parts of the Internet have delivered up sustained, orchestrated harassment on the back of a convoluted nest of lies. The same tactics, the same platforms, even some of the same people have been at this before. In 2016, it’s Pizzagate. In 2014, it was “Gamergate.” If Pizzagate is surprising, it’s because memories of Gamergate have been locked away in a “pink ghetto,” marginalized as a women’s issue that can be safely ignored.    Panels about online harassment, stacked with women, became an easy way for conferences to pad their diversity statistics. Too frequently, speakers were not asked what the solutions should be, but simply expected to relive personal trauma for the edification of the audience. Institutions and corporations behaved as though “addressing online harassment” meant the mere act of passively listening to someone recount what had happened to her. But now I wonder if even that happened. If people had listened then, would they be so surprised by Pizzagate now, which follows a pattern uncannily similar to Gamergate? Back then, just as in Pizzagate, the mob had no rhyme or reason — some of their targets were Quinn’s friends, some of them were other women in the video game industry and still others were simply random individuals speaking out against the emerging harassment.  Proponents claimed their movement was about “ethics in video game journalism” — namely, that certain games had received better reviews thanks to the sexual perfidy of their female creators. Such allegations were baseless and quickly disproved, but that’s hardly the point: The idea that any video game review merits death threats is patently absurd. If you could somehow set aside the bomb threats, the swatting and the armed man marauding through a neighborhood pizza parlor, the actual allegations behind both Gamergate and Pizzagate are essentially ridiculous. Yet as the accusations stack up, targets were turned into shadowy folk villains who could never quite dispel the cloud around them. Conspiracy theories and the communities that spring up around them were certainly around before the Internet, but they’ve never been the same since. All the things that make communication fun, fast and convenient also breathe life and urgency into visions of fear. The World Wide Web’s hyperlinking protocol becomes a superpowered version of the conspiracy theorist’s corkboard, stringing together articles, posts, pictures without context or explanation, supplying the paranoid mind with its bespoke Wikipedia of horrors.     It was never “just” the Internet. Even if the opportunistic leaders of the alt-right don’t actually believe that a D.C. pizzeria is secretly a child trafficking operation, the Internet will help them reach someone who will — and that someone might have a gun. This kind of sustained, organized harassment is a complex phenomenon of the modern age that deserves deeper study, and real action to prevent or mitigate violence in the future. But we should have gotten a start on it two years ago.   Victims asked for little and received even less. They wanted solutions and only got sympathy. The issue was relegated to the margins, and anti-harassment became a fashionable token of cultural sensitivity. Meanwhile, the very worst parts of the alt-right festered into their present form. Pizzagate is a bad sequel that we could have stopped. Maybe this time we can do more than pretend to listen.