Expresses support for: (1) law enforcement agency efforts to provide training to law enforcement agents on how to investigate and prosecute cases of sex trafficking and how to identify and rescue trafficking victims; and (2) trafficking victim services provided by the federal, state, and local governments and non-profit and faith-based organizations, including medical, legal, mental health, housing, and other social services.
Calls on Village Voice Media Holdings, LLC to act as a responsible global citizen and immediately eliminate the "adult entertainment" section of the classified advertising website Backpage.com to terminate the website's facilitation of online sex trafficking.
[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 646 Introduced in House (IH)]
112th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 646
Expressing the sense of the House that Village Voice Media Holdings,
LLC should eliminate the ``adult entertainment'' section of the
classified advertising website Backpage.com.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 7, 2012
Mr. Turner of New York submitted the following resolution; which was
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the House that Village Voice Media Holdings,
LLC should eliminate the ``adult entertainment'' section of the
classified advertising website Backpage.com.
Whereas according to the Department of Justice, there was a 59 percent increase
in identified victims of human trafficking worldwide between 2009 and
2010;
Whereas according to the Department of Health and Human Services, human
trafficking is the fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the world;
Whereas experts estimate that up to 300,000 children are at risk of sexual
exploitation each year in the United States;
Whereas experts estimate that the average female victim of sex trafficking is
forced into prostitution for the first time between the ages of 12 and
14, and the average male victim of sex trafficking is forced into
prostitution for the first time between the ages of 11 and 13;
Whereas the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that 40 percent of incidents
investigated by federally funded task forces on human trafficking
between 2008 and 2010 involved prostitution of a child or the sexual
exploitation of a child;
Whereas according to the classified advertising consultant Advanced Interactive
Media Group (referred to in this preamble as ``AIM Group''),
Backpage.com is the leading United States website for prostitution
advertising;
Whereas Backpage.com is owned by Village Voice Media Holdings, LLC (referred to
in this preamble as ``Village Voice Media'');
Whereas the National Association of Attorneys General tracked more than 50 cases
in which charges were filed against persons who were trafficking or
attempting to traffic minors on Backpage.com;
Whereas Myrelle and Tyrelle Locket--
(1) in February 2011 were each sentenced to 4 years in prison on
charges of trafficking of persons for forced labor or services for
operating an Illinois sex trafficking ring that included minors; and
(2) used Backpage.com to facilitate the prostitution;
Whereas Arthur James Chappell--
(1) in March 2011 was sentenced to 28 years in prison on charges of sex
trafficking of a minor for running a prostitution ring with at least 1
juvenile victim in Minnesota; and
(2) used Backpage.com to facilitate the prostitution;
Whereas Brandon Quincy Thompson--
(1) in April 2011 was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of sex
trafficking a child by force for running a South Dakota prostitution ring
that involved multiple underage girls; and
(2) used Backpage.com to facilitate the prostitution;
Whereas Clint Eugene Wilson--
(1) in May 2011 was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of sex
trafficking of a minor by force, fraud, or coercion for forcing a 16-year-
old Dallas girl into prostitution, threatening to assault her, and forcing
her to get a tattoo that branded her as his property; and
(2) used Backpage.com to facilitate the prostitution;
Whereas Demetrius Darnell Homer--
(1) in August 2011 was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of
sex trafficking of a minor for violently forcing a 14-year-old Atlanta girl
into prostitution, controlling her through beatings, threatening her with a
knife, shocking her with a taser in front of another underage girl whom he
had placed in prostitution, and forcing her to engage in prostitution while
she was pregnant with his child; and
(2) used Backpage.com to facilitate the prostitution;
Whereas Leighton Martin Curtis--
(1) in February 2012 was sentenced to 30 years in prison on charges of
sex trafficking of a minor and production of child pornography for pimping
a 15-year-old girl throughout Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina to
approximately 20 to 35 customers each week for more than a year; and
(2) used Backpage.com to facilitate the prostitution;
Whereas Ronnie Leon Tramble--
(1) in March 2012 was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of sex
trafficking through force, fraud, and coercion for forcing more than 5
young women and minors into prostitution over a period of at least 5 years
throughout the State of Washington, during which time period he constantly
subjected the victims to brutal physical and emotional abuse; and
(2) used Backpage.com to facilitate the prostitution;
Whereas according to AIM Group, 80 percent of online prostitution advertising
revenue for the month of February 2012 was attributed to Backpage.com;
Whereas according to AIM Group, the number of Backpage.com advertisements for
``escorts'' and ``body rubs'', a thinly veiled code for prostitution,
increased by nearly 5 percent between February 2011 and February 2012;
Whereas according to AIM Group, Backpage.com earned an estimated $26,000,000
from prostitution advertisements between February 2011 and February
2012;
Whereas Backpage.com vice president Carl Ferrer acknowledged to the National
Association of Attorneys General that the company identifies more than
400 ``adult entertainment'' posts that may involve minors each month;
Whereas the actual number of ``adult entertainment'' posts on Backpage.com each
month that involve minors may be far greater than 400;
Whereas according to the National Association of Attorneys General, Missouri
investigators found that the review procedures of Backpage.com are
ineffective in policing illegal activity;
Whereas in September 2010, Craigslist.com removed the ``adult services'' section
of its website following calls for removal from law enforcement and
advocacy organizations;
Whereas by September 16, 2011, 51 attorneys general of States and territories of
the United States had called on Backpage.com to shut down the ``adult
entertainment'' section of its website;
Whereas, on September 16, 2011, the Tri-City Herald of the State of Washington
published an editorial entitled ``Attorneys general target sexual
exploitation of kids'', writing, ``. . . we'd also encourage the owners
of Backpage.com to give the attorneys general what they are asking
for'';
Whereas, on October 25, 2011, 36 clergy members from across the United States
published an open letter to Village Voice Media in the New York Times,
calling on the company to shut down the ``adult entertainment'' section
of Backpage.com;
Whereas, on December 2, 2011, 55 anti-trafficking organizations called on
Village Voice Media to shut down the ``adult entertainment'' section of
Backpage.com;
Whereas, on December 29, 2011, the Seattle Times published an editorial entitled
``Murders strengthen case against Backpage.com'', writing,
``Backpage.com cannot continue to dismiss the women and children
exploited through the website, nor the 3 women in Detroit who are dead
possibly because they were trafficked on the site. Revenue from the
exploitation and physical harm of women and minors is despicable.
Village Voice Media, which owns Backpage.com, must shut this site down.
Until then, all the pressure that can be brought to bear must
continue.'';
Whereas, on March 18, 2012, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times wrote in an
opinion piece entitled ``Where Pimps Peddle Their Goods'' that ``[t]here
are no simple solutions to end sex trafficking, but it would help to
have public pressure on Village Voice Media to stop carrying
prostitution advertising.'';
Whereas, on March 29, 2012, Change.org delivered a petition signed by more than
240,000 individuals to Village Voice Media, calling on the company to
shut down the ``adult entertainment'' section of Backpage.com;
Whereas, on January 12, 2012, John Buffalo Mailer, son of Village Voice co-
founder Norman Mailer, joined the Change.org petition to shut down the
``adult entertainment'' section of Backpage.com, stating, ``For the sake
of the Village Voice brand and for the sake of the legacy of a great
publication, take down the adult section of Backpage.com, before the
Village Voice must answer for yet another child who is abused and
exploited because you did not do enough to prevent it.'';
Whereas, on March 30, 2012, a private equity firm owned by Goldman Sachs Group,
Inc. completed a deal to sell its 16 percent ownership stake in Village
Voice Media back to management;
Whereas in M.A. ex rel. P.K. v. Village Voice Media Holdings, LLC (809 F. Supp.
2d 1041 (E.D. Mo. 2011)), the United States District Court for the
Eastern District of Missouri held that section 230 of the Communications
Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230) (as added by section 509 of the
Communications Decency Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-104; 110 Stat. 137))
protects Backpage.com from civil liability for the ``horrific
victimization'' the teenage plaintiff suffered at the hands of the
criminal who posted on the website to perpetrate her vicious crimes; and
Whereas the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-104; 110 Stat.
56) and the amendments made by that Act do not preclude a service
provider from voluntarily removing a portion of a website known to
facilitate the sexual exploitation of minors in order to protect
children in the United States: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) supports the efforts of law enforcement agencies to
provide training to law enforcement agents on how to identify
victims of sex trafficking, investigate cases of sex
trafficking, prosecute sex trafficking offenses, and rescue
victims of sex trafficking;
(2) supports services for trafficking victims provided by
the Federal Government, State and local governments, and
nonprofit and faith-based organizations, including medical,
legal, mental health, housing, and other social services; and
(3) calls on Village Voice Media Holdings, LLC to act as a
responsible global citizen and immediately eliminate the
``adult entertainment'' section of the classified advertising
website Backpage.com to terminate the website's rampant
facilitation of online sex trafficking.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.
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