Transcripts For CSPAN Combating Sex Trafficking 20171229

Im sorry were a few minutes late in the beginning. We did have a vote in the floor and in the middle of it a colloquy concerning our schedule. This time i recognize myself for five minutes for an Opening Statement. Good afternoon and a warm welcome to each of our witnesses who are going to join us today. We are here on what has turned gorgeous day in washington d. C. But were here to talk about an ugly, sorted subject, and that is online sex trafficking. Or its the name of as the organization describeds it more bluntly, slavery. As the stings continue to proliferate, those that thought slavery was something that could never happen in 2017 america have had to confront the terrifying reality that not only is it happening, its on the rise and in large part because the internet, the technological master piece of our time has made it much easier to do. And both the house and the senate this year are facing up to the challenge with a long over due conversation driving towards effective action. With this hearing, its my hope the communications and Technology Subcommittee with our particular focus will add valuable perspective about exactly what is going wrong and what is going right on the tech side as the lowest of the low harness the power of the internet to enslave and exploit our children. I am so very pleased that ms. Smith and mr. Winkal have been able to join us today to tell their stories of how tennessee has been impacted by the abhorrent crime. Like so many of the districts my colleagues represent, our home has been invaded by criminals luring in Vulnerable Women and children and forcing them into a life of sex slavery and unspeakable abuse. I know you both share my deep sadness that this is happening in our backyard and i cannot thank you enough for rescuing the victims, then helping them heal, while seeking justice for their abusers. Youre doing a superlative job for the fifth year in a row tennessee received an a in the protected innocence challenge. A comprehensive annual study of existing state laws, and this is compiled by shared Hope International. The challenge produces state report cards that rate how effectively each state responds to the crime of domestic minor sex trafficking. After four years of straight as, tennessee outdid itself this year by leading the rankings number one in the country. What a testimony to the partnership between Tennessee Law enforcement and victim advocates that you have built and grown together over the years. Were honored that youre taking time away. The legislative debate this year has focused on amendments to section 230 of the Communications Decency act, which Law Enforcement has consistently identified as a barrier preventing effective prosecution of online entities that facilitate trafficking and adequate recourse for Trafficking Victims. We welcome my colleague and dear friend, ann wagner, who is leading this charge in the house. I look forward to hearing her testimony about her efforts to find an effective approach to attack and defeat this problem. She has been a passionate and tireless advocate and im proud to be a co sponsor of her had of her bill. Welcome mr. Souris and mr. Goldman waas we consider next steps. With so many women and children counting on us, doing nothing is not an option. At this time i yield back my time and i recognize mr. Doyle for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair for holding this important hearing and thank you to the witnesses for appearing before us today. Human trafficking in all its forms, and in particular sexual trafficking of children and adults, is an abhorrent crime. I want to thank the witnesses from National Center for missing and exploited children and the Tennessee Bureau of investigation. This is hard work you all do and i know it carries a heavy burden. I want to thank you for your efforts and the efforts of your organizations. Be assured this is an issue of great concern to all of us. I also want to thank representative wagner for testifying before us today. I understand this is an issue youve been working on for sometime and that save act you wrote and has become law is starting to be used to combat online sex trafficking and in reference to the bill before us, your working on an amendment in the nature of a substitute to hope it will be marked up in the judiciary committee. Im hopeful youll be able to move your amended bill out of committee and before the full house for a vote. I want to commend the work done by senators with the permanent subcommittee on the investigations on the report they released on back page. Com. This report is truly frightening. It alleges that backpage knowingly facilitated child sex trafficking. Im deeply concerned about emails sent by backpage moderators seeking to limit the number of ads they were reporting on a monthly basis. They repeatedly altered ads by deleting word, phrases and images without reporting the ads to authorities. According to this report, these edits were done for the express purpose of concealing the illegal nature of these activities. Backpage went so far as to Deploy Software that automatically deleted terms from ads such as amber alert, rape, young and fresh. This filter was apparently deployed for the purpose of concealing the true nature of the transactions that were occurring on the site. It goes on to say that by their own internal estimates they were editing 80 to 70 of the ad on their site. Backpage would go on to reject ads containing these words but they do so with a pop up that would include explicit instructions as to what the offending word or phrase was and how they could repost their ad to get around backpages filters. They used similar techniques identifying people as under 18, simply instructing them to change the posted age in order for the ad to be posted. This report indicates a vast criminal enterprise. Im heartened by reports there are multiple investigations using insights from the Senate Report and an empanelled grand jury. My hope is justice be done. I yield back. The gentleman yields back. Ms. Brooks, you are recognized. Brooks thank you, madam chairwoman and im very, very pleased to see our colleague and a leader in the house of representatives, who has, since we came in together five years ago has been a strong, strong voice fighting for the victims and educating the American People about backpage and other avenues of sex trafficking. I just want to take a moment to commend the state of indiana. I was involved as United States attorney from 2001 to 2007 and during that time the Bush Administration put a huge focus on exploitation and child exploitation. And we started an effort called i path now, which is about protection against Human Trafficking, and it brings together Law Enforcement, victim services, it puts in place protocols. But ill tell you the perpetrators are always trying to stay one step ahead they are always trying to find ways to exploit children, women and others in order to satisfy their sexual desires. Its difficult work. Enforcement work around the thed to find victims and perpetrators. We must continue to pursue with every avenue we possibly can. The victims and finally i just want to focus on the victims. The victims of this type of Sexual Exploitation, sexual trafficking can be found in every district in our country , from urban areas to rural areas to suburban areas and i think people are often shocked when they read in our papers or i want to commend ann wagner and so many members on both sides of the aisle who have stepped up to really lead the charge and try and say that we cannot allow this type of human slavery in this day and age to continue. We must continue to fight it. I want to thank my colleague from missouri for being a leader. I yield back. Mr. Doyle. Oyle i need to add it to the record a letter from pr ofessor levy. Noted. Have and wagner ann w who will get heragner, ann wagner, will give her opening remarks on the issue. You happy for for five minutes. You happy for for five minutes. Thank you, madam chairman and Ranking Member doyle and colleagues for hosting this Committee Hearing today. And for allowing me to give some opening remarks. I appreciate your commitment to addressing online trafficking and especially appreciate so many members of this subcommittee who have publicly cosponsored hr 65, stopping the victimization of americas children and adults, which is my top priority. My initial piece of legislation was the save act which became law in 2018. It was a first step in addressing federal level prosecutions of websites. Unfortunately it had had not yet been used, presumably because the standard in the legislation knowingly is too high. Moreover, the save act was federally focused and it did not enable states and local prosecutors to protect their communities. I have learned a lot since then, and this is why over a year 1 2 ago, i began working on hr 181565 that allows victims to fight online sex trafficking act. The bill is written for victims, not only because it would allow them to pursue Civil Justice but because it would empower local prosecutors to take down websites that facilitate trafficking before they ever reach the size or the scope of backpage. Com. The house understands that enabling vigorous criminal in enforcement is mandatory in any legislation we pass. This is why over 170 of my colleagues cosponsored this bill, when i explained how websites can perpetuate modernday slavery with impunity. Why are they able to sell our children . Because judges have ruled websites that exploit the most vulnerable members of society cannot be held accountable. Congresss response to these rulings must be patently clear. This was never intended to allow businesses to commit crimes online that they could never commit off line. When Congress Passed a Communications Decency act in 1996, it explicitly acted to prevent the internet from becoming a red light district and did not believe rape was a prerequisite of a free and open internet. Congress cannot pass a bill that amends section 230 but is so narrow it could only be used to prosecute backpage. Com. Let me be plain. I support the recent action on my legislative proposal. I appreciate the complicated, strategic environment that senators and others are operating in and i believe it is , a step in the right direction. But the senate bill is not the full solution. Backpage. Com is the largest of the websites that facilitate trafficking in america, but it is already under federal investigation and it is just a small, small piece, small piece of this growing criminal ecosystem. Hundreds of advertising sites have jumped into the marketplace of illegal sex. College advertise women close to and under the age of consent. Massage troll is sadly popular in my district. A wealth of evidence against backpage. Com has been discovered over the past year, and while it is still incredibly difficult to prove they knowingly assisted in sex trafficking violations, it is not possible to gather this level of evidence or the it is now possible to gather this level of evidence or the hundreds of other websites that are profiting from the sex trade. I have spoken with prosecutors across the country who have asked the house to pass a practical solution that would allow them to take predatory websites off the internet. I am repeatedly told that any legislation that depends exclusively on the knowingly mens rea standard is merely a washington d. C. Feelgood exercise. Congress might pat itself on the back, but will have accomplished little to prevent the sale of victims online. Fosta is centered on the reckless standard to open cases on bad actor websites and we must find a way to maintain a useful standard or at the very least, not raise a high bar they must already meet. If we are serious about helping victims, we must create laws that allow for a robust state and local criminal enforcement. Criminal enforcement means businesses will stay out of the legal sex trade. Fewer people will ever become victims, demand will be reduces reduced, and civil suits will be easier to bring. Criminals who auction our children will be put behind bars. I believe in closing we can markup a bipartisan house bill that will provide meaningful tools to prevent future victimization, and i look forward to working with you to pass a forward facing solution that will disrupt tje online trafficking industry. I thank you, madam chairwoman, i i thank you all in the committee to for allowing me to give these opening remarks. We thank you for your opening remarks. We will briefly recess at this tese to get the new name pla up and welcome our panel to the table. At this time, we welcome our second panel of witnesses. Counsel forgeneral the National Center for missing and exploited children. Smith. , mr. Winkler, and mr. Goldman. Welcome. We appreciate that you are here today. We are going to begin our. Estimony with you every speaker will have five minutes. Touch the button in the center to activate the microphone. At the end of your five minutes, we will begin the questioning portion. Ms. Souris, you are recognized for five minutes. Chairman blackburn, and members of the committee, i am honored to be here today on behalf of the National Center for missing and exploited children, and join this discussion to ensure that americas most vulnerable , have opportunities for justice against their traffickers, including those who participate in trafficking them online. Id like to thank congresswoman wagner, for her long standing dedication and tireless work to create meaningful change for these survivors. As part of our work as the congressionally designated Resource Center on missing and exploited children, we receives we receive approximately 9,800 reports every year. Over the past five years, 88 of these reports have involved a child being trafficked online. More than 74 of these reports from the public relate to an ad on backpage. Weve learned an enormous amount about the ruthlessness about it ruthlessness and profitability of the sale of children online. Today were at a cross roads on , how best to proceed with legislation that combats this heinous crime. Courts have been unable to find their way around the current application of the cda, a statute over 21 years old and has created broad immunity. Even for websites that support online child sex trafficking. These courts have called on congress to clarify that all facilitators of online sex trafficking, including websites , are not legally protected. The house of representatives and the senate have worked on parallel tracks to develop bills that respond to the recent Court Decisions and reconcile the cda with protections granted to victims under the federal trafficking statute. We believe these bills address the specific legal barriers faced by child sex Trafficking Victims. Around three legislative solutions. First, ensuring that state attorneys general have the authority to protect children in their own states and can bring criminal and civil action against online entities that participate in sex trafficking. Second, clarifying that sex Trafficking Victims can pursue civil remedies against everyone who participates in their trafficking, including websites. And third, defining participation in a trafficking venture under federal law as assisting, supporting or facilitating sex trafficking. These broad legislative solutions specifically respond to what courts have called on congress to do, provide children with access to justice. And hold websites that facilitate sex trafficking accountable. It has assisted tens of thousands of children victimized by online sex trafficking. Behind the current debate about the particular details and standards within the legislative proposal are horrific experiences suffered by these children, who are defenseless against predators selling them for rape and sexual abuse online. It has worked closely with many sex Trafficking Victims whose cases have been dismissed due to the current broad interpretation of the cdas immunity. We have witnessed the anguish and heard childrens hopelessness when courts dismiss their cases that facilitated websites that facilitated their trafficking. Victims who have been denied justice include a 14yearold girl who was trafficked online for two years. And advertised in sexually explicit poses. Two 15yearold girls, one who was raped over 1,000 times, while trafficked online for just over a year, and a second girl who was trafficked online for two years and sold from five to 15 customers a day. Cases like these reminders of the suffering of victims and the urgency to move forward with legislation that addresses past cases and has broad support for all stakeholders, including the tech sector. What is outlined in my testimony will provide powerful tools to insure the rights of child while protecting current law that encourages a robust internet. It is time that we hold Companies Accountable for their actions with they cross the line. Weve been encouraged by the legislative progress, including the support of Internet Association and facebook. We are hopeful that a similar path forward can be accomplished here in the house. We stand ready to assist the committee so a bill can move expeditiously for enactment into law. Thank you. Ith, you are recognized for five minutes. H thank you for holding a hearing on this important topic. Its an honor to offer testimony on the impact of technology on Human Trafficking victims and survivors. The Sexual Exploitation perpetrated against women, men, boys and girls in the commercial sex industry is found all across the internet. Theres no place for a survivor of Human Trafficking to hide , because their victimization is already on display for all to see. The public victimization exponentially complicates the healing process. In the early days of this work i met two girls from atlanta. They were deceived by a girl they thought was their friend driven to nashville by their , trafficker. The trafficker got a hotel room, popped an ad online and was in business within half an hour. I was struck how easy it was for him to sell those girls. As easy as advertising a bicycle or car for sale. I was also struck how quickly men arranged to have sex with these young people as fast as ordering a pizza. In my years since i heard hundreds of variations of this story. At least three out of four of the survivors we served were advertised online and others were recruited and groomed online. ,thankfully an undercover detective was answering online ads that day posing as john. He came to the girls room and ended their exploitation within days of its start. They were the lucky ones. Once recovered, survivors still face threats from predators online who are waiting for them to surface. Especially in the early days of survivor recovery, our efforts to monitor Online Activity are more challenging than simply monitoring phone usage. There are temptations, dangers and master manipulators ready to entice survivors back into exploitation. When the Tennessee Bureau of investigation began proactively attacking Human Trafficking, they called end slavery tennessee for assistance. First, they wanted to understand the Technology Landscape and how it affected victims. How were victims recruited, bought and sold across the internet. They needed firsthand information, and one of our young survivors was willing to tell them all she knew about being trafficked online. Secondly, the t. B. I. Wanted a more direct partnership during the undercover operations. That meant our survivor intervention specialist and case manager were on site during the operation. When c. B. I. Identified a victim she met with end slavery tennessee staff. They were offered service and a way out of exploitation that very day. Some took the offer. Others did not. But they did understand that the offer did not have an expiration date. The goal was to turn that scary and often negative interaction with Law Enforcement into one of hope. Once a survivor comes to end slavery tennessee, the plan of care often depends on drug addiction, prior victimization, length of time enslaved and the age of the victim. We provided care and services to survivors from the age of 4 to 52, with the primary focus on minors through age 25 and in eight languages. In the fast five years weve gone from operating out of one 10 by 10 office to a small suite of offices and now to a care center and three safe houses. We currently care for about 190 survivors a year in nashville, and the surrounding area. Survivors need a plethora of Wraparound Services to meet their every need. Because Trafficking Victims suffer complex posttraumatic stress disorder, the restorative process can and usually does take years. To compound the trauma of trafficking, most victims were abused as children or suffer from a range of other Adverse Childhood Experiences that made them vulnerable to exploitation in the first place. Its essential that an agency offer Case Management and a array of services until a survivor is ready to lead a productive and stable life. In tennessee, we use a single point of entry model with one agency in each of the four regions of the state whose entire focus is on providing intensive Case Management and restoration of victims. Together we form the tennessee antislavery alliance. This approach ensures that quality, consistent traumainformed services are provided statewide in the most effective and efficient way possible, and that victims dont fall between the cracks. Thank you for this opportunity to address the committee, and i will welcome your questions later. Mrs. Blackburn mr. Winkler, youre recognized for five minutes. Mr. Winkler thank you for inviting me today. Im special agent in charge with the Tennessee Bureau of investigation and codirector of the tennessee Fusion Center. One of my responsibilities is to oversee human sex trafficking and investigations. Since 2011, thanks to our General Assembly, our governor and my boss mark wynn, we have been given better tools to combat this disgusting crime. Were proud that tennessee ranked number one on the report card, and thats in due large part to our sustained focus of our state leadership. As i sit here talking with you, i am overseeing 66 human sex trafficking investigations with minor victims, in big cities and small towns across tennessee. In most of these cases, a sex trafficking perpetrator takes a child and forces, threatens, or coerces her. The victim is nearly always female, to engage in sex acts for money. In our experience, most cases involving the posting of ads for underage sex on backpage. Com but but backpage is not the only site. To identify people seeking to engage in commercial sex acts with underage females, we use young appearing female Law Enforcement officers to post ads online offering sex acts. We see these ads with terms like new to town, that are code in that environment for underage females. The undercover agents establish they are under 18 and phone and conversations,xt have been men so far in our investigation. Numerous men are not deterred by their juvenile status and eventually show up at the hotels where we set up encounters with undercover agents. Agents meet with the men in a hotel room and engage in conversation that proves that offenders think they are under age. Money is given to the undercover agents and the men are promptly approached by uniformed Law Enforcement officers who are waiting in the next room. For us, this is unfortunately a routine operation. The demand is staggering and we know we are not unique among states. Our most recent undercover operation in a nashville suburb resulted in 21 men being apprehended over a threeday period when they came to a hotel room to engage in sex acts with undercover female agents who they believed were juveniles. To target traffickers of underage girls we use male undercover t. B. I. Agents posing as johns. Our undercovers respond to advertisements that our Fusion Center intelligence agents find on backpage. Com. They use software called spotlight to help identify ads of a strong likelihood of being minors. Rescuing victims of human sex trafficking is a priority for us. We have established strong cooperative relationships with Nonprofit Organizations in our state Child Protective Services agency. The Nonprofit Organization end slavery tennessee is sometimes on site during our operations. They offer services immediately on scene to women who come to the hotels answering backpage ads. Weve conducted operations and investigations involving numerous perpetrators and victims. The one constant we encounter in our investigation is the use of Online Platforms like backpage. Com by buyers and sellers of underage sex. Before i close, i want to point out that human sex trafficking cases offer another example of a crime that is enabled through communications technologies, victims are marketed on sites like backpage. Com, and traffickers and johns often use anonymous smartphone applications to facilitate and hide their negotiations over these children. This creates unique Law Enforcement challenges, which are sometimes referred to as going dark challenges. While we need tools to discourage Online Platforms from facilitating commerce in children, it is clear we also need a Legal Framework that ensures Law Enforcement can get additional evidence we need to investigate these horrible crimes. I appreciate the invitation to testify today and look forward to your questions. Mrs. Blackburn the gentleman yields back. Mr. Goldman, youre recognized for five minutes. Mr. Goldman thank you. Chairman blackburn, Ranking Member doyle and members of the subcommittee, i applaud the efforts of congress and this subcommittee to combat the horrible crime of sex trafficking. These efforts include the allow states and victims to fight online sex trafficking act of 2017, and i defer to experts in the sex trafficking Advocacy Community whether this would help victims. Based on my expertise in internet law, ill discuss fosta implications for the law that says that congress enacted in 1996 that says websites arent liable for third party content. Section 230 ranks as congress one of congress most important policy achievements in the last quarter century. Section 230 touches deeply each of our lives by enabling the Internet Services we rely upon every waking hour. It also advances free speech by helping ordinary people communicate with the global audience for the first time in history. Furthermore, section 230 improves marketplace efficiency across our entire economy and reduces Entry Barriers so new and innovative Online Services can keep emerging. Section 230 is a global unique policy. No other country provides such strong protections for Online Publishers of third party content. This differentiation gives the United States a Global Competitive advantage for such services, which has helped create enormous social value here in the United States. Congress enacts section 230 in response to a 1995 ruling that an Online Service could be liable for user content because it had removed other objectionable content. The ruling created the dilemma for all Online Services that moderate user content. Online services had to choose between two strategies. One, exercise full editorial control over user content and accept liability for whatever legally problematic content they miss, or, two, minimize potential liability by exercising no editorial control over user content. Some services cant afford to exercise full editorial control. Other services such as tools for Realtime Communications cant function with full editorial control. Thus, failing to moderate content perfectly leads to liability, some Online Services will abandon efforts to moderate user content or even shut down. Section 230 eliminated this moderators dilemma. Section 230 applies regardless what Online Services do to moderate content or even what they know about user content. This means Online Services can deploy and experiment with a wide range of content moderation techniques without fearing liability for what they miss. This helps Online Services but it also helps people access publication tools that let them reach new audiences. Fosta would reinstate the moderators dilemma. For the first time in two decades, it would have them question whether they should moderate content. Some say its too risky to do so. If it reduces or eliminates their moderation efforts, fosta may cause a net increase in sex trafficking promotion and all other types of antisocial content. Section 230 does not give a free pass to Online Services to sell sex trafficking. Section 230 does not limit federal prosecutions and the department of justice has prosecuted Online Services for publishing third party ads, including two at least two prosecutions against services that facilitated online prostitution. Furthermore, in the 2015 save act, congress criminalized online sex trafficking and a phoenix grand jury has been investigating backpage. Congress can balance additional antisex trafficking initiatives with section 230s benefits by, one, ensuring that Online Services face a single standard liability rather than statebystate variations that difficult to determine what law applies to them. Two, encouraging Online Services to continue performing content moderation efforts by facing liability on an Online Services intent to facilitate illegal activities, not on what it knows, and expressly saying Online Services should not be legally penalized for their moderation efforts. I oppose fosta because it does not conform to either principles. Thank you for the opportunity to address the subcommittee on this very important matter. Mrs. Blackburn thank you, mr. Goldman. The gentleman yields back. That concludes our testimony. At this time, i have several documents to enter for the record. Shared Hope International exodus cry, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, and the coalition against trafficking in women, submit a statement. We have a letter from shared Hope International, an article from the registered guard, and a letter written april 3, 2012, that ms. Maloney and i did to google. Questioning backpage. So weve been working on this for quite a while. And then a letter submitted in testimony from mr. Chris cox, partner for morgan lewis, and hes the outside counsel for net choice. Without objection, so ordered. So lets begin our questions. And mr. Winkler, i want to come to you to begin. You referenced the sting that you had conducted and we all know that this made headlines of course in tennessee, but also around the country. And weve looked at how tennessee is number one in shared Hope Internationals study. And what id like to hear from you and i think everyone on this panel, democrat and republican, would like to hear from you. What do you think has made the difference in tennessee . What do you use most within the law . What would you like to see changed . The partnership, ms. Smith, you may want to weigh in on this, but youre doing something different. Youre getting results. Id like for you to begin, mr. Winkler, and then ms. Smith, for you to add to his answer. Mr. Winkler yes, chairwoman. I think the continued commitment by the General Assembly and the governor and the t. B. I. Director to support Human Trafficking investigations and our partnerships across the state with a Nonprofit Organizations and our partnership with our state, Child Protective Services agency, all those things combined have been a tremendous a lot of emphasis has been placed on enhancements in the law to make it more punishable for both buyers and sellers of sex acts with juveniles, and i think all those things combined is what has really helped us in tennessee combat this problem. Mrs. Blackburn ok. Ms. Smith. Ms. Smith i agree. I think it takes all parts of the puzzle working together. So you have to have Law Enforcement, legislature, the courts, Child Protective Services, and Service Providers all working together , communicating and collaborating together. I think thats something we do very well. Law enforcement does work we cant do investigate, prosecute the perpetrators, rescue. We can bring a survivor and an advocate perspective so they can work in a traumainformed way. We can bring survivors on the scene at those stings to build trust and transfer that trust to Law Enforcement, so they are likely to cooperate. If you dont have services in place for the victims, theyre not going to stick around to make a good case. So everything intersects together. Mrs. Blackburn let me ask you this. How are you all working and educating Health Care Professionals . Ms. Smith we are right now working with one of the large hospital systems. They have been working with us for about a year to create training for all of their staff nationwide. We are doing a beta rollout now in our region to train everybody from e. R. Staff to the receptionists at clinics. We have a protocol in place so they have a traumainformed response so they know to call the hotline number. They know the protocol for Service Provision for mandatory reporting. In our case, we bring survivors on the scene from our staff to be there immediately to build their trust and to offer them services. Mrs. Blackburn ok. I want to go to you, ms. Souras, and ms. Smith, i did some reading in preparation for the hearing and looking at who is kind of the target victim for this. Many times it seems it is young girls who are in state or foster care custody, if you will. I would like for you well begin with you, ms. Souras, and then to ms. Smith, to just talk about how these perpetrators of the crime go about targeting these victims and then add if theres anything you think we could do differently . Ms. Souras absolutely. Thank you, chairman blackburn. Youre absolutely right that the location of the child often has great bearing on whether they are more vulnerable to being exploited. Ncmec views this as a missing child problem. In our experience, and as an example just last year in 2016, one out of six runaways reported to us were likely sex Trafficking Victims. Of those, 86 were running from state care. So definite correlations between children who are running away and also where theyre running away from and, again, their ultimate vulnerabilities. In our experience, the average victim is a girl, even though there are boys and lgbtq youth who are trafficked as well, but an average victim is a girl about 15 1 2 years old, between 15 and 17 is the general age range we see, and typically these are children who are experiencing an array of vulnerabilities. They are looking for something a parental figure, love and affection, someone to care about them. We also talk about children who are seeking really human basic requirements, safety, security, shelter. These are children who are not receiving that in their current home or social services setting. So theyre very susceptible to false promises. False promises of love, shelter, again, security, very basic needs. And that really is how theyre lured. These are children who are, you know, often seeking just the smallest remnant of kindness from someone. So that small extension of that from a trafficker and traffickers know who to extend that to and what that child might be looking for. Thats often enough just, again, for them to feel like someone has something kind to them. Or something to care about for them. Mrs. Blackburn ms. Smith. Ms. Smith i ditto that 100 and ill say that foster care and the state custody system is a perfect pool for exploitation because you have those children who are vulnerable and we know lots of girls who are actually recruited within the system out of group homes. There would be somebody who was recruiting on behalf of a trafficker. Its a system that sets things up for exploitation because these girls learn, oh, i have a family who gets paid to take care of me. That kind of mentality can transfer to a trafficker. Well, hes going to take care of me. Its reasonable that hes getting money to do so. And i think i would add, though, that there is such a thing as familial trafficking. There are family members who traffic their children for money for drugs, usually, or for alcohol. And so in that state system when were dealing with child services, there needs to be a track thats identifying those children and thats giving them the kind of specialized care they need. They cant just be lumped in with the truants and runaways and unruly children. There needs to be a track that quickly gets them into the services they need. Mrs. Blackburn my time has expired. At this time i yield to mr. Doyle for five minutes. Mr. Doyle thank you, madam chair. Mr. Goldman, and your testimony, you mentioned two ways you believe congress can achieve a balanced solution. First by avoiding a patchwork of state laws, which websites would have to comply. And then secondly, by targeting a websites intent to facilitate illegal activities. I wonder if youve seen mr. Goodlatte proposed amendment to mrs. Wagners legislation that involves targeting the facilitation of prostitution with a specific intent standard and carving out state criminal laws that would do the same thing . Would such a proposal, serve that purpose of balance . Mr. Goldman i have seen that legislation and i think the effort to focus on specific intent to facilitate prostitution is a productive way of approaching the issue. I consider it to be superior than the alternatives i have seen. Mr. Doyle you know, i want to again applaud the good work of the Senate Permanent subcommittee on investigations , because theyre bringing the details of this issue into focus. After reading their staff report , it is clear that backpage. Com not only profited from online sex trafficking but that backpage. Com also helped to develop content for online sex traffickers. Now, professor goldman, its my understanding section 230 does not protect the website when it develops content in this way. So could you explain for us where the courts have drawn the line between developing content which is not protected and allowing third party posts which is . Mr. Goldman the statute excludes anyone its protection for anyone who creates or develops content in whole or in part. So someone who develops content in part is not covered by the statute per its terms. In my opinion, the courts have interpreted that to really say that the party doesnt qualify for the section 230 if they develop what is illegal about the content, and so there is a nexus between developing the content and developing what made it illegal and i think thats a helpful guidance for us to think about. Mr. Doyle so if the facts that were laid out in the Senate Report were true, do you think backpage. Com can continue to use section 230 as a shield . Mr. Goldman i will not say the facts have raised a lot of questions about exactly how we interpret the statutory language and im eager to see what the courts end up doing with the facts that they have. Certainly in backpages case we have a lot of suspicious about the legitimacy of their motives , but some of what they were doing are common tactics on the internet and we need to make sure whatever happens to backpage doesnt also create problems for the other sites that might be doing similar things but with a much less pernicious objective. Mr. Doyle tell me about mrs. Wagners save act was recently passed into law and what tools does this give Law Enforcement in pursuing sites like backpage and how prosecutors and their investigators are starting to utilize it in their investigation . Maybe you and mr. Winkler can respond to that . Mr. Goldman it criminalized advertising sex trafficking, and that is a new crime that did not exist so it did cover some new area that had not been covered by any other crime. That law was just passed in 2015. I dont know what the typical turnaround times are for a new crime being enacted and the actual usage of them. Its very early in the development of that particular law to gauge whether or not its been effective. We do know there is a grand jury investigation that has been investigating backpage in phoenix. We dont know whats going on in the grand jury investigation because thats a black box to us. It takes place under the cloak of secrecy. But it would be logical to me that the save act would be one of the grounds which the d. O. J. Has asked the grand jury to investigate backpage. Mr. Doyle mr. Winkler, have you been able to utilize that act . In any of your investigations or prosecutions . Mr. Winkler no, sir. I am not familiar with the details of that. But did you have a question as well about spotlight or did i misunderstand . Mr. Doyle no, i didnt. Mr. Winkler well, i am not familiar with that act, sir. Mr. Doyle ok. Madam chair, i yield back. Mrs. Blackburn the gentleman yields back. Mr. Guthrie five minutes. , mr. Guthrie i was sitting here listening and ms. Smith described how quickly girls or ladies were transported from atlanta to nashville and set up , i think you said as easy as ordering a slice of pizza, and mr. Winkler commented specifically on Online Platforms and difficulty they had trying to deal with this. I know section 230 was passed in 1996 through a republican congress, through this committee, and a lot of us touch inht regulation a lot of ways. When you hear of the stories whats coming out of this, it has to be addressed, absolutely has to be addressed. Mr. Goldman, when mr. Doyle asked you about the goodlatte amendment, i noticed you said its superior to the current bill, but do you think it is acceptable . Something you would like to see passed into law . Mr. Goldman i would like to see how the developments play out in the court. There are a number of developments taking place right now that are very germane to what we are discussing. For example, just on a backpage challenge against the Missouri Attorney general investigation was dismissed, in part with the court noting section 230 may not protect backpage and that may not hold back the missouri a. G. Investigation. But we know right now things are taking place and my preference would be to see how this plays out. Mr. Guthrie this legislation sits until some court makes a decision . Mr. Goldman or mr. Guthrie or something acceptable now . The issue is we hear that a lot in congress, the legislative branch, we do things and let the court clarify, let them move forward. My personal opinion is it is our job to do that. We do not need to wait and see what a Court Decision is going to do if we can clarify that ourselves. That is what the American People expect. Is there nothing you can find acceptable . Goldman the whole reason i said that as you are in the position to take use of the tools you have to solve that problem. I think that the best call is to let the existing law that congress enacted back in 2015 play out. If we are going to pursue legislation, like you said, that is what congress does, the two printable blemishing would be the Guiding Principles the two principles i mentioned would be the Guiding Principles. Your testimony, you specifically said that one of the issues is the patchwork attorney generals are having to move on. What is the issue statebystate verses of addressing us addressing this year . What we really have seen over the past few years is more or less a complete foreclosure on the state attorneys general in their ability to protect children from trafficking in their own states. Would look to the California Attorney general investigation in their attempt to prosecute back page not once, but twice. After a very long investigation into back page, pimping and other related charges were filed and the Sacramento Superior Court by the state attorney generals office. The state dismissed all of the pimping charges based on the broad interpretation of the cda, just before the attorney general moved to the senate at the end. F 2016 she had her office refile those charges with some additional facts developed to try and answer the courts last order. The new judge in the second case again dismissed the charges based on the Communications Decency act. We have at this point and i heard from the courts, including in california, that Congress Needs to clarify the state attorney generals can join this battle. They can join federal prosecutors. I know you did not ask about civil right hes with civil attorneys, but it is the same in as well. M state attorney generals do not have the ability to get around the cda. Guthrie i actually have a bill that is passed in the house and hopefully reauthorized and can go forward. I was going to ask a question about that. I will say that i am running out of time. What your people in that building go through every day, we are blessed as americans that people are willing to do that kind of work. It is disturbing to see, but people there are doing it. I am sure mrs. Smith is seeing the same, mr. Winkler, and i am glad we have people on the front lines trying to combat this. We need to give them the tools. To give them justice. I yield back. Blackburn mr. Mcburney, youre recognized for five minutes. I think Witnesses Today thanks Witnesses Today. This is a difficult subject and something that needs to be done. S, in 2015, Congress Passed the save act. Do you think it has been effective to give prosecutors the tools to bring down sites like backpagecom . Piggyback on what mr. Goldman said. He said the save act was enacted at the end of 2015. It added advertising is one of the new predicate acts that one could commit under the federal trafficking statute. One thing that is important to take into account is that the statute was enacted at the end of 2015. Immediately filed court papers in the federal court here in the district of columbia two enjoy in that statute to e njoin that statute. That was not resolved until october 2016. So although the law has been around for a couple of years and no one has used it, i would provide a counter view on that and said the law has really only been available to prosecutors under the specter of what that Court Decision might have been for just about a year, which is not a long time when you think of a federal investigation to be queued up in pursuit. And pursued. First, are we clear of court possible overtraining the save act at this point . Is the save act safe in legislative and judicial terms . It was a decision that the d. C. District court issued. They did not address the substa nce of the constitutionality issue. Act as stillw that being susceptible if it were used in a prosecution to constitutionality arguments. Theo you think that Congress Needs to examine whether federal prosecutorss and investigators have sufficient resources to combat online sex trafficking . I think that is always a we certainly, and have such close partnerships with federal and state Law Enforcement. We are always encouraged by discussions around offering them more resources. But what i would suggest is that what a federal prosecutor needs is not necessarily more resources or new laws, they need more players on their team. By that, i mean state attorneys general and civil attorneys. That was my next question. With the goodlatte amendment allowing state prosecutor ors prosecutors to go ahead and prosecute cases as long as they adhere to federal requirements . The language i have seen is very much in flux and has shifted again since i saw a draft of it, and permits that it extremely an extremely limited ways, much more limited than the Current Senate bill. Thank you for coming out here from the bay area. That ito make sure understand a few things about section 230. Doesnt prohibit federal Law Enforcement from going after website that host advertisements were sex trafficking . No. It protects individuals that actively engage in sex trafficking. In your test money, it states amongection 230 ranks congresss most important policy achievements in the past 25 years. What makes that section so important . It becomes the infrastructure for the entire internet ecosystem, which is the infrastructure for our entire society. The one thing it does, saying publishers are not liable for thirdparty content, creates a vast array of activity that would not exist for any other reason except for the internet and its enablement through section 230. What would the world the internet like without 230 . We have some examples of that, because if you look at other countries, they do not have the same kind of robust, user to user interconnectivity we have in the United States. If they do, it is because it is provided by companies in the u. S. Or 230 is doing what it is supposed to do, and we might not need to amend it until we find out it is as effective as we hope it is. It is a powerful statute, so im amendment could and amendment could have a very powerful, dramatic effect. Mr. Olson, five minutes. Think the thank those from tennessee from the bottom of my heart for having this important hearing. Slavery happens all over america, as was said in the first panel. It happened in my hometown, sugar land, texas. Slavery for sex and labor. It is ugly. Real. Ive, but it is it is so offensive, that some Law Enforcement people back home say it does not exist. But it does. Home, highback School Seniors very attractive. They disappeared at night, working out at the local gym. 500 yards from my office in the heart of sugarland. She had just turned 18, so she was a legal adult. Her father knew, and he found her in three days her father knew unless he found her in three days, she would likely be gone forever. Luckily, he had resources to hire former special forces, reinforcement and recon, and put on an onslaught on social media. He got her back. Planneduation had been for two years. She defended the rumor when she used snapchat to communicate with her, give her drugs, get her hooked, and keep her from her parents. They were lucky, they got their daughter back, and so was my family. Last june, my daughter went to south africa on an overseas Study Program with her college. She went to dermis, dartmouth, south africa. No one told us that was a hotbed for Human Trafficking. Students had to walk about half a mile from the dormitory to the classroom. In the middle of a bright sunny up, 2 00 p. M. , a car pulled and threw my daughter and her new friends. Three large men jumped out, one had a pistol in his left hand. , thatghter saw the pistol man grabbed her shoulder and tried to take her in that car. It is lucky that she had her backpack hanging on one strap. The backpack came off, and it gave her new friend the time to ab her arm and pull her away. They ran as fast as they could. Was waiting that i to hear gunshots and being shot, and dying in south africa. But god was with her and they got to safety, and she came home. But she came home different. Those thugs took my daughters innocence and trust. It is a pain that will never go a from my family away from my family. As i mentioned, especially with the girl from the gym, such trackers use technologies to help them obtain an advantage and stay hidden from Law Enforcement and families. Snapchat, for, example. Bitcoin, online transactions. My questions for the entire panel, starting with mr. Smith if i could make you the king , and humanr one day trafficking, what would you do . To end Human Trafficking, what would you do . Say my heart me goes out to you. I sit across from parents with some regularity who did not have an almost, whose children were trafficked, and it is one of the hardest things in my job to do. I am glad your story was an almost. From my perspective, i see the devastation in lives of young girls, primarily girls. After they come out of trafficking, the fear they have, those images are still up online, who might find them and who might see them, and parents have those fears as well when there are parents involved. Even looking ahead, as we are trying to help them heal, they are worried about whether their employer will see those someday, their children or potential spouse. I think you have alluded to some of those things. The anonymity, the ease of the marketplace has to be shut down. I heard someone tell me this story if you take it out of the internet and say in that hotel over there, we will have children being raped and sold so , usewe can go find them them as live bait, so to speak, we would be appalled. But we are ok with doing that if it is on the internet. That is different. We have to have mandatory privacy control. If we do not have those privacy controls, predators are going to exploit our children. Children are going to lie about their ages to get accounts. We are going to have that, we have to get rid of the anonymity. I have big believer in free speech but not letting people raise our children. Rape our children. I have one final comment. On snapchat, they would send this young girl ok, the drugs are in the car tire in the School Parking lot of the car that is read a right in la. Lock red impan it pops up so she sees it and then goes away so you cannot track it. They are doubles. Devils. My daughters lucky, she came home. Most daughters are not that lucky. That is terrible, terrible, terrible. Thank you for coming in. I yield back. The gentleman yield back. You, madam chairwoman, and thank you to all the witnesses here today. A special welcome to professor goldman from home, santa clara university, who we are all very proud of. Readssor goldman, when i the reports about back page backpage. Com, i was absolutely disgusted by their business model. I think we need to be enforcing the law to its fullest extent with it comes to websites that trafficking, sex but with that in mind, i want to clarify something about section 230. , and muchr testimony of it is centered in and around section 230. Under that section, does anything stop the department of justice from bringing a criminal case against rights sites are backpage. Com, and there other ways aside from civil cases that victims can secret dress . Seek redress . Nothing would extract restricted apartment of justice from prosecuting anyone. Have they . We have the grand jury investigation that has been taking place in phoenix, and we ofnot know what the result that is because of the nature of the grand jury investigation. It seems safe to say that back page is on their radar screen, but how that translates into a prosecutors decision is beyond my expertise. I do not know that yet. Can you make any suggestions to us about how websites and Tech Companies can take it upon themselves to be proactive and find other ways to be proactive about fighting sex trafficking . 230 civil what immunity is designed to and sent incent . It does take a partnership of all the players to partner with combat sex trafficking. We need everyone on our site, including the Technology Companies, and Everyone Needs to undertake an are held accountabe for making mistakes or four not being instantaneous in their response or for the other things that are natural in an environment where users are posting lots of content. Parton 230 is an integral of the solution by making sure that we have provided the kind of Legal Framework that motivates companies to do the work we want them to do. Thank you. The bill that our colleague is intendedtify on to reduce the placement of antisocial content like sex trafficking ads online. In your view, would it be counterproductive . In other words increase the appearance of such content. Can you explain in a little more detail how that would work . I appreciate the opportunity to clarify that. Banwould think that if we content we would get less of the objectionable content but that at a servant assumes that want. Re doing what we [indiscernible] be able to take care of some players by driving them out of thi existence we might have some that choose to do little or none of the work we expect. If they would off their policing efforts they create more environments where the antisocial content can occur. Interesting. Do you know any examples where Online Services have use the flexibility granted by 232 combat online sex trafficking or so, howcrimes and if effective these efforts have been . I do not have the details. Some of my copanelists might have that. Absolutely. We can attest to the tremendous value that our Technology Partners provide especially in or child sexual exportation exploitation or pornography realm. The ability to utilize very advanced analytical comparisons and connections between images and data and video has definitely not only increased butreport load tremendously it means that more content relating to child Sexual Exploitation has been reported to us. That work and the folk of it came after the mandatory statute was put into place requiring Technology Companies to report apparent child pornography. My time is expired. I yield back. Thank you to the witnesses. Five minutes. Madam chair. I appreciate the testimony of the panel and ms. Wagner is doing an outstanding job in this issue. I am glad to see this is her priority. I have a couple of questions. In response to increased sex trafficking around the world and in the tampa bay area, i represent the tampa bay, parts of it in florida. Our leaders have established a pascoe county commission on Human Trafficking. The Committee Commission has helped to train over 3000 save manyembers and victims from their captors. We addressed online sex trafficking. Partnering with local universities, they are gathering data on local online Trafficking Networks in the tampa bay area is a bigbig it problem in our areas. My first question is to ms. Smith. Based on your experience, what recommendations do you have for communities around the country that are beginning to target the online aspects of sex trafficking and are there experienced organizations they should reach out to as they move forward . Efforts inu for the your home state. A lot of people go in and have kneejerk reactions so it is important that there be a professional approach to this as with any other so that there is a needs assessment, that you have the professionals in place who are best qualified to address each component of your of the problem you are tackling whether that is internet or not. You need the kind of collaboration we talked about in legislators are getting educated, Law Enforcement is getting educated, the courts, there is a unified system or people are talking and not at a crossroads where you are defining where issues are and not comparing apples and oranges. There is foundational work you have to do before you can even move to the online aspects. It is important that you have Survivor Voices who are talking about the ways they were trafficked and the effects on their lives and their concerns. The legal issues they are facing. Some of my colleagues might be better positioned. Would you like to begin . Thank you. Ms. Ree with everything smith related. One of the things that is aportant, sex trafficking is multifaceted problem and requires a multifaceted solution so certainly the Community Awareness and the use and the listening to survivors and what they have gone through, the use of your counseling and learning from and using the experiences of those who have gone through this so we can learn how to better educate on prevention and awareness and signs of trafficking to everyone that contact with children and the system as well. Collaborativee a effort. I wish everyone could respond but it want to move on to my next question because i do not have much time. While technology has been a facility to traffickers it has into the hands of Law Enforcement. You mentioned your use of this spotlight software that helps identify traffickers in a crowd of online posts. Can you expand on how this Technology Works and its success as they begin online monitoring for this illegal behavior. My understanding of spotlight is it is an algorithm or overlay ads thatat looks were are posted online, where there is a strong likelihood that those ads have been posted by minors or summit has posted ads for minors. It is a tremendous tool for us in Law Enforcement. Intelligence analysts and agents who are assigned to conduct Human Trafficking investigations use that tool almost on a daily basis. In an effort to identify Human Trafficking victims. Technology like spotlight that would help us in the furtherance of our investigations and the furtherance of our efforts to combat human sex trafficking would be welcome. Thank you. Thank you, madam chair. I want to thank the witnesses for participating and protecting our nations vulnerable population. I and currents encourage tampa residents to investigate on facebook or twitter to learn more about what th trinity is doing to combat these predators. What the community is doing to combat these predators. You for yourank courage in terms of having this hearing and i want to commend initiative onour this matter. [indiscernible]. O this nation when we see from a different , [indiscernible] in this crime. It seems as though there is [indiscernible] there is child marriage. Can you speak to this issue . I have some legislation [indiscernible] that relates to child marriages. So many different standards statebystate. It is hard to find a common standard for this legislation. Can you respond, anybody . I am getting older and hard of hearing so i may have missed some parts of that. You were asking about child marriage. I am asking about child marriage. And trafficking. We have had limited experience. It is typically a Foreign National victim. We have a current survivor we are serving the age of 14 to be married and her husband brought here and trafficked her. It was an out and out trafficking situation. She managed to escape. Where providing her services. In the years in which i have worked here her. I did work internationally and came across that issue quite a bit. But domestically it is a relatively small percentage. I have heard and some of our saidrchers research for youngry common girls who are forced into in order to satisfy [indiscernible] exploitation. Issue inriage is an certain parts of our nation. Let me ask another question. Component tocial exportation of youngsters . Those at myhave fingertips. I would be happy to get the information and send it to you later. A higher that there is percentage of africanamerican victims. We certainly see lots of latinas. I do not have the percentages. I do not believe any of us probably do. Recent days i have we have been focused on Sexual Harassment in the workplace and in professional settings. A seems as though there is more in the news about sexual and ask what patient Sexual Harassment and ask one occasion. How is this affecting our National Focus on children who in most instances are far less and they are more vulnerable because they are more voiceless . On childany attention Sexual Harassment because of these the predominance in the and on insment professional settings . At ncmec is adle more severe type of child sexual exportation. The media counts as you noted around this issue create an environment for additional discussion that we can have with our children with vulnerable populations. And regarding communication open to reporting, we are seeing some of the same trends with adults in professional settings. Perhaps it is too early to know how that might filter down into the vulnerable populations we work with here. I yield back. Chair mr. Long, five minutes. Mr. Long this is a tough hearing to sit through. What is the rate or do you have any statistics on the rate of recidivism, you are talking about mostly girls who are in this, i know there are some lgbtq come a whatever but mostly girls that are trafficked. And you say they mostly come from state homes, from the state system. There tonkler goes out boston with his program, where do they go from there, they do thego to the house with white picket fence and a dog and they are and dog in the yard and have apple pie at night. , do is there recidivism you think about that . If you areds on counting recidivism as returning to that life. How do you break that cycle for that, for those people. You rescue them from that which we all want to do, then what happens . We found a terrific model in our state. We have an 89 success rate for the people that we serve not going back into x what asian. I am not going to say it is not incredibly difficult. I believe i read the national runsge is that a girl black runs back seven times. Complex trauma going on here. That is part of the some of the reasons we have success, we have survivors who build that trust and to show does not have to define your life. I am a professional woman, i am married, i have children, i havent College Degree i have a College Degree, this does not have to define your life. That is the first step. The fact that we keep small caseloads. These girls are typically working for relationships. They were exported because they want love and acceptance, things all of that all of us want but they have that deep need. If you do not build that committee of other survivors that they live with and the support groups and the relationship with staff and starting to build their outside support system, theyre going to go back to back to have that need met in the only way they have ever known and those are keys to our success. It takes time, we cannot rush this. We tend to do that especially in child services, two or three months and that is all they are funding for. Let me give you 45 seconds to answer. What are the top three things we as congress, two or three things that we need to do to help you . Thehe number one thing is topic of this hearing. There needs to be legal tools that can effectively break the commercial market. The commercial market that these girls run back to as ms. Smith dndicated that they are lure back into debate trafficked. Are 9000 and 10,000 reports to ncmec a year and there is no decrease. Something at a high level needs to happen for these websites to be taken down. Ok. Go ahead. I have a 15yearold this we could just got her privileges back online. System foriered that. The first time she got her privileges a 40yearold man was reaching out to her. And she said i am a minor and he said that is fine. , i havebackpage. Com heard of it a million times, you buy bicycles and couches and refrigerators and there is a trafficking section or how does it work . Or is it all trafficking . It is not all trafficking but euphemism, bynder a girl for 40 roses. Everyone knows that means 40. It is very latent, the pictures are very sexualized. Therenot a mensch is not much attempt to hide what is going on. Encourages that innovation, technology that would assist us in conducting investigations that we would assist us in furthering those investigations in helping us to victims. Trafficking anything, whether that is targeted funding or anything that you could do along those lines. I want to give you i will yield myself 45 seconds that i do not have. I appreciate that. I defer to the experts. If we could clone my copanelists that would be a big step forward. Thank you. I yield back. He did not use the 45 seconds he gave himself. I get fivehat means and a half minutes. It want to thank the panel for being here and i have to echo mr. Longs comments, this is a sad hearing to go through this. But i do appreciate your being here to talk about this blight on american society. I want to followup on some of one of the questions that was introduced, your use of the tool spotlight. From what i understand, now is the trafficking business is moving from text and photos to , it isreaming and video my Understanding Technology has not kept up. What challenge as a present to you . Know specifically of challenges we are faced with yet. There is a shift from the text format to video and streaming. Is on themething that horizon if it is not already here. Said before, anything that you can do that would assist in fostering innovation in that. Would be most helpful. I have to agree with you, that is one of the things that we as policymakers need to do but not through legislation necessarily but encouragement to brightest inand Silicon Valley and the Technology Ecosystem to help develop tools to help you stop this terrible crime that is being inflicted on our young people. Understandi appreciate what you do. There is a group that started in waco, texas called unbound and they do great work and they deal with the victim side. One of the neat things i have seen in our community is that they have brought Law Enforcement into and educated the way these folks are victimized and what is happening to them. And they have formed a the sheriffn with of the county setting up a sting system like you talked about. Business is booming, unfortunately. Andaking a dad in the the traffickers are no longer stopping in waco, texas but it does not mean they have gone away. They are just in other areas. With you. Continue we have heard about the consequences of how easily victims can be lured into sex trafficking. Can you talk about your organizations prevention efforts and how technology can be used to stop exportation before it starts . Great question, thank you. We are doing a lot around prevention. We have reoccurring small groups facilitated a therapist and a survivor with the high risk kids , interactive groups with middle school and high school students. I think when we are talking about prevention, what we have to be talking about is demand reduction. If somebody picks up the phone to call for sex they know on the other end of the phone be Law Enforcement whether they are in the city, the county, suburbs, small towns, wherever they are, they know our laws are strong. They know be Law Enforcement whr that their picture might go out in a press release and their wife and their boss and the people that go to church with them might see that. Those are strong deterrents. I know some sites, Law Enforcement sites put up the pictures so everyone can see. That is the kind of thing we need to have that their picture happening if we are going to prevent this. And then we have to limit the marketplace. This is what we have been talking about. As long as there is anonymity, as long as these exploiters can get by with what they are doing, prosecutors do not have the tools to go after them, Law Enforcement will lose motivation if there is not a Legal Process that works, that is what we have to do, i believe. What can be done for from the Technology Perspective to help stop the exportation . Exploitation. Do you have a feel for that . What can be done from a technology standpoint to stop the exportation . Some of the things we have been talking about are the privacy controls, the anonymity allowed online. We have not talked about the fact that there are new sites popping up constantly. It is hard to keep track of them. Toneed to have the resources keep on top of that and what is being done. But also Law Enforcement needs the resources to be able to get what they need for making good cases and getting perpetrators. Thank you for your testimony and i yield back the balance of my time. Chair ms. Walters. Five minutes. Walters thank you. It is upsetting that these issues exist in Todays Society but i am grateful for the opportunity to discuss how we could put an end to this modernday slavery. I have worked on Human Trafficking issues since i served in the California State Legislature since 2004. While we are taking steps to curb this horrific practice over the last 13 years, much more must be done. Trafficking is a big problem throughout california as i am sure you are very aware and a recent report found in 2016, california had over 1300 incidents of Human Trafficking, nearly double of any other state. A heat map i have got, it shows the cases in california that were reported to the trafficking hotline. This map is part of the picture. It only reflects cases in which the location of the potential trafficking was actually known. In southern california, investigators have uncovered several largescale International Trafficking rings that were using the internet to sell Sexual Services and thousands of ads word tracked that we arewebsite all familiar with, backpage. Com, selling minors for commercial sex. This problem was so bad and Orange County that a group of Law Enforcement, nonprofits, and Community Organizations banded together to establish a task force to conduct antitrafficking efforts. In 2015, the Orange County Human Trafficking tax force task assisted 225 victims. 61 for new victims, 160 were used for sex trafficking, 48 of those victims were minors, 47 of them were used for sex trafficking, and the stats go on and on. I am proud of the work the task force has done and will continue to do so. With that, i would like to get to some questions. Ms. Smith got you mentioned in your testimony that when the Tennessee Bureau of investigation began investigating human traffickers, they called on your group for assistance. Think state Law Enforcement agencies have the expertise and resources to combat this problem on their own . Smith now, i believe it takes the expertise of a number of players working together. Law enforcement does things i would not dream of doing, investigating, researching, prosecuting, but i think we have anwork together to have approach that does not frighten the victims away, that meets bringsere they are, that survivors to the operations, for example, to build that trust. We have to have the services in place to keep a victim in place long enough to prosecute. When i started this work i had a detective who said he was so frustrated with taking up the same 14yearold girls all the time and he did not know what to do with that, he lost his motivation but now, he is one of our most robust supporters because the system is working. Because all the pieces are in place and so lawenforcement is are findingd they people. The community is getting educated so they are being recognized, the first responders, the services are in place that they need to heal. When that happens, it is a game changer. Different partnerships are being formed to take it work and have that to have that Community Medication and make it work. What legislation is needed [indiscernible] we have not seen that issue tested. To 30 does not turn on the website knowledge. We are unclear of how the regime might interpret that. Along the same lines, what evidence would a civil attorney need and expect to rely upon to establish that a website new the individual advertised on the site was an adult sex Trafficking Victim . My answer is the same. Thank you. I yield back the balance of my time. Thank you. First, i want to think the National Center for missing an expletive children who partnered with the fbi recently conducting their 11th annual operation Cross Country Law Enforcement action focused on recovering d victims of sex trafficking. This was a staying including 55 fbi field offices, 74 task forces and lawenforcement agencies leading to the recovery of 84 sexually exploded minors and the arrests of 200 39 traffickers and other individuals including nine in my congressional district. Cdanderstand why the invided immunity to isps the first place. There is an intellectual appreciation as to why that is the case. I am sure and i have met with a mother whose daughter was advertised, and when you hear what these ads are, what is that it hits you in a way compels you to say, that is simply not acceptable and we need to create a standard by others can bend liable. Where they have more of a has thus fary than been required of them. The question i have is, can you talk about the successful efforts that were taken online during the operation and how we can revise section 230 of the cda to improve these efforts. Thatpoint to the this is a sex trafficking offense and as well as we are hesitant to give states investigative authorities or state Law Enforcement jurisdiction over internet type related crimes because sometimes, different states do Different Things at different times. Giving states and more tools to do that, that is a good thing. Thatou speak to collaboration between local and federal Law Enforcement and how the proposal may best aid them in ridding this out even more effectively than we have been able to . Thank you for the question. Thank you for the recognition regarding the operation Cross Country, it is an amazing operation that is undertaken with a large friday of partners, local, state, federal. Ncmec provides Recovery Services and local groups as do local groups and we are fortunate to partner with Law Enforcement. In the numbers you quoted, especially the numbers from your state are indicative of the scope of the problem. Could be an operation Cross Country every week, every month and the numbers would be the same. I will defer to mr. Winkler to how there could be better resources put in place for Law Enforcement, but the way to provide assistance and to cut those numbers are and i will repeat what i said before, it from the highest level to realize there is a commercial marketplace where these children are commodities. That is why there are so many children who are recovered and rescued during operation Cross Country. It is why they are lured back, are seven or eight times and that is similar to what we see at ncmec because someone can make money off of them. Until we are able to introduce billlaws again, the pending in the house, the bill that will be coming over to the house from the senate currently with 52 cosponsors in the bills thatse are the are approaching the issue from adding moremework legal resources. Eight attorneys general and civil remedies for you that is what you are going to start to with new legal initiatives, that will be the solution to cut down on the number of children who are being lured. Are hundreds of that is our experience. How important is it for state and local prosecutors to hold websites accountable, how much in the way of resources that does that enable . That is a tremendous benefit. Eight attorneys general in every state will look at this issue. Many of them have spoken to ncmec and they cannot proceed legally right now. Thank you very much. I yield back. Seeing there are no further members wishing to ask questions, we thank you all so much for the testimony that you have given today. More conclude, i have two submissions for the record. The Opening Statement of our Ranking Member. And what i wrote this week that was printed in the tennessean. With no objection, so ordered. I remember remind members they have 10 Business Days to submit additional questions for the record and i asked if they do and submit them to you that you answer those questions within 10 Business Days. And seeing no further business that comes before the committee and the fact that we are now being called to the floor for votes, i adjourned this subcommittee. So ordered. Thank you. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] coming up on cspan. A look at how social media is being used by violent extremists and what can be done about it. City storetern, our followed by our interview with Pulitzer Prize winner david finkel, author of over thank you for your service about life after war. The cspan bust work continues at 50 capitals with stops in raleigh, columbia, atlanta, and montgomery. On each visit, we will speak with state officials during our live washington journal program. Join us at 9 30 a. M. Eastern for our stop in raleigh, north guest attorneyur general josh stein. Violent extremists use social media and what is being done about it. Talkedgton journal within official who wrote a book about it. we continue our authors series, welcoming haroon ullah. His book is called the digital world