Transcripts For CSPAN3 Combating Sex Trafficking 20171201

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 out to be an oabsolute lee 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 were 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 heel while seeking justice for their abusers. Youre doing a suprlative 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 out did 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 focussed on amendments to section 230 of the decency act which Law Enforcement has consistently identified as a barrier preventing effective prosecution of online entities that facilitate trafficking and adequate resource 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 a attack and defeat this problem. She has been a passionate and tireless advocate and im proud to be a co sponsor of her had bill. I also want to welcome with so many women and children waiteding and 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 adlts is an abornt crime. I want to thank the witnesses from nationled 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 your bill and 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. And 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 daily basis. In additioning to the report, they repeatedly altered ads by deleting word, phrases and images without reporting the ads to authorities. Again, according to this report these edits were done for the express purpose of consealing the illegal nature of these activities. Backpage went so far as to deploy soft ware that automatically deleted terms from ads such as amber alert, rape, young and fresh. This filter was apparently deployed for the purpose of consealing the true nature of the transactions that were occur ogen 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 under18, simply instructing them to change the posted age in order to be posted. So in my mind 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 just ks be done. I yield back. Gentleman yields back. Ms. Brooks, you are recognized. Youre recognized for your comments. 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 it 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 if volved 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 which is about protection against Human Trafficking and it brings together law if henforce, 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 and its veryx very difficult work. Law if had forcement work around the world to find victims and the web that they have created and the perpetrators which coordinate around the world are something that 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 read about it victims and we must make sure we are there for the victims. I just 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 and we must continue to fight it and i just want to thank my colleague from missouri for being a leader and i yield back. Is there any other members seeking recognition . No other members seeking recognition, at this time i want to recognize mr. Puloan who is not here for his five minutes. Any other member seeking recognition . I forgot i need to ask consent to inter into the record a letter to yourself and myself from professor Alexander Levy of the university of notre dame law school. So ordered. At this point our first witness will include ann wagner who will give opening remarks regarding her efforts on the issue. Ms. Wagner, youre recognized 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 have publicly co sponsored hr 65, stopping the victimization of america was children and adults online is my top priority. In congress. And i know i have an ally in chairman blackburn. A i also appreciate them for being original co sponsors of my bill. 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. Unfortunate lee it had had not yet been used. Presumably because the standard in the legislation knowingly is too high. Moreover it save act was federally focussed 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 before they ever reach the size or the scope of backpage. Com. The house understands that enabling vigorous criminal enforcement is mandatory in any legislation we pass. The isis why over 170 of my call eelgs co sponsored when i explained how websites can perpetuate modern day slavery with immunity. Why are they able to sell our children . Because judges have ruled section 230 that rules websites that exploit the most vulnerable members of our society from being held accountable. Congresss response to these rulings must be patently clear. Seksz 2 thur30 was never intend 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 interint. Congress cannot do is 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 it recent action on my legislative proposal. I appreciate it complicated strategic environment 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 but it is already under federal investigation and it is just a small, small piece, small piece of this growing criminal echo system. Hundred hads and let me underscore hundreds of advertising sites. For if hadstance arrow s serves at the high end market. They advertise close to the age of consent and massage troll is sadly popular in my district. A wealth of evidence against backpage. Com has been discovered over the past year and those still incredibly difficult to prove they knowingly assisted in sex trafficking violations, it is not 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 and i repeatedly told that any legislation that depends exclusively on the knowingly mens rea standard is merely a washington d. C. Feel good 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 disregard standard they need 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 and yes, 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 it online trafficking industry. I thank you, madam chairwoman, i thank you all in the had committee to for allowing me to give these opening remarks. We thank you so much for your remarks and your well wishes that we will move forward. At this time we will briefly recess long enough to put the new nameplates up and well welcome our panel to the table. At this time we welcome our second panel witnesses. The senior vp and general counsel for it National Center for missing and exploited children. Ms. Smith, ceo of slavery, tennessee. And assistant of Tennessee Bureau of investigation and mr. Erick goldman, a University Professor at Santa Clara School of law. We appreciate youre here today. We are going to begin our testimony with you. Each of you will have five minutes. I ask you move the microphone to you. Touch the button in the center so you activate it and at the end of your five minutes we will begin it questioning portion of this hearing. Youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you. 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 to join this dus cushion to insure that americas most vulnerable victims, children traffics online for rape and sexual abuse 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, receives 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 sale of Children Online and weve also seen courts struggle for facilitating sex trafficking. 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. 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 faesed by child sex trafficking victims. First, insuring that state attorneys general have the authority to protect children in their own states and bring 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. It has assisted 10s of thousands of children victimized by online sex trafficking. Behind the current debate about the particular details and standards 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 that current broad interpretation of the cdas immunity. We have witnessed the anguish and heard their hopelessness when courts dismiss their cases that facilitated their trafficking. Victims who have been denied justice include a 14yearold girl who is 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 to five from five to 15 customers a day. Cases like this remind us of it on going suffering of victims and the urgency to move forward with legislation that addresses past cases and has broad support for all stake holders including the tech sector. They believe outlined more fully in my written testimony will provide powerful tools to insure the rights of child victims while protecting current law that encourage as robust internet. We couldnt agree with you more when you said standing by idly is simply not an option. 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. And a similar path forward can be accomplished here in the house. We stand ready to assist the committee so a bill can move expeditionsly for enactment into law. Gentle lady yields back. Ms. Smith, youre recognized for five minutes. Chairman blackburn, rajing member doyle, 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 complicated the healing process. In the early day of a this work i met two girls from atlanta. They were deceived by girl they thought was their friend, held by Child Safety Locks and driven to nashville by their trafficker. He got a hotel room, popped an ad online and was in business in up to an hour. As easy as advertising a bicycle or a car for sale. I was also struck with how quickly men ar5i6g to have sex with these young people. As fast as ordering a pizza. In my years since ive heard hundred hads of variations of a this story. At least three out of four of the survivors we serve were advertised online and others were recruited and groomed online. Thankfully an undercover detective was answering online ads that day, posing as a 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 sursurface. Especially in the early days, our efforts to monitor Online Activity are more challenging than simply monitoring phone usage. There are temptations, dangers and master manipulators ready to inties back. When they began proactively attacking Human Trafficking, they called for assistance. First they wanted to understand the Technology Landscape and how it effected victims. Had you were victims recruited, bought and sold across the internet . They needed first hand information and one of our young survivors was willing to tell all she knew about being trafficked online. Secondly they wanted a more direct partnership during the recovery operations that. Meant our case manager were on site during the operation. She met with end slavery tennessee staff. These young women were offered services and a way out of exploitation that very day. Some took it offer, others did not. But they did understand it did not have an expiration date. It was to turn one into hope. Once a survivor comes to end slavery tennessee the plan of care often depends on drug addiction, length of time enslaved and the age of the victim. We provided care and services to the suviervs from the age of four to 52 for it primary focus on minors through age 25 and in eight languages. In the past five years weve gone from operating out of one 10 by 10 foot office to a small suite and now to a care center and three safe houses. We currently care for about 190 survivor as year in nashville and the surrounding yare i a. Survivors need a plethora of wrap around services to meet their every need. Because they suffer complex post Traumatic Stress disorder, the restorative process can and usually does take years. To compound the trauma of trafficking, most who were abused as children or suffer from a range of other adverse child hood experiences that made them vulnerable in the first place. Its essential that an agency offer Case Management and a comp reense hadival array of Specialized Services until a survivor is ready to lead a productive and stable lifer. In tennessee we use a single point of entree model with one agency eneach of the four regions of the state whose focus is restoration of victims. Together we form the tennessee antislavery alliance. This approach insures Trauma Informed Services are provided state wide and the most effective and efficient way possible and victims dont fall between the cracks. Thank you for this opportunity to address the committee. And i welcome your questions later. Mr. Winkler, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you. Im co director of the tennessee Fusion Center. One of my responsibilities is to over see human sex trafficking investigations. Since 2011, thanks to our General Assembly and my boss, we have been given better tools to combat this crime. Were proud this year tennessee ranked number one on the state report card and that is due in large part to the sustained focus of our state leadership. As i sit here talking with you, im over seeing 66 active Human Trafficking investigations with minor victims in big cities and small towns across tennessee. In most of these case as sex trafficking perpetrator takes a child and forces, threatens or coerses here, the victim is almost always female, to engage in sex acts for money. In our experience most cases involving the posting of ads on backpage. Com but backpage is not the only site. To identify people seeking to engage with underage females, we use young appearing female officers to post ads offering sex acts. We see these with terms like new to town, which are code for underage females. They establish that they are under 18 and phone and text convrsations with potential johns all have been men so far in our investigations. Numerous men are not deterred by their juvenile status and eventually show up at the hotels where we set up encounters with undercover agents. They meet with a man and engage in conversation that proves the offenders think they are underage. Money is given to the agents and the men are promptly approached by uniformed officers waiting in the next room. Our most recent undercover operation and national suburb resulted in 21 men being apprehended over a threef day period where they came to a hotel room to engage insects acts with undercover agents they believed to be juveniles. We use male undercover agents posing as johns. Our undercovers respond to advertisements that our Fusion Center intelligence analysts find on backpage. Com. They used a vanced soft ware called spotlight to identify ads that have a strong likelihood of being minors. Rescuing victims is a huge priority for us. 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. Weve conducted operations and investigations involving numerous perpetrators and victims. The one constant in our investigations is use of Online Platforms like back page. Com by buyers and sellers of underage. Before i close i want to point out human sex trafficking cases offer another example of a crime enabled through emerging communications technologies. Theyre marked on sites like backpage. Com and johns often use anonymous smart phone applications to hide their negotiations over these children. This creates unique law if had forcement challenges sometimes referred to as going dark challenges. So while we need tools to discourage Online Platforms from facilitating commerce and children, we also need a Legal Framework that insures ethey can get evidence to investigate these horrible crimes. I appreciate the invuation to testify today and look forward to your questions. Gentleman yields back. Mr. Goldman, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you. I applaud the effort to combat the crime of sex trafficking. I defoor experts in the victim Advocacy Community whether they would help victims. Based on my expertise, ill discuss their implications. The law a that says congress enacted in 1996 that says websites arent liable for third party contact. Its one of the most important policy achievements in the last quarter century. Seconds 230 enabling the Internet Services we rely upon every waking hour. It also advances free speech by help hadding ordinary people communicate for the first time in history. Further more it improves and reduces Entry Barriers so they can keep emerging. Section 230 is a global unique policy. No other community provides such strong protections. This differ engsiation gives the United States a Global Competitive advantage for such services which has helped create enormous social value in the United States. Congress enacted it in response to a 1995 ruling that they could be liable for user content because it had had removed other objectionable content. This created the dilemma for all Online Services that moderate user comment. They had to choose between two strategies. One, exercise full editorial control and accept liability for whatever legally problematic content they missed or two, minimize by exercising no editorial control over user content. Some services cant afford to exercise full control. Other tool said cant function with full control. So if it leads to liability, some Online Services will abandoned efforts to even shut down. This means Online Services can deploy and experiment with a wide range of content techniques with without fear for what they missed. It also epihhelps people access audiences. They would reinstate the moderators dilemma. It would cause them to question whether they should moderate content. Some may conclude its too risky to do so. Fosta may counterproductively cause a net increase and all other types of antisocial content. Section 230 does not gave free pass to Online Services. Section 230 does not limit federal prosecutions and the department of justice has prosecuted Online Services for publishing third party ads. My red book that facilitated online prostitution. Further more in the 2015 save act, congress criminalized the sex trafficking in the phoenix grand jury has been investigating backpage. Congress can bal anance additio initiatives with section 230s benefits by one, insuring that online rather than state by state variations that will make it impossible to determine what law applies to them. Two, encouraging them to continue performing moderation efforts by basing liability on an Online Services intent to facilitate legal activities, not on what it knows and expressly saying Online Services shall not be legally penlized for their moderation efforts. I oppose it because it does not conform to either principal. Thank you for the opportunity to address the subcommittee on this important matter. Thank you, mr. Goldman. Gentleman yields back. At this time i have several documents to inter for the record. Shared hope,inate national exodus crime and the coalition against trafficking in women submit a statement. We have a letter from shared hope international, an article from the register guard and a letter written april 3rd 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 from morgan lewis and he is 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 you had conducted and we all know that 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 chang changed . The partnership, ms. Smith you may want to weigh in. But youre getting results. Mr. Winkler and then ms. Smith. I think the continues commitment by the General Assembly and the governor and the tvi director to support human traf lking investigations and our partnerships across the state with the Nonprofit Organizations and our partnership with our state Child Protective Services agency. All those things combined have been a tremendous help in tennessee. A lot of emphasis as been placed on enhancements in the law to make it more punishable for buyers and sellers of sex acts with juveniles. And i think all those things combined is whats helped us in tennessee combat this problem. Ms. Smith. I agree. I think it takes all parts of the pra puzzle working together. So you have have law if had forcement, legislature, the court and Service Providers all working together, communicating and collaborating together. I think thats something we do very well. Law if forcement does work we cant do. We can bring a survivor and advocate perspective so they can work in a traumainformed way. We can bring survivors on the scene to build trust and transfer that trust to law if had forcement so theyre a lot more likely to cooperate and if you dont have services in place for it victims, theyre not going to stick around to make a good case. So everything intersects together. How are you all working and educated Health Care Professionals . We actually right now are 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 nation wide. We are doing a beta roll out in this region to train everybody from er steps to the receptionist clinics and we have a protocol in place so that they have a trauma if formed response so they know to call the hotline number. They know the protocol for service provision, for mandatory reporting and in our case, we bring survivors on the scene from our staff to be there immediately to build their trust and offer them services. I want to go to you, ms ms. Soras and smith, i did some reading in preparation for the hearing. And looking at who is kind of it target victim for this and many times it seems as if it it is young girls who are in state or foster care custody. If you will. And i would like for you well begin with you ms. Soras and then ms. Smith, to talk about how these perpetrators of the crime go about targeting these victims and add if theres anything you think we can do differently. Absolutely. Youre ab solutely right that the location of the child often has great bearing on whether they are more vulnerable to being exploited. We view them as a missing child problem. And our experience and just last year, 2016, 1 out of 6 run aways were likely sex trafficking victims and of those 86 were running from state care. So definite correlations between children running away and where theyre running away from and again their ultimate vulnerabilities. In our experience it average victim is a girl, even though there are boys and lgbtq youth trafficked as well. But again average victim is a girl about 15 1 2 years old. Between 15 and 17 is the general age we see. Typically these are children experiencing an array of vulnerabilities. Theyre looking for something. It might be a parental figure, love and affection. Someone to care about them. We often talk about children seeking really human, basic requirements, safety, security, shelter. These are children who are not receiving that in their current home or social services setting. Theyre susceptible to false promises, security, very basic needs and that really is how they are lured. These are children who are often seeking just it smallest remnant of kindness from someone. So the smallest 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. For them to feel like someone has done something kind for them or something to care about for them. 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 will be somebody recruiting on behalf of a trafficker. Its a system that sets things up for exploitation because these girls learn 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 and its reasonable hes getting money to do so. And i think i would ad though there is such a thing as familiarial trafficking. There are family members who traffic their children for money for drugs usually or alcohol and so in that state system when were dealing with child services, there needs to be a track that is identifying those children and that is giving them the kind of specialized care they need. They cant just be lumped in with the truants and the run aways and the ruly children. There needs to be a track that gets them quickly to the services they need. And i yield to mr. Doyle, five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. Mr. Goldman, in your testimony you mentioned two ways you believe congress can achieve a balanced mr. Goldman in your testimony you mentioned two ways you believe congress wan reach a balanced solution, first, websites and secondly by targeting a websites intent to facilitate illegal activities. Have you seen mr. Goodlattes amendment to targeting with a specific intent standard . Would such a proposal serve that purpose of balance . I have seen the proposed legislation. I do think the effort to focus on prostitution i consider superior than the alternatives ive seen. I want to again applaud the good work of the Senate Permanent subcommittee on this investigation because theyre bringing details of this in focus. After reading their staff report, its clear they not only profited from online sex traffic, but backpage. Com helped develop content for online traffickers. Its my understanding section 230 does not protect when it develops this way. Can 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 . The statute excludes anyone who creates or develops content in whole or in part. 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 the party doesnt qualify for the section 230 if they develop what is illegal about the content. There is a nexus between developing the content and developing what made it illegal. I think thats a helpful guidance for us to think about. If the facts laid out in the Senate Report were true, do you think backpage. Com can continue to use section 230 as a shield . I must 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 they have. Certainly in backpages case we have a lot of suspicion about the legitimacy of their motives but we have to make sure the other sides that might be doing similar things but with much less pernicious objective. Tell me about miss wagner savek was recently passed into law. Can you tell me what it does for Law Enforcement with this backpage and how prosecutors and investigators are starting to utilize it in their investigation. Maybe you and mr. Winkler can respond to that. The safe act criminalized knowingly advertising sex trafficking. And for the new crime that did not exist, it did cover some new area not covered by any other crime. That law was just passed in 2015. I dont know what the typical turnaround crimes are in actual usage of them. Its early in the development of that particular law to gage whether or not its been effective. We do know there is a grand jury investigation 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. It would be logical to me it would be one where they investigated backpage. Have you been able to use that act in any of your investigations or prosecutions . No, sir. Im not familiar with the details of that but did you have a question to me about spotlight or did i misunderstand . No, i didnt. Im not familiar with that act, sir. Madam chair, i yield back. Gentleman yields back, mr. Guthrie, five minutes. Thank you. Describing how quickly girls were transferred to the nashville setup,i think you said as easy as ordering a slice of pizza and mr. Link ler talked about how difficult they were having with this and i know section 230 was passed through the Republican Congress and this committee and a lot for a light regulation touch in a lot of ways. When you hear the stories coming out of this, it has to be addressed. When mr. Dole asked you about the goodlatte amendment, i know you said its superior to the current bill but do you think its acceptable . Personally, i would wait to see how developments play out in the court. There are a number of developments that play out right now very germane to what were discussing. Just on tuesday 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 would not be the grounds to hold back the missouri ag investigation. We know right now things are taking place and my preference is to see how it plays out. Theres no amendment acceptable, youd rather it sit until some court makes a decision or do you have something acceptable now . The issue is we hear that a lot in congress, legislative branch we do things, well let the court clarify and move forward. In my personal opinion its our job to do that, if we know there is a problem, we dont wait for a Court Decision to do something, if we can clarify that ourselves, what the American People would accept. Is there anything you find not acceptable to address the problem or think we should just wait on a court . No. I respect that. The whole reason were here is to take advantage of the tools you have to solve the problems that you see. I think that the best call is to let the existing law that congress enacted in 2015 and all the laws play out. If we are going to pursue legislation, like you said, thats what congress does, i do think that the two principles i mentioned would be the Guiding Principles for how i would consider legislation acceptable. I know theyre talking about the Missouri Attorney general. In your testimony you specifically said one of the issues is the patchwork the attorney generals are having to move forward. What is the issue of state by state vs. Us addressing this . Why wait for a state by state attorney generals process . Thank you, representative guthrie. What we really have seen over the past four years is foreclosure of the state attorneys general in their ability to protect children trafficking in their own states. Ill point to the California Attorney generals investigation and subsequent attempts to prosecute backpage not once but twice on pimping charges over the past two years. After a very long investigation into backpage pimping and other related charges filed against backpage in Sacramento Superior Court by the state Attorney Generals Office the Court Dismissed all the pimping charges based on the broad interpretation of the cda. Just before the attorney general harris moved to the senate, at the end of 2016, she had her office refile those pimping charges with some additional facts developed to try to answer to the courts last order, and the judge, the new judge in the second case again dismissed the pimping charges again based on the Communications Decency act. We have at this point and what weve heard from the courts including the courts in california is really that Congress Needs to clarify the state attorney generals can join this battle, they can join federal prosecutors. I know you didnt ask about civil remedies and civil attorneys but it is the same in that realm as well. Currently, state attorney generals simply do not have the ability to get around the cda. Thank you. And i actually have a bill thats passed the house and hopefully reauthorizing it as we go forward. I was going to ask you a question about that. Ill save that. Im running out of time, just to say what your people in that building go through everyday, were blessed as americans to have people willing to do that kind of work. Its disturbing to see but we have people there doing it. Im sure, miss smith youre seeing the same and miss winkler, good to have people on the front lines to combat this. We need to give them the tools and be judicious and also give them the tools available to do it. Thank you for being here. I yield back. Gentleman yields back, mr. Mcnerney, youre recognized for five minutes. I thank the chair woman and witnesses today. This is a difficult subject and something that needs to be done. Its urgent. Miss souras, in 2015, Congress Passed the stop exploitation save act. Do you think the save act has been effective to give prosecutors the tools to bring down pages like backpage. Com . Thank you. I will piggyback on what mr. Goldman said. He said it was enacted in 2015 and basically added advertising as one of the acts one could commit under the federal trafficking statute. One important thing to take into account it was enacted in 2015. That page immediately filed court papers in the federal court in the district of columbia to basically enjoin that statute, saying it was unconstitutional. They filed suit against the department of justice. That case was not resolved until october of 2016. Even though it may feel as though the law has been around a couple of years and no one has used it, i would provide a bit of a counterview on that and say the law has really only been available to prosecutors out from under the spector what that courts decision might have been for just about a year simply is not a long time when you think of a federal investigation to be teed up and pursued. I was going to ask you, first of all, are we clear of court possible overturning the save act at this point . Is the save act safe in legislative judicial terms . It was a curious decision that the Dc District Court issued. They did not actually address the substance of the constitutionality issue, they actually found they did not have standing and ruled on ancillary issues. One could view that act as still being susceptible, if it were used in a prosecution to constitutionality arguments. Do you think that the Congress Needs to examine whether federal prosecutors and investigators have sufficient resources to combat online sex trafficking . I think that is always a valid measure. Certainly, we have such close partnerships with federal and state Law Enforcement and we always are encouraged by discussions offering them more resources. What i would suggest what federal prosecutors need is not more resources or new law, they need more players on their team. By that i mean state attorneys general and civil attorneys. That was my next question. Does the good Law Amendment allow state prosecutors to go ahead and prosecute cases as long as they comply with federal requirements . So the language i have seen, which i understand is very much influx and has shifted again since i saw a draft of it, permits that in extremely limited ways. In our view, much more limited than the current bill or senate bill cessa. Thank you, mr. Goold mldman coming out from the california area. Does this section prevent sex trafficking . No. Does section 2 protect those that actively engage in sex trafficking . No. You said it ranks as one of congresss most important policy achievements in the past 25 years, quarter century. What makes that section so important and gives it the teeth it has . It becomes the infrastructure for the entire internet ecosystem is the infrastructure for our entire society. The one little thing it does, publishers arent liable for Third Party Content creates a vast array of activity that wouldnt exist for any other reason except for the internet and its enablement except for section 230. What would the internet look like without 230 . We have examples of that and see what it looks like in other countries. They dont have the same kind rov bust user to user activity we have in the United States. If they have it its because its provided by Companies Based in the u. S. Basically, 230 is doing what its suppose to do and we may not need to amend it until we find out if its as effective as we hope it is . Section 230 is a very powerful statute. Amendments to it have the potential for very dramatic effects. Thank you. I yield back. Mr. Olson, five minutes. I thank my friend from tennessee from the bottom of my heart for having this important hearing. Modern day slavery happens as was said in the first panel. It happens in my hometown of sugarland, texas. Slavery for sex and labor. Its ugly, offensive, but its real. Its so offensive and ugly some Law Enforcement people back home say it doesnt exist but it does. April 2016 back home, a high school senior, very attractive, disappeared at night, working at a local gym, 500 yards, from my official office, in the heart of sugarland. She had just turned 18 so she was a legal adult. Her father knew unless he found her in 30 days shed likely be gone forever. Luckily he had resources to hire former special forces seals, glen berets, reinforce recon and put a full on onslaught ono social media. He got her back. That situation had been planned for two years. She befriended the socalled groomer when she was 16. He used snap chat to communicate with her, give her drugs, get her hooked and keep that from her parents. That family was 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 durbin, south africa. No one told us that was a hotbed of Human Trafficking. Students had to walk about half a mile from their dormitory to the classroom. In the middle of a bright sunny day, 2 00 p. M. , on the road, center divider, a car pulled up in front of my daughter and her new friend. Three large men jumped out. One had a pistol in his left hand. My daughter saw the pistol. That man grabbed her shoulder, tried to take her in that car. Luckily, she had her backpack hang with one strap on the one shoulder he grabbed. The backpack came off. That gave the new friend the time to grab her right arm and pull her away. They ran as fast as they could. My daughter said i heard gunshots and being shot and dying in south africa. Luckily, god was with her, they got to safety and she came home. But she came home different. Those thugs took my daughters innocence and trust, and its a pain that will never ever go away from my family. As i mentioned, especially with the girl from the gym, sex traffickers use technologies to help them obtain an advantage and stay hidden from Law Enforcement and families. As i mentioned, snapchat example, six second video pops up, pops away. Bitcoin for online transactions. Questions for the entire panel, ill start with you, mr. Smith, if i can make you the king, the queen for one day to end Human Trafficking, what would you do . Id take whatever the chairman gives me. First, let me say my heart goes out to you. I sit across from parents with some regularity who didnt have an almost, whose children were trafficked, and its one of the hardest things in my job to do. So im glad your story was an almost. You know, from my perspective, i see the devastation and lives of young girls primarily girls. I see even after they come out of trafficking, the fear they have that their images are still up online and who might find them and who might see them. Parents have those fears, too, when there are parents involved. Even looking ahead as were trying to help them heal, theyre worried about whether their employer is going to see those some day or their children or potential spouse. Theyre just tentacles that go out in this technology. The anonymity, it has to be shut down. I heard someone tell the story if you take it out of the internet and say, in that hotel over there we will have jin raped and sold so we can go and find them, use them as live bait, so to speak, we would be appalled. But were okay with doing that if its on the internet. Somehow thats different. Weve got to have mandatory privacy controls. As long as we dont have those privacy controls predators are going to exploit our children. Children are going to lie about their ages to get accounts. Weve got to have that. Get rid of the anonymity. Im a big believer in free speech but not in letting people rape our children. Thats a simplistic answer. I am out of time to yield back. One final comment, those guys were so bad on snapchat they would send this young girl, okay, the drugs are on the car tire in the School Parking lot on the fifth car thats a red impala on the back rear tire. That would pop up for six seconds where you cant track it. Theyre devils, absolute evil devils. Thank god for you to stop this thing. It has to stop, has to stop. My daughter was lucky, she came home. As you mentioned, most daughters arent that lucky, they dont come home. Thats terrible terrible terrible. Thank you for coming today. I yield back. Thank you. Five minutes. Thank you, madam chair woman and thank you to all the witnesses that are here today. Special welcome to professor goldman from home, from Santa Clara University that were all very proud of. Professor goldman, when i read the reports about backpage. Com, i was really absolutely disgusted by their business model. I think we need to be enforcing the law to the fullest extent when it comes to websites promoting sex trafficking. With that in mind, i want to clarify something about section 230. I read your testimony and much 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 sites such as backpage. Com . Are there other ways besides civil cases victims can seek, redress, my first question. The first part is that, no, nothing would restrict the department of justice from bringing in an action against any one, back page or any of the sites. Have they . We have the grand jury investigation taking place in phoenix. We dont know what the results of that is because of the nature of the grand jury investigation. It seems safe to say its on their radar screen, but how that translates into a prosecution decision is beyond my expertise. We dont 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 . Isnt that what 2 30, civil immunity is designed to incent. It does. Id like to have a reference, it takes all players to combat sex trafficking and we need everybody on the fight including Technology Companies. To get their willingness to undertake initiatives requires they arent held accountable for making mistakes or for not being instantaneous in their response, or for the other kinds of things that are natural in an environment users are posting lots and lots of content. Section 230 is an integral part of the solution by making sure we have provided a Legal Framework that motivates the companies to do the work we want them to do. Our colleague came to testify, obviously intended to reduce the placement of antisocial content like sex trafficking ads online. But could in your view it being counterproductive, 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. Because its counterintuitive, you would think if we ban content and make more people liable for them we would get objectionable content. That assumes the existing Services Continue to do the work theyre already doing. If we change the liability structure on them they might decide the best thing for them is to do less policing and moderation work were already counting upon. While we might be able to take care of some players by driving them out of existence, we might also create other players that choose to do little or none of the work we expect them to do. If thats the result, if those players turn off their policing efforts, they create more environments where it can occur. Do you know of any environments where they have used the flexibility granted by 2 30 to help combat online sex trafficking or similar crimes, and if so, how effective these efforts have been . I dont have the details on that. Some of my copanelists might have more information. Miss soares, do you know . Yes, absolutely. We can certainly attest to the tremendous value our Technology Partners provide, especially in the child Sexual Exploitation or child pornography realm. The developments of tools hashing and ability to utilize very advanced analytical comparisons and connections images and data video has definitely not only increased our report load tremendously, but it means more and more content relating to child Sexual Exploitation has been reported to us. That work and the bulk of it came after the mandatory statute was put into place requiring Technology Companies to report apparent child pornography to us. Thank you. My child has expired and i yield back. Thank you to the witnesses. We thank the gentle lady. Mr. Bilirakus, five minutes. Thank you. I appreciate the hearing and the appreciate the testimony of the panel. Miss wagner is doing an outstanding job on this issue. I appreciate her priority. In response to the sex trafficking around the world and the tampa bay area in florida. Our leaders established the Pasco County Commission on Human Trafficking in 2014. They have helped educate over 500,000 floridians, trained over 3,000 Community Members and saved many victims from their captor. Recently the mission of this committee was to address online sex trafficking partnering with local universities and the Pasco County Sheriff agency office, they are gathering data on local networks in the tampa bay area, a big problem in our area. My first question is to miss smith. Based on your experience, what recommendations do you have for communities around the country beginning to target the online aspects of sex trafficking and are there experienced organizations they should reach out to as they move forward . Thank you for the efforts in your home state. I think that a lot of people are wellintentioned and go in and just have kneejerk reactions, so its important that there be a professional approach to this as with any other, so that theres a Needs Assessment that you have the professionals in place who are best qualified to address each of the components of the problem youre tackling, whether thats internet or not. You need the kind of collaboration we talked about in our state, educators are getting educated, Law Enforcement, where theres a unified system not at crossroads, where youre defining what your issues are and not comparing apples and oranges. Theres foundational work i think you have to do around the issue of trafficking before you can even move to the online aspects. I think its important you have Survivor Voices talking about their lives and concerns and issues theyre facing. I think some of my colleagues here might be in an even better position. Sure. Miss soares, would you like to begin . Thank you. I certainly agree with everything miss smith related. I think you know, one of the things thats important and we always say this, sex trafficking is a multifaceted problem and requires a multifaceted solution. The Community Awareness and the use and listening of survivors and what they have gone through and peer counseling and those who have gone through those experiencesos we can learn how to better educate on prevention and awareness and signs of trafficking to everyone that comes into contact with children in addition to the judicial system and Healthcare System as well. We have to beat this together. It 2 q to be a collaborative effort, no question. I wish everyone could respond but i want to move on to my next question because i dont have very much time. While technology has been a facilitator to traffickers it also has put innovation into the hands of Law Enforcement. Mr. Winkler, you mentioned your use of the spotlight software to help identify traffickers in a crowd of online posts. Can you expand how this Technology Works and its success for the bureau, as it might benefit our commission on Human Trafficking as they begin online monitoring for this illegal behavior. Yes, sir. My understanding of spotlight is its an algorithm or overlay that looks for ads posted online, there is a strong likelihood they have been posted by minors or somebody has posted ads for minors. It is a tremendous tool for us in Law Enforcement. Our intelligence analysts and agents assigned to conduct human traffic investigations use that tool almost on a daily basis in an effort to identify Human Trafficking victims. So any type of Technology Like spotlight that would help us in the furtherance of our investigations, in the furtherance of our efforts to combat human sex trafficking would certainly be welcome. Thank you. Thank you, madam chair. I want to thank the witnesses for obviously participating today and protecting our nations vulnerable population. I urge game residents to vote no on kaaw more pasco on facebook or twitter to learn more about what the community is doing to combat these predators. Thank you very much and i thank my community for taking action. Mr. Rush, youre recognized for five minutes. I certainly want to thank you, madam chairman. For your courage, in terms of having this hearing and i want to commend you for your work and leadership on this particular matter. Child exploitation in this nation the seedy down side of our culture. I want to proceed from a different perspective. What role does Child Marriage play in this crime . It seems to be in areas of this crime that really dont get discussed at all. Then, theres Child Marriages to occur. Do you find or can you speak to this issue at all . Anybody . Im interested because i have some legislation im addressing to deal with the standard for Child Marriages, theres so many different standards state by state, trying to create a common standard through legislation. Do you have any can you respond at all, anybody . Im sorry. Im getting older and hard of hearing so i may have missed some parts of that, but you were asking about Child Marriage . Im asking about Child Marriages. And trafficking. I would say that weve had limited experience with that. Its typically a Foreign National victim. We do have a current survivor were serving who was sold at the age of 14, to be married, and her husband brought her here and trafficked her. It was an outandout trafficking situation. She managed to escape. Were providing her services. But in the years in which i have worked here, i did work internationally and came across that issue quite a bit, but domestically, its a relatively small percentage, in my experience. I have heard in some of our researchers said it is very common that young girls, particularly, are forced into marriages in order to satisfy the laws that prohibit snts trafficking of minors for Sexual Exploitation. And so Child Marriages is an issue in certain parts of our nation. Let me ask you another question. Is there have you noticed, is there a racial component to Sexual Exploitation of youngsters . Is there a racial component . I dont have those figures at my fingertips. Id be happy to get the information and send to it you later. I know there is a higher percentage of africanamerican victims. We certainly see lots of latina, but im sorry, i dont have the percentages and i dont believe any of us probably do. Our nation in recent days have been highly focused on Sexual Harassment in the workplace and also in professional settings. It seems as though theres a prominent and now its in the news today and in recent days about Sexual Exploitation and harassment in the workplace and in professional settings. How is this affecting our National Focus on children . In most instances are far less powerful and are more vulnerable because they are voiceless. Are you seeing any kind of or lessening of the attention on child Sexual Harassment because of these prominent news on harassment in the workplace and or travprofessional setting . Congressman, what we handle is obviously a much more severe type of child Sexual Exploitation. I will say i think the public attention, the media accounts, as you noted, around this issue, do create an environment for additional discussion we can have with our children, with vulnerable populations, again, just regarding communication, being open to reporting. We are seeing some of these same trends with adults in professional settings. I think perhaps its too early to know how that might filter down into some of the vulnerable populations we work with here. Yield back. Gentleman yields back. Five minutes. Thank you, madam chairman. This is a tough hearing to sit through. Whats the rate or do you have any statistics on the rate or recidivism, youre talking mostly girls in this, i know there are some lbgtq whatever, mostly girls trafficked. You say they mostly come from state homes, correct . From the state system. So mr. Winkler goes out there and busts them with his program. Where do they go from there . They dont go to a house with a white picket fence and dog in the yard and have apple pie that night. Is there recidivism . Do we know anything about that . I can just speak experimentally from our state. If youre counting recidivism of returning to that life of exploitation. Right. Thats what im asking, how do you break that cycle for those age people and the next coming . How do you rescue them from that, which we all want to do, then what happens . I think that we found a terrific model in our state. Currently, we have an 89 success rate for the people that we serve not going back into exploitation. Im not going to say its not incredibly difficult. I believe i read that the National Average is that a girl typically runs back to exploitation seven times. Thankfully, our rates are much lower than that. Seven times . Seven times. Theres complex trauma going on here. I know. Thats part of the thankfully, i think some of the reasons weve had success or have survivors on staff who build that trust and mentor, who show visibly, this does not have to define your life. Im a professional woman, im married, i have children, i have a college degree, this does not have to define your life. Thats the first step. The fact we keep very small caseloads because these girls typically are looking for relationships. They were exploited because they want love and acceptance things all of us want and they have that deep need. You can provide services all day long but if you dont build that community of other survivors they live with and support groups and the relationship with staff and starting to build their outside support system, theyre going to go back to have that need met in the only way theyve ever known. I think those are keys to success. I think it takes time. We cant rush this. We tend to do that in especially child services, two months, three months, thats all theres funding for. Let me give each of you about 45 seconds to answer. Start with miss soares. What are the top two or three things we as Congress Need to do to help you . I think the number one thing is the topic of this hearing. There need to be legal tools that can effectively break the commercial market. The commercial market these girls run back to, as miss smith indicated theyre lured back into to be trafficked and the same market feeding between 9 and 10,000 reports of child sex trafficking a year. There is no decrease in those reports. Something at a high level needs to happen so these websites can be taken down. Okay. Add with a little vignette, i have a 15yearold this week who just got her privileges online because we have a tiered system for that. The same day she got those privileges and a 40yearold man was reaching out to her. She said, im a minor and he said, thats fine. I concur. This backpage. Com, ive heard of it a million times, i never looked at it. You buy bicycles and couches and refrigerators there and theres also a trafficking section . How does it work . Its not all trafficking, right . No, its not all trafficking but hidden under euphemisms, buy a girl for 40 roses. Everybody knows that means 40. Its very blatant. The pictures are very sexualalized, not really much attempt to hide whats going on. Mr. Winkler. Anything that encourages innovation and technology that would assist us in conducting the investigations that we conduct, that would assist us furthering those investigations, helping us to identify trafficking victims. Anything, what thats targeting funding or whatever, anything you could do along those lines. Mr. Goldman, im over time but i will yield myself 45 seconds that i dont have because i want to hear from you. I object. I appreciate that. I do defer to the experts on this. I think if we could clone my three panelists here that would be a big step forward. Thank you. I yield back. Gentleman yields back and didnt use that 45 seconds he gave himself. I hope that means i get 5 30 minutes. Thank you, madam chair and i want to thank the panel for being here today. I have to echo mr. Longs comments. This really is a sad hearing to go through this. I do appreciate you being here to talk about this ugly blight on american society. Mr. Winkler, i will follow up on one of the questions mr. Bilirakis introduced. He talked about your use of the tool, spotlight. From what i understand the trafficking business is moving from text and photos to livestreaming and video. Its my understanding the technology, the spotlight types of technology have not kept up. Does that present what sort of challenge does that present to you . I dont know specifically if challenges were faced with yet. I do know there is a shift from the text format to video and streaming. That is certainly something that is on the horizon, if its not already here. Like i said before, anything that you can do that would assist in fostering innovation in that area would be most helpful. I have to agree with you. I think thats one of the things we as policymakers need to do, but not through legislation necessarily but through encouragement, to help get the brightest in Silicon Valley and Technology Ecosystem to help develop toolso to help you sto this terrible crime thats being inflicted on our young people. Miss smith, i appreciate what you do. Theres a group that started in waco, texas, called unbound. They do great work. They deal with the victims side. One of the neat things i have seen in our community, they have brought Law Enforcement into the tent and have educated them about the way these folks were victimized and whats happening to them. They have formed a collaboration where sheriff parnell mcnamara, sheriff of mccleanny county set up a sting system like you talked about, like mr. Winkler talked about. Unfortunately, business is booming. It is making a dent from what i understand. Traffickers are no longer stopping in waco, texas, doesnt mean theyve gone away, just in other areas. I want to continue with you, miss smith. We heard about the terrible consequences how victims can be lured into sex trafficking but we havent heard about what can be done to stop sex exploitation in the first place. Can you talk about your prevention efforts and how technology can be used to stop the exploitation before it starts . Great question. Thank you. We are doing a lot of prevention. We have reoccurring small groups facilitated by a therapist and survivor with high risk kids, interactive groups with middle age and high school students. When were talking prevention, we have to be talking about demand reduction. Because tbi does what they do, in our state, if somebody pickups the phone to call for sex, they know on the other end of the phone might be Law Enforcement, whether in the city, county, small phones wherever they are, they know our laws are strong and their picture might go out on a press release and their wife and boss and people they goo to church with might see that. Those are strong deterrents. Some Law Enforcement 150i9s psi up the pictures so everybody can see. Thats what we have to have to limit this and limit the marketplace weve been talking about. As long as there is anonymity, they can get by with what theyre doing, prosecutors dont have the toolings to go after them, Law Enforcement will lose a motivation if theres not a procession that works. 30 seconds left, what can be done from a Technology Perspective to help stop the exploitation . Have a feel for that . That was for you, miss smith. Im sorry. What can be done from a technology standpoint to stop the exploitation . Some of the things weve been talking about are the privacy controls, anonymity thats allowed online. We havent talked about the fact there are new sites popping up constantly, hard to keep track of them. We need to have the resources to keep on top of that and whats being done. Also, Law Enforcement needs the resources to be able to get what they need for making good cases and getting perpetrators. Thank yall for your testimony today and i yield back the balance of my time. Miss walters, five minutes. Thank you, madam chair and thank you to your witnesses for being here today. Its deeply upsetting these issues exist in todays society. Im grateful for the opportunity to discuss how to put an end to modern day slavery. I worked on Human Trafficking issues since i served in the California Legislature since 2004. While we have taken steps to curb this practice over the past 13 years much more has to be done. Trafficking is a big problem in california as im sure you are aware. A recent report said california had over 1300 incidences of Human Trafficking in 2016, nearly double than any other state. This heat map ive got shows the cases in california reported to the national Human Trafficking hotline. But this map is just part of the picture that only shows locations where potential trafficking was known. This year in Southern California investigators have uncovered several large scale Human Trafficking rings using the internet to sell sexual services. Thousands of ads were tracked through the website were all familiar with, backpage. Com including selling minors for sex. One of those was in irvine in the heart of my district. The problem is so bad in Orange County a group of Law Enforcement agencies and nonprofit others banded together to establish a task force to conduct antitrafficking efforts. In 2015 the Orange County Human Trafficking task force assisted 225 victims. Of the 225 victims, 61 were new victims. 168 of those victims were used for sex trafficking, 48 were minors, 47 of whom were used for sex trafficking and the stats go on and on. Im proud of the work the task force has done. With that id like to get to some questions. Miss smith you mentioned when the Tennessee Bureau of investigators began investigating traffickers, they called on your group for assistance. Do you think state Law Enforcement agencies have the expertise and resources to combat this problem on their own . No, i believe it takes the expertise of a number of players worki working together. Law enforcement does things i wouldnt dream of doing, investigating, researching, prosecuting. But i think we have to Work Together to have an approach that doesnt frighten the victims away, meets them where they are, brings survivors to the operations, to build that trust. We have to have the services in place to keep a victim in place long enough to prosecute. When i first started this work, i had a detective who said he was so frustrated picking up the same 14yearold girl always time and didnt know what to do with it. Lost his motivation. Now, he is one of our most robust supporters because all the pieces are in place and Law Enforcement is finding people and the community is educated and recognized by firste÷j; responders. They have what they need to heal. A game changer. Youre seeing different partnerships formed in order to have that communication to make it work . Absolutely. Professor goldman, i have a couple questions for you. First, what evidence would a civil attorney need and expect to rely upon a website knew the individual advertised on the site was a minor . I dont have an answer to that question in part because we havent seen that issue thoroughly tested because section 230 doesnt turn on a websites knowledge. Were unclear how differential a regime might interpret that information. See if you can answer my next question. I dont know if you will. What evidence would a civil attorney need to respect and rely upon that an individual advertised on the site was an adult sex trafficking victim. Id answer it the same. Thank you. I yield back the balance of my time. Mr. Costello, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you. First, i want to thank the National Center for missing and exploited children who partnered with the fbi recently conducting their 11th annual Law Enforcement meeting. This Cross Country sting was 55 field offices. 75 Child Exploitation task forces and 400 Law Enforcement agencies across the country leading to the recovery of 84 sexually exploited minors and arrests of others including nine in my congressional district. I understand why the cba provided immunity to isps in the first instance. Theres an intellectual appreciation for why that was the case. But i like some others on this committee and i have, met with a mother whose daughter was advertised. And when you hear what these ads are and what is said, it really hits you in a way that compels you to say, thats simply not acceptable and we need to create a standard by which an isp and others can be liable or they have more of a responsibility than has thus far 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 if at all we can revise section 230 of the cda to improve these efforts . I would point specifically to the reckless disregard standard the information is in front of a sex trafficking charge. I think thats very helpful language of miss wagners bill as well as we are hesitant to give state investigative authorities, state Law Enforcement jurisdiction over internet type related crimes because sometimes different states do Different Things at different time. By freeing it up and giving states more tools to do that, its a good thing. Miss soares and anyone else on the panel can you speak to that collaboration between federal and local enforcement, how the proposal may best aid them rooting this out even more effectively than we have been able to do. Thank you for the question, congressman and the recognition regarding operation Cross Country. It is an amazing operation undertake within a large amounts of partners. We provide services as do local groups and were extremely proud to partner with Law Enforcement in that operation. The numbers you quoted especially from your state of pennsylvania are indicative of the scope of the problem. There could be an operation Cross Country every week, every month and the numbers would be the same. Ill defer to mr. Winkler how there can be better resources put in place for Law Enforcement. The way to provide assistance and cut those numbers, ill repeat what i said before, take this on from the highest level, realize there is a commercial marketplace where these children are commodities and why there are so many children recovered and rescued during operation Cross Country and why theyre lured back, i think miss smith said some children, seven or eight times. That is similar to what we see at ncmic, because currently pending in the house and the bill from the house to the senate currently with 52 cosponsors insenate, both of t bills are, you know, approaching the issue from the same framework, adding more resources, state attorneys general and civil remedies. That is what youre really going to start to see with new initiatives of those sort, that is going to cut down on the number of children being lured. Because if its too hard to break into that next real quick, how important is it for state and local prosecutors to be able to hold to websites accountable . How much does that enable . It is a tremendous benefit. I mean state attorneys general in every state, i imagine, will look at this issue. Many have spoken to nick mick whereby and they simply cant proceed right now. Thank you, i yield back. Gentleman yields back. And we thank you so much for the testimony you have given today. As we conclude i have two more submissions for the record. The Opening Statement of our Ranking Member frank pollone. An oped i wrote this week. Without objection so ordered. Pursuant to Committee Rules i remind members they have ten Business Days to submit additional questions for the record. And i ask if they do submit them to you, that you answer those questions within ten Business Days. And seeing no further business to come before the committee and the fact we are now being called to the floor for votes, i adjourn the subcommittee. So ordered. Thank you. The House Intelligence Committee will work on legislation to renew parts of the fisa act. It allows intelligence committees to collect communication of foreigners looking for certain illicit activities including terrorism. The current thoergzization for section 702 expires on december 31st. Live coverage from capitol hill begins at 9 00 a. M. Eastern here on cspan 3, online at csp cspan. Org and on the free cspan radio app. Join us this weekend for American History tv. Saturday at 3 00 p. M. Eastern in honor of the 350th anniversary of the 1967 public broadcasting act, the library of congress hosts a discussion about news and Public Affairs program. At 8 00 p. M. Eastern on lectures in history, professor randall jel jelts on the role of africanamerican members. And the battle of midway from four world war ii veterans who took part of the battle. And the film dreams of equality featuring the 1980 womens rights convention. All weekend, every weekend only on cspan 3. Sunday night on afterwards, genet conen on her book, man of the hour about her grandfather, james conen, director of the manhattan project. Shes interviewed by the National Academy of sciences and research council. I think because of his entire wartime experience he became convinced that the only way for democracy to survive the best way to beat our enemies and be a strong country was to have a great School System where we showed that democracy was better than dictatorship and that we would sufficiently brilliant people, talented people in government, in science. And the way to do that was to have the sat, which he helped invent and implement in schools across the country to produce what he felt were the kind of leaders, the kind of technically advanced people we would need in positions of power if we were going to be a great nation in the hitech world that he for saw approaching in the 50s and 60s. So he had an extraordinary impact on american life. Watch after words sunday night at 9 00 p. M. Eastern on cspans book tv. Next two House Oversight panels investigate cybersafety concerns of u. S. Voting machines and what federal, state and local governments can do ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. Well hear from louisiana and j Virginia State officials and an actling Homeland Security undersecretary. Subcommittee on information