sexual services over the internet has to prove that any of the purveyors are serving underaged clients so they have to do an i.d. check and age-proof, and it is a start. it is the only state that has watch passed this state, washington state, but that kind of regulation of internet sales is a beginning. i won t solve it, but until now the internet is the wild west and needs regulation. and i want to ask you, it is too easy to go after just backpage on the one hand? well, you have to start somewhere and it is clear that backpage, the adult section of backpage.com are is a place whe children are sold for sex. you have to begin somewhere, and that is why we rebereare beginn here. and in terms of the numbers one child sold this way is too many. i am here today as a mother, and
and still with us is goodwill ambassador mira savoino. and liz, i want to come to you and ask you about that particular page backpage.com. well, great to be with you, melissa. it is a very serious issue and we at auburn have taken it on through ground swell, the social action initiative, and we have gathered a group of 600-some religious leaders across the country from different traditions, and now 200, and almost 250,000 citizens out there who havem cop together calling on village voice media to shut down the adult section of backpage.com. why? because children, and you can
to face. so the internet s role of easy marketplace for trafficking children for sex has been the subject of a public debate. nick christoph has led a crusade from the column games at website called back page.com which he calls the biggest forum for underaged sex trafficking in the united states. he says that attorneys generals have linked back page to child trafficking for sex in 22 states. and the voice media is the largest alternative news publisher. and also new york weekly activists added their voices to christoph s because they have been holding it responsible for sex trafficking and demanded that the parent company shutdown the adult section of the classified adds. still at the table is rachel lloyd author of books girls like us and kantrin henderson,
buy a toaster or a car on backpage.com, and you can buy people for sex including sometimes children. so we are taking this, you know, very seriously. we are flanked in this effort by the 51 states attorneys general who may disagree on other things, but on this, they are coming together. and certainly many other nonprofits like rachel s and others. so it is a ground swell movement now that are people who are concerned about this and it is growing. now, liz, i know that village, the village voice has responded to nick christoph and claimed that really this backpage.com issue is primarily a first amendment issue. you know, i would not say that this is primarily a first amendment issue. okay. the primary issue here is fighting human trafficking, and especially the sexual exploitation of children. we are in full agreement with
online, you have to have allies online. and what we are trying to be is an ally online. to do that we have to come together with the law enforcement and the ngos to do it in the most effective manner. that is why i have joined village voice media and backpage.com is to lead that fight and that effort. but we, you know, fundamentally in terms of the issue and the problem, we have no disagreement with any of what i have heard this morning. and i m sitting here at the table rachel seeing you from the expression, because you are listening to liz there, that you do seem to have disagreements on this. it is interesting to hear liz say that she does not disagree with the severity of the backpage.com and they have devoted a series of investigative articles to kind of disprove that commercial exploitation, and domestic trafficking is really happening in the u.s. i think that is one of the