If someone were to stand on a street corner in a shady part of town and loudly try to lure passersby with come-ons like “Do you want to have sex with an underage girl?!?!” or “I’ve got a hot 13-year-old that can be all yours!” he hopefully would quickly be arrested. Yet if someone says the same thing in an advertisement on the Internet, there is no legal consequence.
Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens has joined a bipartisan coalition of his peers from around the country in an effort to try to reduce the role that the Internet plays in the commercial sex trade, especially as it pertains to underage teens.
They want Congress to amend the federal Communication Decency Act of 1996, which in effect gives immunity to such well-known websites as Craigslist and backpage.com, even though some of what is advertised on those sites clearly amounts to statutory rape and child abuse.
Olens and the other AGs say managers of such sites are well aware that words like “young” and “tender” are commonly used to advertise child prostitution.
The changes being sought would allow states to go after child-sex rings by prosecuting the operators of websites that further prostitution.
“Investigators regularly find links between the commercial sale of children and the ads,” Olens said.
It is well that Olens is involved, as it is well known that Atlanta is a major hub in this country’s commercial sex trade, especially in terms of child prostitution.
via The Marietta Daily Journal – Child sex AGs deserve green light to go after websites.
Comments ( 0 )