A new ad launched this week that portrays a 13-year old survivor of child sex trafficking who was advertised by her pimp on Backpage.com.
Showing posts with label Craigslist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Craigslist. Show all posts
Monday, July 16, 2012
New ad targets backpage.com over child sex trafficking controversy
New ad targets backpage.com over child sex trafficking controversy:
A new ad launched this week that portrays a 13-year old survivor of child sex trafficking who was advertised by her pimp on Backpage.com.
A new ad launched this week that portrays a 13-year old survivor of child sex trafficking who was advertised by her pimp on Backpage.com.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Enslaved in our own backyard | Local | News | Welland Tribune
On a cold November day in 2007, 17-year-old “Eve” summoned the courage to escape her captor and call police after two and a half years of sexual slavery.
Related articles
She led them to a motel room where her trafficker kept another girl, a 14-year-old, also as a sexual slave.
“Eve” is a pseudonym for a girl whose story was documented in news reports, court documents and an academic study on slavery. Her bravery led to Canada’s first ever human trafficking conviction—a 26-year-old Niagara Falls man.
Imani Nakpangi had forced Eve, through beatings and threats, into selling sex to up to 15 men a day, many of whom booked her services through Craigslist ads.
Click on URL below for the full story.
Enslaved in our own backyard | Local | News | Welland Tribune
Friday, July 8, 2011
Maggie Neilson: Child Sex Trafficking: Setting the Record Straight
Maggie Neilson
Posted: 7/6/11 02:03 PM ETThere are a few things in life I know in that 'beyond a shadow of a doubt' way. One is that children shouldn't be sold for sex.
When a Village Voice reporter called, challenging a statistic commonly used in child sex trafficking discussions, I told the truth, which is that when you work on social issues, perfect data is often, at best, hard to come by. I've worked on many issues and have yet to come across the kind of current, comprehensive, reliable data I depended on daily when I worked in the private sector.
After all, who is supposed to monitor, collect, analyze and disseminate it? Cash-strapped governments? Nonprofit organizations that work their hearts out every day and spend every last penny helping people? No -- it is simply not an area of work for which great resources exist. As just one example, in 2007 the official estimated number of people living with AIDS decreased by six million due to a methodology change. Does that mean that people should subsequently have put less effort into HIV/AIDS work? I don't think so.
For sex-slavery, the gross underreporting of the crime is obvious and easily explained... and I will get to that in a minute. Government officials, sex-slavery activists such as Ashton Kutcher and media including the New York Times, USA Today and CNN have used the 100,000-300,000 statistic in question because, to date, it's been the best estimate there was to work with.
I explained all of this to the Village Voice reporter who subsequently wrote a critical article about Ashton and my company's work fighting child-sex slavery and, instead of acknowledging this obvious fact, he used quotes out of context to make it sound like there is some intentional deceit or cavalier disregard when one makes decisions based on admittedly imperfect data.
For those of us who work on these issues, we don't do so once a problem gets to a certain size. We do it because it's the right thing to do. I repeatedly asked the reporter at what numeric level he would find the child sex-slavery problem worth addressing. He didn't have an answer. Having met many of the courageous girls who have survived this crime, as well as the nonprofit and law enforcement officers who work on it every day, I would argue the answer is one. Maybe it's because I am the mother of two daughters, but I would argue that you don't wait for perfect data to exist while children are systemically raped for profit each day.
A lot of people think that had they lived during past atrocities -- the Holocaust, legalized U.S. slavery -- they would have done something about it. They would have gotten involved. I know two people who learned that modern-day slavery exists and decided to fight it with everything they have; Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore formed their DNA Foundation and put their time, money, hearts and celebrity on the line. And while anyone is entitled to disagree with their positions and methods, most of them do so from their couches (and, by the way, the Village Voice mocked DNA's Real Men Don't Buy Girls campaign, but it achieved exactly what the campaign set out to do -- it started a conversation about the demand side of sex slavery, breaking through to a mainstream audience and raising awareness of the crime to unprecedented levels).
During the 4th of July weekend, I ended up in many backyard BBQ conversations about the Village Voice article. Everyone agreed that the Village Voice's position was bizarre and the consistent question was, "Why pick this fight? Even if you despise Ashton Kutcher, why criticize him for taking action on such universally agreeable issue?"
Here's why; A year ago, there were two mainstream, heavily-trafficked places you could still post sex ads online, touting the youth of the victims -- Craigslist and the Village Voice's Backpage. Places that most of us think of as where we sell our old futons, but where a booming profit center is actually sex sales. Every one of the hundreds of sex slavery survivors I've met or seen interviews with was sold on one of these two sites. Not a few of them. Every single one.
After many U.S. Attorneys General began discussing their concerns with Craigslist last summer, Craigslist -- laudably -- closed that section of their website. I'm guessing they lost a lot of money as a result, but they did the right thing. Backpage -- owned by the Village Voice -- still has not. So perhaps a preemptive strike against Ashton Kutcher and a position that "it's not really THAT big of a problem" were strategic, profit-protecting moves on their part?
The other question I was repeatedly asked this weekend was, "Now that I know this problem exists, how can I get involved?"
Here are just a few options:
- Encourage the Village Voice's advertisers to divest their support of the website until they change their online practices. Here is one example.
- Support the amazing groups that fight this crime and support survivors -- CAST, Children of the Night, FAIR Fund, GEMS Girls, The DNA Foundation, Polaris, The Rebecca Project, just to name a few. And they don't just need money. Many need phone operators and other volunteer services.
- Educate yourselves. Vanity Fair and the New York Times have recently written great articles. All of the organizations listed above feature videos and articles on their websites.
- Encourage your mayor and law enforcement representatives to get involved as the Seattle Mayor and Chief of Police have.
- Or, if you are like Demi and Ashton, get creative and figure out your own way -- the way that works best for you.
Finally, for those of you really interested in the data methodology, here are some recent pieces from Change.org and The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) which point out some obvious facts which the Village Voice ignored. You can also check out the FBI's 2001-2007 juvenile arrests for prostitution and commercial vice, which show 1,500 per year rather than the 827 the Village Voice reported. I don't defend the Estes study as perfect, but I also don't defend inaction.Source: huffingtonpost.com
Saturday, June 4, 2011
The Santa Barbara Independent Craigslist with a Conscience
Friday, June 3, 2011
Call it Craigslist with a conscience. Zuujit, the new online marketplace launched by Santa Barbara resident Tyler Gildred, not only allows people to buy and sell items online, but it also features the option of making a charitable difference. Gildred has devoted himself to ending modern-day slavery by partnering with the Not For Sale (NFS) campaign, a nonprofit organization founded to abolish global slavery, which since 2007 has established international projects in Thailand, Uganda, Cambodia, Romania, and Peru.David Batstone, president and cofounder of NFS, was inspired to create the organization after he read a news article in a local paper. The international injustice he discovered was the catalyst that set off a chain of events that eventually led him to found NFS.
“One of my favorite Indian restaurants in the Bay Area had been trafficking women from India to wash dishes, cook meals, and do other tasks,” recounts Batstone on the NFS Web site. “The story came out when a young woman, Chianti Pratipatta, died of a gas leak in an unventilated apartment owned by the proprietor of the restaurant, who forced Chianti and others into slavery under threat of reporting their illegal presence to the authorities.”
Both Batstone and Gildred are graduates of Westmont College, and they met by chance when Batstone gave a presentation about global slavery. For Gildred, what set NFS apart from other charities and prompted him to partner the organization with Zuujit, was its modern approach to aid.
“The way they’re approaching their charity is really amazing,” explained Gildred. “They have iPhone apps and use a lot of current technology. What I like about them is that it’s something we can really make a change in by bringing it up and making people aware. There are a lot of charities that receive money, but [that don’t] make as much of a difference. With NFS, they’re educating and really spreading the word, and contributions really make a big dent.”
By going into business with NFS, Zuujit allows people to list and sell items and donate money directly to the charity or, after the first sale and initial donation, they can select and donate to other organizations or businesses. The only thing the charity pays for is the credit card processing.
While NFS is the featured organization for the Web site, any charity can use Zuujit as a tool to raise money. As the site moves forward, it is working with an increasing number of charities and giving people the option of choosing where their money goes. Charities are selected based on an application process that allows Zuujit to regulate who it works with.
Aside from its philanthropic competitive advantages, Zuujit is distinct from sites like eBay and Craigslist because of its more streamlined technology, making the entire selling and buying process easier for customers. As a former eBay employee, Gildred saw firsthand what worked for the company and what didn’t, and he was able to refine his business to improve upon the model. The huge staff at eBay of over 14,000 employees makes it hard for them to innovate easily, he said, which is also the problem with Craigslist.
“It should only take a couple seconds to make a listing, and it should be seamless and enjoyable,” said Gildred. “That’s what we do. We call our Web site a social market. It’s like Facebook, eBay, and Craigslist had a baby: we use Facebook and Twitter to promote listings and post to their marketplaces and our marketplace at the same time. As people play with it, they’ll see that besides just making selling simple, we’ve made shipping simple too. You just print out the label yourself and stick it on the box to ship it, then the buyer pays for the item after they receive it.”
Another new advance that distinguishes Zuujit from its competitor Web sites is its relationship to new social networking technology. Its iPhone application community allows Zuujit’s marketplace nationwide access. Unlike eBay, the system is not auction-based, so buyers are able to get what they want instantly rather than having to enter into bidding wars with other online users.
For sellers who are unsure whether they want to let go of a product, the site has its newest feature: a sharing component, similar to that of Facebook, that allows the seller to post pictures of the item and generate interest within the Zuujit buyer community. Users can comment on photos and offer to buy items they want. Gildred says this advancement is valuable because the online community is changing, and technology is constantly in flux.
“Instead of show and tell when we were little, it’s now more like show and sell! One person’s trash is another person’s gold,” said Gildred.
The Santa Barbara Independent Craigslist with a Conscience
Friday, January 21, 2011
Moving Upstream: The Merits of a Public Health Law Approach to Human Trafficking
Georgia State University College of Law
North Carolina Law Review, Vol. 89, No. 2, p. 447, 2011
Georgia State University College of Law, Legal Studies Research Paper
Abstract:
Human trafficking, a gross violation of human rights and human dignity, has been identified by numerous government leaders as one of the priority issues of our time. Legislative efforts over the past decade have produced a patchwork of criminal laws and some assistance programs for victims. There is no evidence, however, that these efforts have reduced the incidence of trafficking. This lack of meaningful progress prompts questions as to what the best framework is for addressing human trafficking. This Article begins with a discussion of the limitations inherent in the current law-enforcement-centric approach to the problem. It then explores the merits of a public health approach to human trafficking. As evidenced with governmental and community responses to issues such as road safety and smoking, public health strategies have proven successful in reducing harm by focusing on prevention and addressing underlying causes. Ultimately, this Article concludes that, although a public health approach alone is not sufficient, public health methodologies can advance anti-trafficking efforts in ways currently underutilized or not contemplated by a criminal law model, and reveal deep-seated structural challenges impeding the success of current legislative and policy initiatives designed to combat human trafficking.
Keywords: Human Trafficking, Public Health, Prevention, Evidence-Based Research, Root Causes, Children
JEL Classifications: K14, K30, K32, O20, H50, I18, I10, D70, J16
Accepted Paper Series
Date posted: January 18, 2011
Suggested Citation
Contact Information
Jonathan Todres (Contact Author) |
Monday, December 20, 2010
Craigslist Removes Commercial Sex Ads from International Sites | End Human Trafficking | Change.org
December 20, 2010 07:36 AM (PT)
December 20, 2010 07:36 AM (PT)
A few months after they shut down their "adult services' section in the U.S., Craigslist has quietly removed their commercial sex ads internationally. The victory comes after over 10,000 Change.org members sent letters to Craigslist demanding they stop advertising for human trafficking, several Canadian ministers asked for the ads to be removed, and a Canadian professor and human trafficking specialist organized a boycott. So now that the king of online sex trafficking has been de-throned, what does the future hold for the industry and its victims?
The battle against Craigslist's advertisements for human trafficking victims has been a long one. In 2009 after growing reports of children being trafficked for sex on the site, the company implemented increased monitoring for ads in their "erotic services" section, changing the name to "adult services" in the U.S. But the new standards ultimately failed to reduce sex trafficking on the site, and anti-trafficking organizations, U.S. states attorneys from multiple states, and grassroots advocates began to lobby to have the ads removed all together. In September, and after months of silence, Craigslist replaced their adult ads section in the U.S. with a large black "censored" bar — a somewhat childish protest in lieu of transparently working with law enforcement and NGOs.
At a Congressional hearing a couple weeks after the company blocked access to the ads, Craigslist assured the country that their adult ad section was gone for good in the U.S., but refused to make any comment on whether they would removed their adult ads in other countries, especially Canada. Since September, several cases of sex trafficking via Craigslist in Canada have come to light. They prompted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, ministers from several Canadian provinces, and over 10,000 Change.org members to demand that Craigslist respect Canadian children as much as American ones and stop advertising for child sex trafficking. Now, Craigslist has responded again by silently removing the ads from their Canadian and other international sites, though this time without a symbolic protest. Thank you to everyone who signed the petition to ask Craigslist to stop advertising for child sex trafficking internationally.
So what has been the result of Craislist's change? Since they shut down their U.S. adult ads, the total number of online commercial sex ads has been cut in half. Now that they've removed the ads internationally, traffickers around the globe have lost an easy, cheap place to advertise for sex with the women or children they control. Men looking to buy sex from a 12 or 13-year-old girl have lost a comfortable place to browse for them. And that means business is getting worse for traffickers, and life is getting better for vulnerable girls — because less demand for sex with trafficked girls and women means fewer people will be tricked, trapped, and enslaved in the commercial sex industry.
But while Craigslist's decision to remove their erotic services sections has and will reduce sex trafficking via online classified ads, it doesn't solve the problem. Craigslist competitor Backpage.com has done almost nothing to prevent sex trafficking via their site, despite one lawsuit from a 14-year-old victim and requests from law enforcement to remove their ads as well. Of course, young girls and trafficked women are still sold online via escort services and other websites. But what makes websites like Craigslist and Backpage more dangerous than others is the sense of safety and legitimacy they lend to to buying sex with a child.
Tell Backpage.com to follow in Craigslist's footsteps — if they can't stop sex trafficking via their adult ads section, then it's time to shut it down.
Photo credit: Pink Sherbert Photography
Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic
Source: End Human TraffickingCraigslist Removes Commercial Sex Ads from International Sites | End Human Trafficking | Change.org
December 20, 2010 07:36 AM (PT)
A few months after they shut down their "adult services' section in the U.S., Craigslist has quietly removed their commercial sex ads internationally. The victory comes after over 10,000 Change.org members sent letters to Craigslist demanding they stop advertising for human trafficking, several Canadian ministers asked for the ads to be removed, and a Canadian professor and human trafficking specialist organized a boycott. So now that the king of online sex trafficking has been de-throned, what does the future hold for the industry and its victims?The battle against Craigslist's advertisements for human trafficking victims has been a long one. In 2009 after growing reports of children being trafficked for sex on the site, the company implemented increased monitoring for ads in their "erotic services" section, changing the name to "adult services" in the U.S. But the new standards ultimately failed to reduce sex trafficking on the site, and anti-trafficking organizations, U.S. states attorneys from multiple states, and grassroots advocates began to lobby to have the ads removed all together. In September, and after months of silence, Craigslist replaced their adult ads section in the U.S. with a large black "censored" bar — a somewhat childish protest in lieu of transparently working with law enforcement and NGOs.
At a Congressional hearing a couple weeks after the company blocked access to the ads, Craigslist assured the country that their adult ad section was gone for good in the U.S., but refused to make any comment on whether they would removed their adult ads in other countries, especially Canada. Since September, several cases of sex trafficking via Craigslist in Canada have come to light. They prompted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, ministers from several Canadian provinces, and over 10,000 Change.org members to demand that Craigslist respect Canadian children as much as American ones and stop advertising for child sex trafficking. Now, Craigslist has responded again by silently removing the ads from their Canadian and other international sites, though this time without a symbolic protest. Thank you to everyone who signed the petition to ask Craigslist to stop advertising for child sex trafficking internationally.
So what has been the result of Craislist's change? Since they shut down their U.S. adult ads, the total number of online commercial sex ads has been cut in half. Now that they've removed the ads internationally, traffickers around the globe have lost an easy, cheap place to advertise for sex with the women or children they control. Men looking to buy sex from a 12 or 13-year-old girl have lost a comfortable place to browse for them. And that means business is getting worse for traffickers, and life is getting better for vulnerable girls — because less demand for sex with trafficked girls and women means fewer people will be tricked, trapped, and enslaved in the commercial sex industry.
But while Craigslist's decision to remove their erotic services sections has and will reduce sex trafficking via online classified ads, it doesn't solve the problem. Craigslist competitor Backpage.com has done almost nothing to prevent sex trafficking via their site, despite one lawsuit from a 14-year-old victim and requests from law enforcement to remove their ads as well. Of course, young girls and trafficked women are still sold online via escort services and other websites. But what makes websites like Craigslist and Backpage more dangerous than others is the sense of safety and legitimacy they lend to to buying sex with a child.
Tell Backpage.com to follow in Craigslist's footsteps — if they can't stop sex trafficking via their adult ads section, then it's time to shut it down.
Related Petition
Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantrafficSource: End Human Trafficking
Friday, November 26, 2010
Five Recent Victories Abolitionists Should Be Thankful For Today | End Human Trafficking | Change.org
This Thanksgiving, anti-slavery advocates across the country have a lot to be thankful for. That's because in the last few months, we've celebrated several major victories in the fight against human trafficking. From a huge drop in online advertisements for child sex trafficking victims to a historic victory for workers' rights in the tomato industry, activists, NGOs, and companies are carving up human trafficking like a roast turkey.
While there has been a lot of progress in the fight against human trafficking in the past few months, here are five of the biggest reasons abolitionists should be thankful this Thanksgiving:
1. Craigslist's decision to end their adult services ads cut total online sex ads in half. Almost two months after Craigslist abruptly closed their adult ads section in the U.S., the AIM Group released a report which shows the site's sudden ban has meant a 48% drop in the overall volume of prostitution ads online. Despite some displacement to other sites like Backpage.com, the online commercial sex industry is projected to shrink by $37 million this year. That includes a reduction in the untold number of children and trafficking victims who have been advertised on these sites.
2. President Obama signed the first major national legislation to label conflict minerals. In July, President Obama signed into law a huge victory for consumers and human rights advocates around the world: a provision requiring companies to label products made with minerals from Congo and the surrounding countries. The legislation promises to make it easier for consumers to choose products made without conflict minerals that support violence, rape, human trafficking, and other serious crimes. Now, you can ask the SEC to include considerations of forced labor and slavery when implementing this legislation.
3. Governor Schwarzenegger signed the California Supply Chain Slavery Act into law. After lobbying from anti-trafficking and corporate social responsibility groups and letters from almost 2,000 Change.org readers, Governor Schwarzenegger signed the California Supply Chain Transparency Act in September. The new law marks a huge leap forward for consumers, who will now have access to information about how some of the largest companies in the world monitor their supply chains.
4. The Washington Post stopped advertising for massage parlors. On the heels of Craigslist's shutting down of their adult services section and Backpage.com's lawsuit from a child trafficking survivor, The Washington Post announced in October they will no longer run ads for massage parlors. The announcement comes after over 3,400 Change.org readers and several NGOs complained that these massage parlors are often fronts for human trafficking operations. The WaPo's decision exemplifies the continued trend of businesses making socially responsible decisions.
5. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers made 90% of the Florida tomato industry slave-free. Florida-based farm worker advocacy group the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) scored one more victory in their Fair Food campaign this month. After a 15 year stand off, the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (FTGE) — a private cooperative of farm owners — agreed to sign CIW's code of conduct, pledging to improve working conditions and pay farm workers an extra penny per pound of tomatoes harvested. This is a historic victory in the fight against farmworker slavery and exploitation.
You've been busy creating social change and fighting human trafficking these last few months. So today, enjoy the bountiful fruits of your efforts and eat and drink up your success. After all, today is a day about being thankful. And I'm thankful for all of you who read this blog, who participate in these campaigns, and who bit by bit are ending slavery in the world.
Photo credit: Markus Rodder
Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic
Five Recent Victories Abolitionists Should Be Thankful For Today | End Human Trafficking | Change.org
Monday, November 8, 2010
Professor crusades against human trafficking | delawareonline.com | The News Journal
DETROIT -- Standing at the checkout line, her arms filled with carefully selected Christmas gifts, Bridgette Carr caught sight of the plastic cups decorated with rhinestones designed to tempt shoppers into a quickie, kitschy, purchase.
Carr wonders what the real fallout from removing "adult services" from Craigslist will be.
"When you hear that the same site where you bought your baby's crib is also selling 12-year-olds for sale, that stimulates outrage," she said. Once those services vanish from everyday view, "it removes the average person from that experience; they say, 'I have no connection to that.' "
Professor crusades against human trafficking | delawareonline.com | The News Journal
Source:Delawareonline.com
One cup said "pimp" and one said "ho."
"I put my stuff down on the counter and said, 'If you knew what the reality was like, especially for young girls who are being exploited, I don't think your company would be supporting that,' " Carr told the clerk. She left the items on the counter and walked out.
Carr, a lawyer and law professor at the University of Michigan, sees the life-altering despair that engulfs women and girls who have been pressed into the sex trade. The 34-year-old runs the nation's only law school clinic dedicated to combating human trafficking.
Human trafficking -- forcing people to work as slaves or provide sex against their will -- is the second-largest criminal industry in the world, behind only the illegal sale of drugs, Carr says. "If you have 100 pounds of cocaine, you will be jailed longer than if you have a 100-pound person enslaved to you," Carr said.
Her crusade against commercial sexual exploitation and human trafficking was underscored this fall by the Craigslist.com controversy, which ultimately forced the Internet classified ad giant to remove its "adult services" category. Under pressure from state attorneys general around the country, Craigslist removed the category in response to charges that it was promoting prostitution and child trafficking.
Largely because of websites like Craigslist, experts say, the face of prostitution and human trafficking is changing. Offers of sex for money are just a computer click away.
On the Internet, solicitation ads generate big profits. In September, surveys showed that Craigslist was on track to make $44 million from advertising connected to solicitation ads before the "adult services" category was shut down.
Yet other websites still are on track to make about $39 million annually from such come-ons, according to an October survey by marketing researcher AIM Group.Carr wonders what the real fallout from removing "adult services" from Craigslist will be.
"When you hear that the same site where you bought your baby's crib is also selling 12-year-olds for sale, that stimulates outrage," she said. Once those services vanish from everyday view, "it removes the average person from that experience; they say, 'I have no connection to that.' "
Carr grew up outside Fort Wayne, Ind., and earned an undergraduate degree at Notre Dame and her law degree at the University of Michigan. She worked for AmeriCorps for two years, teaching English to immigrants and refugees at a middle school in Fort Wayne.
As a Michigan law student, Carr commuted to Detroit's Freedom House to work with asylum seekers, and continued that work when she taught at the Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, now relocated to Florida. Her work on immigration issues caught the eye of federal law enforcement authorities, who contacted her in 2005, when they encountered a case in which Ukrainian teenagers were being forced to work as strippers at Detroit-area clubs.
Sandra Todaro, supervisory special agent for U.S. Homeland Security, said Carr provided valuable guidance when federal authorities in metro Detroit first encountered the human trafficking victims.
"Bridgette is probably our biggest cheerleader and supporter," Todaro said. "She prepares the victims for court and puts them in a better position so they can move on with their lives, and at the same time, assist us in our preparation" of cases.
In trafficking cases, Todaro said, the first priority is getting the victim away from the captor. From there, "we've got to work the case backwards, so it's essential for us to have those relationships with victims' advocates and their attorneys."
It was through her work as a victims advocate, Carr said, that she asked the law school to establish a human trafficking clinic, which formally took shape in summer 2009.
The clinic is offered to second- and third-year law students, with Carr as their professor. About eight students take the class. Another eight to 10 students and graduates volunteer their time to work on cases.
This semester, the clinic is managing 25 cases from around the country, dealing with issues such as forced labor and sex trafficking, whose victims include adults and children, both Americans and foreign-born.
Law student Elizabeth Campbell, 27, is in her second semester at the clinic. Among clients she helps are African girls made to work daily double shifts braiding hair at East Coast salons. Campbell, of Flint, worked at a domestic violence shelter before entering law school, and she sees similarities in how society once ignored and dismissed the existence of domestic violence.
"I went to school with girls on the corner now in Flint, and I wanted to have a wider conversation on the issue," Campbell said.
Carr said she's focused on galvanizing the student lawyers.
"If I do my job right, the client thinks of the law students as lawyers, not me," Carr said. Her students "will be one of a handful of people who have any expertise in human trafficking in the state of Michigan."Professor crusades against human trafficking | delawareonline.com | The News Journal
Source:Delawareonline.com
Friday, November 5, 2010
Canada's government takes aim at Craigslist
By Janice Tibbetts, Postmedia News
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson has written Craigslist, appealing to the free online advertiser to remove classifieds for erotic sex services. File photo.Photograph by: Blair Gable/Reuters
While such ads are not illegal in Canada, Nicholson said he is taking aim at Craigslist because the classified advertising giant, unlike newspapers and other advertisers, does not appear to take any precautions to ensure it is not getting into the business of child exploitation.
"It seems to me with Craigslist, there's no regulation at all as to what goes on," said Nicholson, who added his voice to an uproar that has persisted in Canada since the California-based website shut down its adult services section in early September, following complaints from state and federal attorneys general.
Nicholson sent a letter to Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist chief executive officer, following similar appeals from several provincial justice ministers. British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario have also lobbied Buckmaster.
"Many of these ads can facilitate human trafficking, there is no policing, no editing of them, it's a considerable problem and I think it would be appropriate for Craigslist to remove them completely," Nicholson told reporters on Parliament Hill.
"I think they should listen to what we have to say, they have taken action in the U.S.A. and they should do the same with their Canadian websites."
The justice minister also said he will introduce legislation Thursday aimed at cracking down on child sexual exploitation on the Internet by stiffening existing penalties and creating two new unspecified offences.
"We will be increasing existing penalties, in addition we will be covering off some loopholes that exist in the law," said Nicholson, whose initiative follows through on a promise in the March throne speech opening Parliament.
Benjamin Perrin, a law professor at the University of British Columbia, has called for criminal charges against Craigslist, Buckmaster, and founder Craig Newmark for "aiding and abetting human trafficking and prostitution of minors."
In a recent opinion piece published in several Postmedia newspapers, Perrin asserted that sex traffickers have relied on Craigslist as a fast and free way to sell their victims.
"Our country needs someone to stand up to Craigslist and demand they end the open flesh market that includes selling our country's daughters, enabling traffickers to profit lucratively," wrote Perrin, author of the new book Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking.
He also noted that Craigslist lawyers recently told a U.S. congressional hearing that there has been "dramatic growth" in the number of erotic services advertisements in major Canadian cities.
Buckmaster did not respond to an email request for comment. However, the Vancouver Sun reported last month that Buckmaster wrote the B.C. government earlier this year, saying that the online advertiser has been in confidential discussions with the RCMP for about a year about how to eliminate "misuse of Craiglist's services."
twitter.com/janicetibbetts
Canada's government takes aim at Craigslist
Source: Canada.com
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Putting a face on human trafficking
Timea Nagy escaped her life as a human trafficking victim, but others are still trapped
Photo Credit: Global News, Winnipeg
The buying and selling of human beings is happening right here in Manitoba.
Every year, countless young women become victims of human trafficking. They're purchased off websites the same way you'd buy a bicycle off Craigslist.
"I was tricked, and held and raped," said Timea Nagy, a young woman who came to Canada from Hungary for a better life 12 years ago. Instead, she was forced into the sex trade, manipulated and controlled by the people that brought her here.
"They told us everyday how they were going to beat us up if we went to the police, because police can't help us," said Nagy.
She escaped, but many did not.
Today, the same thing is happening to hundreds, even thousands of young women.
The 32 billion dollar world wide industry is growing by two million young women and children each year.
They're not only being forced to work the streets, their services are being advertised in online classifieds, a buy and sell website called Craigslist.
"When I go on Craigslist, I want to cry," said Nagy, who says it's extremely difficult to find the girls and get them away from the trade.
"We have been going after it with a vengeance," said local MP Joy Smith about Craigslist.
After much pressure, the service was shut down in the U.S and Smith says next week it could be gone in Manitoba too. Justice Minister Andrew Swan has asked Craigslist to remove the service.
"Everybody buys things off of Craigslist, bicycles, whatever; unfortunately there's an exotic part of Craigslist and they sell boys and girls," said Smith.
Human Trafficking Legislation has been around since 2005 in Manitoba, and just last month, Winnipeg police laid its first human trafficking charge against a 38-year old woman.
Saturday, Smith awarded five Canadian citizens for dedicating their lives to fighting the crime in Canada.
"I didn't realize the same place you can buy a microwave oven you can buy a 14-year old girl, and younger than 14," said journalist Tamara Cherry, recognized for writing extensive articles on human trafficking.
Recently Timea Nagy's organization, Walk with Me, in Toronto has helped save dozens of those victims.
"Forty in six months, and you know what, it could have been at least a hundred, but we didn't have time to get to them."
Every year, countless young women become victims of human trafficking. They're purchased off websites the same way you'd buy a bicycle off Craigslist.
"I was tricked, and held and raped," said Timea Nagy, a young woman who came to Canada from Hungary for a better life 12 years ago. Instead, she was forced into the sex trade, manipulated and controlled by the people that brought her here.
"They told us everyday how they were going to beat us up if we went to the police, because police can't help us," said Nagy.
She escaped, but many did not.
Today, the same thing is happening to hundreds, even thousands of young women.
The 32 billion dollar world wide industry is growing by two million young women and children each year.
They're not only being forced to work the streets, their services are being advertised in online classifieds, a buy and sell website called Craigslist.
"When I go on Craigslist, I want to cry," said Nagy, who says it's extremely difficult to find the girls and get them away from the trade.
"We have been going after it with a vengeance," said local MP Joy Smith about Craigslist.
After much pressure, the service was shut down in the U.S and Smith says next week it could be gone in Manitoba too. Justice Minister Andrew Swan has asked Craigslist to remove the service.
"Everybody buys things off of Craigslist, bicycles, whatever; unfortunately there's an exotic part of Craigslist and they sell boys and girls," said Smith.
Human Trafficking Legislation has been around since 2005 in Manitoba, and just last month, Winnipeg police laid its first human trafficking charge against a 38-year old woman.
Saturday, Smith awarded five Canadian citizens for dedicating their lives to fighting the crime in Canada.
"I didn't realize the same place you can buy a microwave oven you can buy a 14-year old girl, and younger than 14," said journalist Tamara Cherry, recognized for writing extensive articles on human trafficking.
Recently Timea Nagy's organization, Walk with Me, in Toronto has helped save dozens of those victims.
"Forty in six months, and you know what, it could have been at least a hundred, but we didn't have time to get to them."
Putting a face on human trafficking
Source: globalwinnipeg.com
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Human-trafficking in Canada affects isolated and vulnerable, expert says
Benjamin Perrin, author of Invisible Chains: Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking, accuses Craigslist of aiding and abetting sex trafficking by allowing criminals to freely advertise the sale of exploited women and children for sex. Photograph by: Handout, UBC
WINNIPEG — Poor co-ordination between law-enforcement jurisdictions is making Canada a haven for the human traffickers who prey on young, isolated and vulnerable women, a B.C.-based researcher says.
Benjamin Perrin, an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia's faculty of law, has trawled the murky depths of sexual exploitation from Cambodia to Canada.
Perrin was in Winnipeg Wednesday to promote his book, Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking. In it, he writes that the criminals who traffic in human flesh for the sex trade know that the best way of protecting themselves is to move a victim from her hometown, both to isolate her and capitalize on the lack of national co-ordination to address the problem.
He cites the case of Crystal and Sabrina, youths who were living at Little Sisters safe house in Winnipeg when two "South Asian" men befriended them in 2004. Sabrina and Crystal were groomed by the men, who took them out for dinner and to movies — then to a Saskatoon hotel room with a sex trafficker from Vancouver.
When staff at Little Sisters saw them driving away, they got the vehicle's licence plate number and called police, who said they could do nothing. When the girls called from Brandon, Man., to say they were OK and going to Saskatchewan, staff contacted the RCMP, who also said they could do nothing.
Saskatoon police eventually ended up bringing the girls in, along with their captors, on drug charges. The girls were held until their social worker arrived from Winnipeg. By then, the would-be recruiters and human traffickers had been released.
"There was a lot of finger-pointing after this case," Perrin said in an interview.
Child-welfare and police agencies weren't able to prevent or stop it.
"There's nothing to prevent this from happening again."
Perrin also used his Winnipeg stop to call on Manitoba to ban Craigslist from advertising erotic services.
"It's the medium of choice for organized crime to sell women in the sex trade," he said. "The Ontario government Tuesday heeded calls to make Craigslist shut down its online flesh market. We're asking the Attorney General of Manitoba to make the same demand."
Perrin said he's found too many heart-wrenching examples in Manitoba of young aboriginal people being used, abused and left for dead, while relatives, social workers and police struggle to stop it.
He cited the case of Fonessa Bruyere, who was found murdered on the outskirts of Winnipeg three years ago.
Perrin writes that Fonessa was first sexually exploited at age 11. She became addicted to crack and meth. At age 12, she was turned away from a residential youth shelter because all the beds were full. She ended up being sold for sex to support her addiction to the drugs that numb victims' physical and mental suffering, lower their inhibitions and impair judgment.
She was 17 when she was found dead.
© Copyright (c) Winnipeg Free Press
Human-trafficking in Canada affects isolated and vulnerable, expert says
Source: Canada.com
Related articles
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
Craigslist Tells Congress Its Adult Services Section Is Gone For Good
Source: Huffington Post
JIM ABRAMS | 09/15/10 05:18 PM |
But William Clinton Powell also told a House Judiciary Committee panel that people seeking to advertise adult – or sexual – services will now simply migrate to other Internet sites.
He said the decision by Craigslist earlier this month to shut down the adult services section "may be a step backward in terms of addressing the core causes of the issue."
Craigslist was responding to demands from state attorneys general and anti-child trafficking organizations to end adult services because it had become a favorite conduit for illegal ads.
"I have not had a girl who was not marketed online and most of them were marketed on Craigslist," said Linda Smith, a former member of Congress who heads Shared Hope International, a group that rescues women and children trapped by sex traffickers.
Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., agreed that "the Internet has opened a whole new front in the war on trafficking, allowing demand to run free without practical obstacles."
Powell, director of law enforcement relations for the nation's largest classified advertising service, said Craigslist has been aggressive in working to stop child exploitation. He said the company encourages users to report suspected trafficking, features law enforcement and reporting hotlines, participates in the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children tipline and manually reviewed every adult service ad prior to posting.
"Craigslist has been virtually alone among the many advertising venues carrying adult ads in vigorously combating exploitation and trafficking," he said.
Ernie Allen, head of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, agreed that the focus must now be broadened beyond Craigslist. "The goal is to destroy the business model for those who sell children for sex over the Internet."
Lawmakers and witnesses said at least 100,000 minors are exploited by the commercial sex industry in the United States every year. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., chairman of the crime subcommittee, cited estimates that 450,000 minors run away from home every year, and about one-third of those end up being forced into prostitution.
Despite that, it appears that the United States spends more to combat sex trafficking overseas than it does in the United States, said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., who is sponsoring an anti-minor sex trafficking bill with Smith.
The Maloney-Smith bill would authorize up to $50 million over four years for grants to provide shelter and care for young victims and ensure adequate resources for law enforcement and prosecutors.
Many young people are treated as criminals instead of victims, and there are nationwide only 50 beds in shelters to address the needs of 100,000 victims, Maloney said.
Craigslist Tells Congress Its Adult Services Section Is Gone For Good
JIM ABRAMS | 09/15/10 05:18 PM |
r request is being processed...
WASHINGTON — A Craigslist official told lawmakers Wednesday that the classified ad website has no plans to resume its adult services section and defended the company's efforts to stop the sexual exploitation of minors.
But William Clinton Powell also told a House Judiciary Committee panel that people seeking to advertise adult – or sexual – services will now simply migrate to other Internet sites.
He said the decision by Craigslist earlier this month to shut down the adult services section "may be a step backward in terms of addressing the core causes of the issue."
Craigslist was responding to demands from state attorneys general and anti-child trafficking organizations to end adult services because it had become a favorite conduit for illegal ads.
"I have not had a girl who was not marketed online and most of them were marketed on Craigslist," said Linda Smith, a former member of Congress who heads Shared Hope International, a group that rescues women and children trapped by sex traffickers.
Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., agreed that "the Internet has opened a whole new front in the war on trafficking, allowing demand to run free without practical obstacles."
Powell, director of law enforcement relations for the nation's largest classified advertising service, said Craigslist has been aggressive in working to stop child exploitation. He said the company encourages users to report suspected trafficking, features law enforcement and reporting hotlines, participates in the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children tipline and manually reviewed every adult service ad prior to posting.
"Craigslist has been virtually alone among the many advertising venues carrying adult ads in vigorously combating exploitation and trafficking," he said.
Ernie Allen, head of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, agreed that the focus must now be broadened beyond Craigslist. "The goal is to destroy the business model for those who sell children for sex over the Internet."
Lawmakers and witnesses said at least 100,000 minors are exploited by the commercial sex industry in the United States every year. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., chairman of the crime subcommittee, cited estimates that 450,000 minors run away from home every year, and about one-third of those end up being forced into prostitution.
Despite that, it appears that the United States spends more to combat sex trafficking overseas than it does in the United States, said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., who is sponsoring an anti-minor sex trafficking bill with Smith.
The Maloney-Smith bill would authorize up to $50 million over four years for grants to provide shelter and care for young victims and ensure adequate resources for law enforcement and prosecutors.
Many young people are treated as criminals instead of victims, and there are nationwide only 50 beds in shelters to address the needs of 100,000 victims, Maloney said.
Craigslist Tells Congress Its Adult Services Section Is Gone For Good
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Online sex ads complicate crackdowns on teen trafficking - CNN.com
By Steve Turnham and Amber Lyon, CNN Special Investigations Unit
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
September 15, 2010 9:52 a.m. EDT
Underage sex for sale on internet
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- "Nobody knows what the real numbers are," advocate says
- Online sites filling vacuum left by Craigslist's withdrawal
- The internet led to a "wholesale transformation" of prostitution, DA says
(CNN) -- Behind every adult service ad on the internet is a story.
Sometimes it's a story of a grown woman who has chosen prostitution as a path to a better life. More often, it's a story of a woman being forced to sell her body by a pimp.
And then there are the children, and the mothers that miss them.
"They told me to look on Craigslist and it almost blew my mind," the mother of one missing 12-year-old told CNN. "She was there with a wig on. She was there in a purple negligee.
"She's a normal 12-year-old -- Hannah Montana, the Jonas Brothers, they're her favorite," the mother said. "She's always screaming and hollering and singing. She's a great young lady."
The same day the woman spoke to CNN, her daughter was rescued by police at a seedy hotel near Washington where she was being sold for sex. And she's not alone.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's website contains thousands of posters of missing children. Many are girls, classified as "endangered runaways," and the center says more than fifty of them have been pushed into the sex trade. But that's just a snapshot, a tiny indicator of the true scale of the problem.
"Nobody knows what the real numbers are," said Ernie Allen, the NCMEC's chief executive. "I'm also confident that the internet has changed the dynamic of this whole problem. We're finding an astounding number of kids being sold for sex on the internet."
Allen said the best source of information on the number of underage girls being trafficked online are websites themselves. While online classified giant Craigslist shut down its "adult services" pages in early September, other sites like Backpage.com are filling the vacuum left behind, he said. And while there are clues in the way the ads are written, only a small fraction of them get referred to law enforcement or organizations like the NCMEC.
Backpage.com told CNN that it promptly responds to law enforcement inquiries, and says the site includes links to help users notify the NCMEC if they identify potential abuses.
Craigslist argues it has had a vigorous approach to vetting adult services ads. It says that in the 15 months before closing the adult services section altogether, it rejected 700,000 ads because they violated the website's rules, including advertising prostitution and ads "indicative of an underage person." Craigslist says ads are reported to NCMEC "when our manual reviewers see anything falling within NCMEC Cybertipline reporting guidelines."
But Allen said his organization, which is the nation's primary reporting agency for missing kids, received just 132 referrals from Craigslist over that same 15-month period.
"The small number of reports makes it difficult to get a sense of the true scope of the problem," Allen said. "We've seen lots of ads where there is obviously a young person in the ad. Now is she 18 or 17? Is she 22 or 12?"
Craigslist has done more than any other website with an adult services section to try to combat the problem of underage sex trafficking. It has cooperated with the FBI by providing evidence against pimps and required phone and credit card verification, so ads left a paper trail for the police to follow.
"Our frustration is that we've said to them if the person in the photo looks young, report it. If there's language in the ad that suggests that there may be the use of young people for prostitution, report it," Allen said. "It's eliminated the graphic pornography in the ads, it's eliminated blatant nudity. What it has not done is put a significant dent in the problem with child prostitution and child trafficking and that was the goal."
The other problem facing NCMEC and police departments across America is that the internet has changed the business of prostitution. Craigslist's decision to shut down adult services -- which followed pressure from the attorneys general in nearly 20 states -- will do little to alter that fundamental fact.
In Atlanta, Georgia, one of the country's busiest prostitution markets due to its position as a highway and air travel hub, police and prosecutors witnessed the effect of the internet on the business of prostitution firsthand.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard told CNN that eight years ago, law enforcement began a serious crackdown on the pimps that control most underage victims, until the pimps vanished.
"At that time, we saw a number of underage girls standing on street corners, and they were usually standing there because a pimp had placed them there," Howard said. "After we started our crackdown, we began to notice that the numbers became fewer and fewer, and we were wondering, 'What's going on?'
"What we found is that there was a wholesale transformation from young girls standing on the streets to those same young girls being sold through Craigslist and other internet vendors," Howard said. "That has put us in a terrible position, because much of the illegal sex activity now goes on almost undetected by the police. The numbers we believe remain the same, but what has happened is that they are now out of sight."
A Georgia advocacy group called "A Future Not A Past" commissioned a research firm to survey men who admit to buying sex over the internet, and the results were staggering. Based on interviews with more than 200 men, the research study projected that 7,200 men a month were buying sex from adolescent girls in Georgia alone.
"It just took my breath away," said Kaffie McCullough, the group's director. "The buyers are able to go on computers in the privacy of their own house or home or apartment or hotel room, and just dial up and have the girl come to them. So you don't have to have the more unsafe part of driving in neighborhoods that aren't maybe your best neighborhoods."
Allen, McCullough and others believe the best way to combat the problem of online underage sex trafficking isn't through better screening tools, but through fear. As long as pimps and the men who buy girls for sex feel protected by the anonymity of the web, the trade will continue.
"Our goal in this from the beginning has been to dramatically increase the risk and eliminate the profitability because this is the treatment of children as commodities for sex sale, this is 21st-century slavery," Allen said. "It would be progress if pressure on this end had the effect of moving this problem back onto the streets."
That is a measure of how dangerous and widespread online trafficking of underage sex has become -- that the group leading the campaign to protect children would prefer to see the problem back on the streets.
"It's an outrageous thing to say, but one of our goals is to move these operators into some other illicit enterprise -- to get them out of the trafficking of human beings and into some other illegal business," Allen said.
Online sex ads complicate crackdowns on teen trafficking - CNN.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
