OLYMPIA — Washington state lawmakers on Friday heard impassioned pleas to pass a bill clamping down on classified-advertising companies that don’t demand ID before allowing sex-related ads to be posted online.
Speaking at a Senate hearing, clergy members, law enforcement, and Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn condemned Backpage.com, an online clearinghouse with a robust adult escort section, for not adequately attempting to verify the age of those listed in the ads on its site.
Critics estimate parent company Village Voice Media makes more than $22 million per year from sex ads, a figure the company has not disputed. It owns 13 weekly newspapers, including Seattle Weekly.
“They ran a front-page cover story attempting to minimize the nature of the problem, saying it was exaggerated,” said McGinn, referring to a piece published in all but one of the company’s papers last June. “They were also trying to obscure the fact that online advertising is an accelerant” of child sex-trafficking.
In response to the story, McGinn met with Village Voice Media executives, asking them to require ID before publishing sex-related ads.
Backpage.com declined to do so, noting it works with various law enforcement agencies in weeding out suspected cases of child sex trafficking. In response, the city pulled all advertising from Seattle Weekly.
In August, a letter signed by more than 40 state attorneys general and sent to Backpage.com called the site a “hub” for human trafficking.
Village Voice Media attorney Steve Suskin did not immediately return a call for comment. He recently told The Associated Press that the bill would violate the 1996 federal Communications Decency Act, adding the company would fight the measure should it become law.
“This type of legislation is ham-handed in that it wouldn’t just affect Backpage.com,” Suskin said. “It would have a broad effect across the Internet.”
Criticism of Backpage.com at the hearing came from several directions.
“I am dismayed to see a newspaper, in this case the (Seattle) Weekly, behave in such a way that The Stranger can rightfully criticize its behavior,” said Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle, referring to a rival publication. “That’s pretty low.”
Unlike Backpage.com, Seattle Weekly does require an in-person ID check for sex-related ads in its print edition.
Flying across the country to attend the hearing, the Rev. John Vaughn of the Auburn Theological Seminary in New York implored Village Voice Media and others he said facilitate underage sex-trafficking to change their ways.
“This is not about censorship,” he said. “This is about the trafficking of kids.”
Shared Hope International, an anti sex-trafficking group headed by former Congresswoman Linda Smith, has compiled a list of dozens of cases in 15 states in which girls were allegedly sold for sex on Backpage.com, most within the past year. In Seattle, the Police Department says it has linked 22 cases of child prostitution to girls who were advertised as escorts on the website.
Last October, Damenique Lajuan Beasley pleaded guilty to one count of promoting prostitution and one count of attempted promoting prostitution in Seattle after prosecutors charged he advertised a 17-year-old girl as a sex escort on Backpage.com. He was sentenced to three and half years in prison.
Backpage.com has been the nation’s leading source of online sex escort ads since Craigslist.org shuttered its adult services section in September 2010.
Currently, Backpage.com asks those posting escort service ads on its website to vouch for the age of those whose services are offered.
Bruce Johnson, an attorney who is a leading scholar on the First Amendment and advertising, said the bill appears to run afoul of the 1996 federal communications decency law, which grants broad protections for website owners regarding speech made by third parties.
The bill may also be at odds with the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause and the First Amendment, Johnson said.
Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, said she is encouraged by the support her colleagues have shown for the bill, though it may need some tweaking.
“We’ll see if we need to make a few changes,” she said. “We’re trying to put it in the best language we can” to undermine the court challenges it would likely generate.
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