Bluestem's editor generally believes that whatever consenting adults do in the privacy of their boudoirs is fine so long as they don't hurt children, frighten livestock, or tap public treasuries.
Child sex trafficking is a definite no-no.
An interesting Associated Press item comes our way out of Missouri, via the Aiken Standard, that pits the first concern in that short list against the need for open internet commerce. In Effort to target sex ads hits surprising obstacle, the AP reports:
Top law enforcement officers across the country are pushing Congress for greater authority to go after a booming online industry that hosts ads for child sex traffickers. But they are encountering opposition from an unexpected source – conservative state lawmakers who fear a government clamp down on Internet businesses.The conflict highlights the difficulty of policing an online marketplace that has rapidly evolved under a generally hands-off approach by government.
A coalition of conservative lawmakers and businesses has drafted a model resolution that could be considered next year in state capitols from coast to coast. The document, obtained by The Associated Press, urges Congress to deny state prosecutors the enforcement power they seek over the ads – warning that it could discourage investment in new Internet services. . . .
Carl Szabo, the policy counsel at NetChoice, a trade association, outlined his concerns last month during a closed-door task force meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council, an association of conservative lawmakers and businesses that crafts model legislation for states. The organization carries particular sway with Republicans, who now control more than half the state legislatures. . . .
Read the rest at the Aiken Standard. The article notes that the ALEC resolution is a response to a letter to Congress by states attorneys general, requesting a two-word tweak to 1996 law protecting internet commerce.
The Associated Press's exposure of the ALEC resolution may resonate in Minnesota, where law enforcement spokesters frequently cite backpage.com in news reports about sex trafficking. Attorney General Lori Swanson signed the AG's letter.
In July, FoxNews9 reported in AGs to Congress: 'Every day, children in the U.S. are sold for sex':
In making the case for an amendment to the CDA, the authors cited three sex-trafficking operations linked to advertising on Backpage.com -- including one in Minnesota.
1. On March 28, Miami police arrested a man for advertising the sex services of a 13-year-old girl, and he had tattooed his name on the girl's eyelids to mark her as his property.
2. In January, two men were arrested in Virginia for prostituting four minors in Fairfax County after advertising the girls online.
3. On April 10, four family members and a woman were arrested for running a prostitution ring of eight girls and women between the ages of 15 and 40.
Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson signed on to the request, but Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen did not. Attorney generals from the Connecticut and Virginia also did not sign the letter.
MPR reported at the time in State seeks to prosecute companies that abet sex trafficking:
The officials want to help local prosecutors go after websites that advertise trafficked minors. Minnesota's Lori Swanson is one of 49 attorneys general who signed a letter this week to lawmakers.
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi told MPR's The Daily Circuit that he and other prosecutors can go after johns and sex traffickers. But, he says, a federal law prevents state and local authorities from pursuing criminal charges against websites that allow users to post ads for escort services.
"I really believe that companies like backpage.com, they're very complicit in what's happening. And they know exactly what is happening. Their website is a platform for children for being bought and sold for sex."
Choi says all of the child-trafficking cases prosecuted by his office over the past two years involved backpage.com.
Earlier this month, Paul Walsh at the Star Tribune reported in Duluth ex-con guilty of selling girl for sex on backpage.com for many months:
In another case of online ads being used for sex trafficking, a Duluth ex-convict has been found guilty of selling a girl for sex for many months last year in Minnesota and elsewhere through Backpage.com.
Markeace A. Canty, 33, was convicted by jurors in federal court in Minneapolis on two counts involving sex trafficking of a minor. He was acquitted of receiving child pornography.
According to prosecutors, Canty bought “escort” ads on Backpage.com from July 2012 until January and offered the girl for erotic encounters. The ads sometimes included photos of a girl who was no older than 17. . . .
Walsh stumbles a bit at the end of the story, reporting:
The nation’s largest advertising forum for sex services, Backpage is owned by Village Voice Media. The company’s urban weeklies have become a persistent target of public protests for their relationship to Backpage.com.
Since Village Voice Media spun off the urban weeklies in 2012, that's no longer entirely accurate. In September 2012, AZ Central reported in Phoenix New Times founders selling company:
The Valley men who founded the weekly alternative newspaper Phoenix New Times and parlayed it into a national media chain are selling all 13 of their publications and leaving journalism.
Village Voice Media owners Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin announced Sunday night that they have agreed to sell their company, which owns alternative weeklies from Los Angeles to New York City, to a newly created company owned by a group of the papers' editors and publishers.
Lacey and Larkin will retain ownership of Backpage.com, an international, multimillion-dollar online advertising site that has been the target of legal action and protests in several states because users have illicitly posted ads to market prostitution.
That move left the Minneapolis City Pages off the hook, though a bit leaner. MinnPost's David Brauer examined the case last year in What the Backpage.com sale means for City Pages.
Backpage.com's new friends in the Minnesota Legislature also took significant staff reductions as voters fired enough Republicans last November to return both chambers to DFL control. Bluestem is curious if any Minnesota legislators remain on the unnamed task force that drafted this resolution.
We're even more curious to see if ALEC state public co-chairs Senator Mary Kiffmeyer (R-Big Lake), whose husband Ralph famously introduced a bill during his single term in the to ban dildos and other sex toys, and Pat Garofalo (R-Farmington) will allow SEO wizard Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa) or other lingering ALEC members to introduce the resolution into the legislature.
Maybe this is a job for Tea Party Representative and ALEC member Cindy Pugh.
Photo: Having lost her war on voters last year with the defeat of the Photo ID Amendment last year, will Minnesota's ALEC co-chair charge her battery (pictured above) to defend the lost honor of Backpage.com?
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