President Trump signed the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, or FOSTA, on April 11th, which will enable state prosecutors to target and punish the owners of websites that post ads for sex. The law will also allow victims of these ads to file lawsuits against the websites that have exploited them. People in Congress and Senate have been trying to get this bill passed for the past ten years now, according to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Trump stated that he was signing this bill in order to respect and honor those who have survived and endured sex trafficking.
Trump commented, “[They’ve] endured what no person on earth should endure and we are going to do everything in our power to make sure that traffickers are brought to a swift and firm justice.”
According to data from The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or NCMEC, rates for suspected child sex trafficking have risen 846% from 2010 to 2015. The massive increase is mostly because of internet usage.
Websites that are used to buy and sell sex are often called Hubs since they allow people to interact together frequently and find each other easily. Many of these Hubs are currently protected by one clause in the Communications Decency Act (CDA), and this has been incredibly difficult for prosecutors.
One Hub in particular, called Backpage.com, was primarily used for minor trafficking. Recently, Backpage.com was shut down by federal authorities.
“Seven of the company’s executives were arrested and indicted on with 93 counts, including facilitating prostitution and money laundering. The indictment charges that teenage girls were trafficked on the website. Some of the girls were killed,” reported The Epoch Times.
While some have praised Trump for signing this bill, others have said that this is a form of censorship, and that this will only end up harming sex workers and creating more victims.
Only time will tell where this will lead.
Information for this article came from: theepochtimes.com
Photo credit: Creative Commons
