Sen. Portman takes aim at sex-trafficking portal

2Thus read a post last month on the classified advertising website Backpage.com.

Local police answered the ad and arrested a Youngstown woman in the 5400 block of Kirk Road in a prostitution sting.

The woman had reportedly arrived at the agreed-upon location when police approached and identified themselves. She was charged with soliciting sex and possessing criminal tools – a cellphone.

The sting last month was just one of many area law-enforcement agencies have participated in over the years after surfing Backpage.com.

Indeed, the website has gained national notoriety for facilitating illegal sex trafficking online. It has become the online version of streetwalking. And it’s just as insidious, dangerous and inhumane.

As U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who is leading the charge in Congress to end this criminal activity, has said, “Stopping trafficking is one of the great humanitarian and human-rights causes of the 21st century. Our bipartisan investigation showed that Backpage knowingly facilitated sex trafficking on its website to increase its own profits, all at the expense of vulnerable women and young girls. For too long, courts around the country have ruled that Backpage can continue to facilitate illegal sex trafficking online with no repercussions.”

The Communications Decency Act, though well-intentioned, has had the unintended consequence of protecting sex traffickers who prey on the most innocent and vulnerable Americans.

Thus, Portman and an impressive list of Republican and Democratic senators have introduced bipartisan legislation called the “Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act.”

The goal of the measure is to ensure justice for victims of sex trafficking and target websites such as Backpage.com.

The legislation is the result of a two-year inquiry by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations led by Portman and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

HUMAN-TRAFFICKING FORUM IN VALLEY

Ohio’s senator discussed the anti-trafficking initiative during a visit last week to the Mahoning Valley. He participated in a roundtable discussion at St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital with representatives of Northeast Ohio Coalition Against Human Trafficking, Mercy Health officials, Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally, Maj. Jeff Allen of the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office, Boardman Township Trustee Tom Costello, Boardman Police Chief Jack Nichols and Todd Werth, head of the Youngstown FBI, among others.

The participants accurately noted sex trafficking is very much a part of the overall human-trafficking problem plaguing this country.

According to the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Throwaway Children, more than 2,100 children are reported missing every day in America. Add to that the fact that 1 in 6 runaways is likely to become a victim of sex trafficking, and the need to urgently deal with this crisis becomes clear.

As Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine put it, “We want to get these kids before the traffickers do.”

In talking about the “Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act,” Portman noted legal challenges of Backpage.com have been unsuccessful because of a provision in the Communications Decency Act. It shields websites such as Backpage.

The bipartisan bill would ensure that websites that knowingly facilitate sex trafficking can be held liable so victims can get justice.

The measure would: allow victims of sex trafficking to seek justice against websites that knowingly facilitate crimes against them; eliminate federal liability protections for websites that assist, support or facilitate a violation of federal trafficking laws; enable state law-enforcement officials, not just the U.S. Department of Justice, to take action against individuals or businesses that violate federal sex- trafficking laws.

Portman’s efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. Ohio’s other senator, Democrat Sherrod Brown, said he is “pleased to join Sen. Portman in making sure law enforcement can protect Ohioans from online predators.”

At a time of intense partisanship in Congress and with the White House in turmoil because of Republican President Donald Trump’s picking fights with members of his own party on Capitol Hill, the push by Portman and others to deal with online sex trafficking is commendable, important and necessary.

There should be no hesitation on the part of all members of Congress to pass the “Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act.” It would be the height of irresponsibility for President Trump not to sign it into law.