Adults ads removed from classified website

Staff report

WASHINGTON, D.C.

A classified-advertising website that law-enforcement agencies have used to crack down on prostitution has removed its adult advertising section after the release of a U.S. Senate panel report.

Backpage.com on Monday removed adult advertisements from its site, while decrying that the federal government had “unconstitutionally censored” its content, according to national media reports.

The removal of those ads followed the release of a report alleging that “Backpage concealed criminal activity by removing words from ads that would have exposed child sex-trafficking and prostitution,” according to The Washington Post on Tuesday.

Also Tuesday, a Senate subcommittee was scheduled to have a hearing on the report. The Post reported that Backpage executives would appear at the hearing but would not testify.

Backpage is sometimes used by local law-enforcement agencies in their investigations of prostitution. Austintown police, for example, have made numerous prostitution-related arrests within the last few months after conducting sting operations after ads were posted on the site.

In late November, for example, a North Lima woman was arrested by Austintown police after she reportedly solicited sex to an undercover police officer who responded to her Backpage ad. The woman reportedly told the officer that “she would engage in this officer’s gummy worm fetish as well” and that he “did not need to bring any other items besides the gummy worms.”

Austintown police made another prostitution arrest Dec. 14 after checking Backpage.com. In that case, a female suspect told an undercover officer that she would charge $60 for “car play.”

Other local law-enforcement agencies use the same tactic.

The Beaver Police Department, for example, arrested a woman Nov. 14 after finding her ad on the site. The woman reportedly responded to the officer’s text of “Hey,” and “agreed to a price of $50 and nachos,” according to the police report.

Austintown Detective Lt. Jeff Solic, who leads the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force, said Backpage was an easy way for police to find prostitutes advertising their services, but it’s absence won’t impact their ability to pursue prostitutes.

“I’m certain prostitutes will find another way to advertise their wares,” Solic said.