WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) today joined a bipartisan group of senators in introducing legislation — the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act — to ensure justice for victims of sex trafficking and ensure that websites such as Backpage.com, which knowingly facilitate sex trafficking, can be held liable and brought to justice. Human trafficking has long been a concern of Senator Capito’s and is an issue she highlighted during a summit at West Liberty University near Wheeling in April 2015.
 
The legislation introduced today is the result of a two-year Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) inquiry, led by Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), which culminated in a report entitled “Backpage.com’s Knowing Facilitation of Online Sex Trafficking,” which found that Backpage.com knowingly facilitated criminal sex trafficking of vulnerable women and young girls and then covered up evidence of these crimes in order to increase its own profits.  The measure has been endorsed by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and other anti-trafficking advocates and law enforcement organizations.
 
“The trafficking of young girls and women is an unconscionable crime, and we should be doing everything we can to put an end to this inhumane practice,” Senator Capito said. “The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act will help accomplish that important goal by better preventing the facilitation of trafficking and making it easier for law enforcement officials across the country to hold offenders accountable. With this bipartisan bill, we can better protect the victims of exploitation and fight back against the criminals taking advantage of them.”
 
Other sponsors of the bill include Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.) Susan Collins (R-Maine), Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)
 
NOTE: The bipartisan Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act would clarify Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to ensure that websites that knowingly facilitate sex trafficking can be held liable so that victims can get justice. This narrowly-crafted legislation offers three reforms to help sex trafficking victims. The bipartisan bill would:
  

  • Allow victims of sex trafficking to seek justice against websites that knowingly facilitated the crimes against them;
  • Eliminate federal liability protections for websites that assist, support or facilitate a violation of federal sex trafficking laws and
  • 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.

  

A full summary of the bill can be found here, a summary on why the bill is necessary is here, a section-by-section here and the text here.

 

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