(Jefferson City, MO, USA) – A bi-partisan national coalition of 49
Attorneys General are calling on Congress to amend the law to help fight
prostitution and child sex trafficking. In a letter to key members of Congress
Missouri Attorney General Koster, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, 45
other Attorneys General as well as two from U.S territories stressed the need
to amend the Communications Decency Act to provide criminal jurisdiction to
state and local prosecutors. The Communications Decency Act of 1996 was drafted
at a time when the Internet was at its infancy stage. Its purpose was to
protect children from accessing indecent material online, however courts have
interpreted certain provisions of the Act to provide immunity from state
prosecution to online classified ad sites that may promote and profit from
human trafficking. Prostitution is considered a local crime, and while the
Communications Decency Act provides criminal authority to the federal
government, the Attorneys General believe that criminal jurisdiction needs to be
extended so as to help combat crimes like these. “"To keep up with changing technology, federal law needs
to be modernized to provide local prosecutors the tools to strike back against
those who promote sexual exploitation," Koster said. "As a former prosecutor,
I am familiar with the sad fact that many of those engaged in prostitution are
underage and abused."” Local prosecutors report that for the most part,
prostitution solicitations have moved online, generating an estimated $3million
to $4million per month in revenue for websites such as Backpage.com, an online
classified ad site.
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