US P4P News

A new censorship law in Washington state was first proposed on February 2, fast-tracked through the state legislature and signed into law by Gov. Christine Gregoire on March 29,

Senate Bill 6251 makes it a crime if a person (or company) knowingly publishes, disseminates, or displays, or causes directly or indirectly, to be published, disseminated, or displayed, any advertisement for a commercial sex act, which is to take place in the state of Washington and that includes the depiction of a minor.

Not much of a problem, right? But the devil here is in the details. Section 2 of the new law reads:

In a prosecution under this statute, it is not a defense that the defendant did not know the age of the minor depicted in the advertisement. It is a defense, which the defendant must prove by a preponderance of the evidence, that the defendant made a reasonable bona fide attempt to ascertain the true age of the minor depicted in the advertisement by requiring, prior to publication, dissemination, or display of the advertisement, production of a driver's license, marriage license, birth certificate, or other governmental or educational identification card or paper of the minor depicted in the advertisement and did not rely solely on oral or written representations of the minor's age, or the apparent age of the minor as depicted. In order to invoke the defense, the defendant must produce for inspection by law enforcement a record of the identification used to verify the age of the person depicted in the advertisement.

One might be tempted to think of this section as a requirement for a sort of 2257 recordkeeping for people who advertise themselves or others as escorts, but in reality, it's a real Catch-22. Prostitution is still a crime in Washington state, so any person who'd like to engage in that profession and place ads online or in one of the local tabloids will have to reveal---and provide proof of---his/her true identity to the company placing the ad online or in print, thus risking having the police subpoena such material from the publication/website owner... or simply seize it in a raid ostensibly looking for evidence of underage sex trafficking.

Outside the Village Voice's New York headquarters, hundreds of protesters have demanded the online publication end its adult section called Backpage.com.

The protesters delivered more than 200,000 online signatures on a Change.org petition, Tell Village Voice Media to Stop Child Sex Trafficking on Backpage.com.

According to the National Association of Attorneys General, Backpage is the top website for human trafficking in the U.S., citing cases in 22 states.

19 U.S. Senators, 51 attorneys general and 53 anti-trafficking experts and organizations have called for the Village Voice to shut down the site.

Sex workers' rights organization SWAAY isn't happy with some of the nutter groups Google is supporting and has planned to hold a protest outside of Google headquarters.

The protest is in response to Google's announcement of its 2011 corporate giving plan that SWAAY said backs organizations with questionable human rights records.

SWAAY's campaign materials reads:

We applaud Google's desire to fight slavery, forced trafficking, and exploitative labor conditions, but their funding recipients include three non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that cause serious harm to sex workers around the world: International Justice Mission, Polaris Project, and Not for Sale,

As front line sex worker support services struggle for funding to serve their communities, it is offensive to watch Google shower millions upon well-heeled conservative and faith-based groups that fight against rights and safety for sex workers.

SWAAY pointed out that the International Justice Mission is an evangelical NGO who seeks to restore to victims of oppression the things that God intends for them. The so-called rescue work promoted by organizations like IJM translates to actions that are nothing short of violent, neocolonialist oppression against an easy target: brothel workers in developing countries.

The activist organization further cited International Justice Mission for using its power to pressure governments to crack down on the whole sex industry as an anti-trafficking measure, which leads to violent raids from corrupt police forces in countries like Cambodia, the Philippines, and India with people being beaten and raped.

The Polaris Project and Not for Sale are also targets. SWAAY said both lobby for the further criminalization of all forms of sex work and the sex industry in America and abroad, regardless of whether the workers are consenting adults. Criminalization isolates and endangers sex workers in serious ways, leading to increased stigma and violence against already-marginalized people. This type of prohibition pushes sex workers away from obtaining the healthcare they need, or from reporting rapes, robberies, and other crimes against them because they fear being arrested themselves.