Human trafficking has become a considerable problem around the world. Girls and women are snatched from their homes and kidnapped off the streets while being forced to work in the sex industry. It’s a problem in the United States and in many other countries, too. Pimps traffic minors on a regular basis and use websites to do so.

The U.S. government has recently taken a stand to prevent at least some of the human trafficking that has been taking place online. On April 6, 2018, the FBI, the US Postal Inspection Service, and the Investigation Division of the IRS worked with the Joint Regional Intelligence Center to shut down Backpage.com and its affiliates.

What was Backpage.com?

Backpage.com was a classified advertising website that launched in 2014. The majority of the advertising focused on prostitution and escorts. However, most of the “escorts” were actually a form of sex trafficking. The CEO of Backpage, Carl Ferrer, has already pled guilty to the charges of facilitating prostitution as well as money laundering.

Although the site did include other products and services not having to do with sex, it was best known for being involved in the sex industry. It had the reputation for being a sex marketplace because it allowed pimps to promote sex with underage women, many who had been pushed into the industry from sex trafficking activities.

What the Government Has Done

The U.S. Department of Justice and several other law enforcement agencies were responsible for taking down Backpage.com. They were also able to obtain a criminal conviction for the company and its CEO. By achieving this, it was a major victory against human sex trafficking in Texas and on a global level.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has identified to Congress that approximately 75 percent of the cases that the center receives every year is related to sex ads on Backpage.com. Further, the over $100 million in annual revenue from the website was as a result of sex ads.

Backpage.com was a dominant marketplace for illicit commercial sex. The traffickers commonly advertised children on the site. Many of the people using the site in order to obtain sex were not doing so with the knowledge that they were funding sex traffickers. They were innocent people who were lonely.

However, sex trafficking is a problem because it is based on supply and demand. As long as there is a demand for such a thing, sex traffickers will be in business. By taking down a major website, and the affiliates that were found around the globe, where they advertised, it eliminates a considerable amount of their business.

Why There’s Still a Problem

There are still a lot of websites that aren’t monitored. There are no safeguards in place to prevent pimps from listing information. Although many sites don’t openly announce that women are available for money, there is enough lingo, such as the use of “roses” instead of dollars. Photos are also telling, showing girls instead of women.

Craigslist Personals, City Vibe, and other directories are still out there. Pimps will still be able to market victims, which continues to be a problem.

There are other sites like eros-guide.com, girl-directory.com, eroticmonkey.com, and openadultdirectory.com are still posting photos and providing “escorts.” The problem with these is that there are no licensed businesses running them. There’s no protection for individuals who want companionship because they don’t know how old the girls are and whether they are there because they want to be or because they have a pimp and have no way out.

Women should never be sexually exploited. There are many victims of this and they are being forced or coerced into the acts.

How to Enjoy the Company of a Woman Legally Using websites that don’t monitor the activity is extremely dangerous. It’s hard to know whether the women are there because they want to be there or because they are there because they have been forced through sex trafficking.

Within the outcall entertainment industry, particularly in Las Vegas, businesses are licensed. We understand the need to protect women and to ensure that the women involved in agencies are at least 18 years of age. We are a licensed business and meet everyone ahead of time as a way of mitigating many of the problems.

Our goal is to let people know that there are too many sites that are placing women in danger. Sex trafficking isn’t going to stop as long as they are actively getting business.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting companionship. However, anyone who wants to seek comfort from a woman needs to do so from a licensed business in the adult entertainment industry. It will ensure that the women are at least 18 years of age and want to work as an escort. It prevents human traffickers from making money and prevents more women from being forced into a trade that they want no part of, not to mention preventing the kidnapping of innocent children.

You can enjoy companionship with a call to an escort agency. You can ensure that you get a beautiful woman while avoiding any kind of interaction with human traffickers.