From this morning's New York Post:
https://nypost.com/2018/05/28/backpage-closure-hasnt-made-it-any-harder-for-sex-traffickers/
The FBI’s closure of the sleazy classified-ad site Backpage.com hasn’t made it any harder to buy and sell sex online — it has just given rise to other flesh-peddling web marketplaces, according to cops and johns.
“For the social-media-savvy degenerate, there was no lapse” after Backpage.com went kaput last month, a law enforcement source told The Post.
Several copycat sites saw huge spikes in traffic since the site’s April 6 closure.
Bedpage.com, for example, which shows up in search engines as “Bedpage: Site similar to backpage” and appears to be hosted in Canada, has rocketed up the online charts since April, according to traffic-statistic site Alexa.
The feds seized and closed Backpage because it was being used by sex traffickers, often to sell underage victims — but experts say the criminals have just moved on.
“I think anyone who said Backpage shutting down would make a real impact on commercial sexual exploitation and sexual exploitation and trafficking was naive at best,” said Rachel Lloyd, the founder and executive director of the anti-sex-trafficking group Girls Educational & Mentoring Service.
The NYPD is continuing to set up stings with bogus ads on the alternative sites, just as it did on Backpage, according to sources.
But a john told The Post, “Marijuana’s legal, gambling’s legal — why don’t they make [prostitution] legal? They would make money on it, and they would be able to control who the girls are.”
https://nypost.com/2018/05/28/backpage-closure-hasnt-made-it-any-harder-for-sex-traffickers/
The FBI’s closure of the sleazy classified-ad site Backpage.com hasn’t made it any harder to buy and sell sex online — it has just given rise to other flesh-peddling web marketplaces, according to cops and johns.
“For the social-media-savvy degenerate, there was no lapse” after Backpage.com went kaput last month, a law enforcement source told The Post.
Several copycat sites saw huge spikes in traffic since the site’s April 6 closure.
Bedpage.com, for example, which shows up in search engines as “Bedpage: Site similar to backpage” and appears to be hosted in Canada, has rocketed up the online charts since April, according to traffic-statistic site Alexa.
The feds seized and closed Backpage because it was being used by sex traffickers, often to sell underage victims — but experts say the criminals have just moved on.
“I think anyone who said Backpage shutting down would make a real impact on commercial sexual exploitation and sexual exploitation and trafficking was naive at best,” said Rachel Lloyd, the founder and executive director of the anti-sex-trafficking group Girls Educational & Mentoring Service.
The NYPD is continuing to set up stings with bogus ads on the alternative sites, just as it did on Backpage, according to sources.
But a john told The Post, “Marijuana’s legal, gambling’s legal — why don’t they make [prostitution] legal? They would make money on it, and they would be able to control who the girls are.”
