The Village Voice vs. Ashton Kutcher: The Debate Over Child Trafficking Statistics In America.

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There has been considerable bickering back and forth between several high profile reporters and members of several anti-trafficking groups about the actual # of US kids trapped in sexual exploitation here in the States. One of the main skeptics being from the Village Voice, who questions the veracity of the statistic that there are between 100 and 300 thousand kids forced into illegal prostitution and pornography every year in the US. The same Village Voice who owns (and profits greatly from) Backpage.com, which has a prolific adult services section that has been well documented to facilitate prostitution and has also been used as a vehicle for the exploitation of minors. (After Craigslist shut down their Adult services section in the US Backpage's revenues jumped 15% the next month, online prostitution ads in 23 U.S. cities increased to $1,671,685 for the month of September.)

What's worse is the Voice singled out Ashton Kutcher, and then proceeded to berate him for what they percieved as poor movie choices, poor acting, and poor anti-trafficking activism, degrading Ads run by Kutcher's anti-trafficking non-profit as "frat boy humor". Below, one of the Ads from the Demi and Ashton Foundation that Kutcher founded with movie star wife Demi Moore. The ads are built around the slogan "real men don't buy girls".

The Village Voice article, smugly entitled, "Real Men Get Their Facts Straight". Like countless abolitionists and government officials, Kutcher has used a range of 100,000 to 300,000 when estimating how many kids are involved in domestic trafficking.

The Voice argues the 2001 University of Pennsylvania study that Kutcher and others quote estimated only the number of children who are "at risk" of commercial sexual exploitation, not the actual number currently trafficked. And it castigates Kutcher for not clarifying. Kutcher responded with a series of Tweets (he has 7 million followers) attacking Village Voice Media for the adult classifieds in its alternative weekly and on its website BackPage.com.

"It is true that Village Voice Media has a stake in this discussion," responded Voice editors, "But the facts speak for themselves." This seems a somewhat peculiar if not open admittal of the causal link between the trafficking of children and the adult services section of the Voice's publications.

“Adult services sections are little more than online brothels, enabling human trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and children,” says Connecticut’s attorney general Richard Blumenthal.

Dear Village Voice, does it really matter if there are one to three thousand or a hundred times that many kids trapped in prostitution in the US?? I mean if it were your daughter, one child would be enough. What do you have the problem with? Does irresponsible reporting somehow offend your sense of impeccable journalistic standards? What about irresponsible business practices? Does it endanger children if the statistics are skewed in the wrong directions, inflated by the passions and good intentions of the tireless abolilitionists on the front-line of the anti-sex trade fight? Or does the real danger come when those with money on the line pollute the discussion by disingenuous, half-hearted arguments with suspect motives. What are you doing to stop child trafficking? Why not follow Craigslist's example and shut down your Backpage adult services section. If anything, the statistics in question will go down. What do you have to lose- besides a little face, and oh yeah, a lot of cash. Real papers don't sell girls.

Facebook and Human Trafficking.

Recently Craigslist came under national scrutiny for its Adult services section after several high profile cases involving the prostitution of minors. A recent study revealed upwards of 75% of prostitutes in New York advertised for potential Johns or contacted customers via Facebook. The dark reality is, that even legitimate sites can make everything easier, closer, attainable. Including child sex.

Last October, FoxNews.com reported, “Facebook is failing to prevent child predators from posting suggestive and potentially illegal photographs of children on its website.” What may have seemed like a somewhat arbitrary and slightly inflammatory accusation has now proved true.




Tulsa’s Chapter Director for Stop Child Trafficking Now, Jason Weis, says graphic pictures are all over the social networking site. A quick search reveals a tiny girl tied up, one partially naked not more than 8 years old, and another little girl posing without her pants.

Then he clicks on the users friends and finds a whole network of potential child predators. "It's obvious, what he's into,” Weis points out a cartoon that’s posted on the users Facebook page and the caption in child’s bubble. ‘"Don't worry I won't tell anyone, Daddy. I promise. It's our secret. What do you think that means?"

He says pedophiles are everywhere, lurking and talking in code. "Look here, ‘13,14,15,16,17’, a taste for women. That's his ages," says Weis. "What I am surprised is that it is here and it is blatant, graphic, full color photos to see with no age restrictions." In his brief investigation Weis says he found hundreds of disturbing pictures of children and potential predators on Facebook. He says, "Pedophiles have made child pornography, rape, bestiality, incest, mainstream on Facebook.”




Facebook says it does not tolerate child porn, “…Facebook takes down illegal material as soon as it is reported to us. In the rare case where we believe content may constitute child pornography, we take down the content immediately, use a sophisticated system to block any further sharing of that content, and actually pull it back from any users who received the content. More importantly, we share the content with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and then report the user to law enforcement."

“We have devoted significant resources to keeping offensive content off of Facebook — we have a robust reporting infrastructure and a large team of professional reviewers who remove thousands of photos a day [emphasis ours] from the site that violate our policies,” says Facebook Public Policy Communication Manager, Andrew Noyes.

And Facebook does police their site, through filters that pick up on terms such as “PTHC” — short for “Pre-Teen Hard Core” which is frequently found in connection with child sexual exploitation. But in a recent phone interview with Facebook spokesman Simon Axten and the company’s chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, the two executives were guided by FoxNews.com to search for the term "PTHC" and then click on the first result, a public group Page called “PTHC,” with 197 members and a post directing users to a video supposedly featuring an 8-year-old boy being sexually abused.

Then, when they clicked on the profile of any of the group’s members, the executives were ushered into a subculture dedicated to using Facebook to traffic child pornography and to target and interact with children. Fox.com reported "The executives were stunned that the group got through their filters, and vowed renewed commitment to purging that type of content from Facebook." And they are having some success.

AIDE, Australia — An international child pornography ring that operated on Facebook has been brought down with the social networking site's support, Australian police said Friday. Eleven people have been charged in Australia, Britain and Canada in connection with the syndicate, which involved people using Facebook to distribute and view graphic sexual images, police said.

It seems nowhere is safe from the reach of these wicked men and woman who profit from every type of sexual perversity and child exploitation. If you see objectionable content on Facebook please report it to Facebook right away using these tips provided by the site:

* Report a profile: Go to the profile and click the "Report/Block this Person" link that appears in the left column below the profile photo.
* Report a photo: Go to the specific photo and click the "Report This Photo" link that appears below the photo.
* Report an Inbox message: View the message and click the "Report Message" link that appears below the sender’s name. Note that you can only report messages from non-friends.
* Report a group or event: Go to its main page and click the "Report" link that appears below the group or event photo.
* Report a Page: View the Page and click the "Report Page" link that appears in the left column below the Page photo.

And check back frequently to make sure the content has been removed and continue to report the abuse until it is removed. Conscientious citizens can be the difference for these children. You should also report child porn to the FBI and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children online here or call 1-800-THE LOST.

Thank you for remaining vigilant, for speaking out, and for never being silent while children's lives are being destroyed.