May 7th, 2012
01:05 PM ET
Backpage.com defiant over sex trade ads
Backpage.com, a small ads website, is not backing away from a small but profitable corner of the internet that is accused of being a marketplace for pimps to peddle prostitution and exploit young women.
The company says there’s nothing illegal about it, even though 51 attorneys general want to shut it down.
Watch Liz McDougall, from Village Voice Media, defend Backpage.com
But New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof and California's Attorney General Kamala Harris argue Backpage is a marketplace for human trafficking.
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Closing BP will only result in driving pimps and traffikers underground. Instead of wasting time, resources, money and manpower on Backpage, how about going after the violators. If their use of Backpage is so rampant, it should make it easier to identify and target them.
What they're doing makes no sense to me. If they close this site the bad guys move on to other sites, investigators have to start all over on where to look and that costs money and time. Example, Craigs List. Did shutting the adult section down there solve the problems they wanted to solve? No, they moved to a new site, BackPage, and I assume others.
by banning the website.. its not going to solve the problem. the pimps need to be held behind bars for life improsionment. this filthy problem needs to be eradicated from its roots. the main people behind this should be arrested and killed . if u shut down a website, it won't help the innocent 15 or 16year old girls to escape this trauma.
ITS MY LIFE AND ILL DO AS I PLEASE. AND IF THAT INCLUDES HAVING TO DO THIS TO ENSURE I DONT GO BACK TO LIVING ON THE STREET THEN SO BE IT. YOU ARE NOT MY MOTHER . I AM 50 YRS OLD. PAY MY BILLS AND MY RENT ETC AND ILL QUIT. UNTIL THEM SHUT THE HELL UP.
You know what?"? There ARE some people out here like me who have ads on backpage in the adult section for a reason. Some of us out here ate just trying to SURVIVE and keep a roof over our heads. And maybe I am the exception to the rule, but I do this not because I WANT to, I do it because I HAVE to. ( I HATE MY JOB.) Otherwise my rent doesnt get paid or any of my other bills. I had to live on the gd street one time for 2 years and sleep on a picnic bench at night and I will be DAMNED if I go back to living on the street ever again. I tried looking for a phukking job for 4 YEARS and no one would hire my ass to save my life between my bad credit and a bad past you better forget that noise. I am close to 50 yrs old and I am just barely getting by. No one is making me do this, I am making myself do it because I know what its like to live on the street and I know what its like to have been married a long time ago to an abusive ass-- and I had to get rid of that jerk too. Not all of us out here are underage or doing human trafficking crap or whatever else you want to call it. But I will say one thing, you take away the adult section on backpage.com and I will just go find another website to post my ads on. No one is going to take away what very little income I make and Im talking very little, i just barely make enough to pay my bills and buy everyday essential items. Im below poverty level and thats no joke. So before you go get high and mighty and think you are going to solve the problem, think about some of us out here like me who are just barely making it. If you think I am joking think again. Its like what do you want me to do? starve and live on the street like a bum again? phukk that..
Good for you. I am glad that you have the courage to speak out.
Agreed, it is a job, been doing it for years, not to feed habit, but my four children. My ex has never paid me a dime. It is a TERRIBLE job but I have to make the ultimate self-sacrifice (my dignity) to make ends meet and take care of my responsibilities. Never thought my life would turn out like this when I was a child.
I'm indifferent on this whole thing.
You dug your own grave, should have stayed in school instead of partying.
i have a high school diploma and i went to college so take your opinion and stick it up your you know what.
you need to keep your opinions to yourself , i did not write that comment about not finishing school, someone else did and used my name. i have a high school diploma thank you and i went to college so why dont you look in the mirror before you judge other people.
Dude, you're either a troll, or you should be ashamed of yourself. Back to the "it's all your own fault" argument. Most mothers will do ANYthing to give their children what they need, even if its the last thing in the world they want to do. Nobody CHOOSES that profession. It's always a form of slavery, either to traffickers or to economics. If all men would do the same: everything in their power to support the children they help produce, the situation people like trying_to_survive find themselves in would not exist.
EXCUSE ME BUT THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH A CHILD THANK YOU. I AM 50 YRS OLD AND I DONT NEED ANY GD MAN TO SUPPORT ME. I HAD ENUF ABUSE FROM MY EX HUSBAND. YOU PEOPLE ARE JUST MISSING THE POINT SO STOP MAKING REFERENCES TO ME. I AM NOT RAISING A CHILD. I AM JUST TRYING TO GET BY AND KEEP A ROOF OVER MY HEAD AND PAY MY BILLS. I AM NOT GOING BACK TO LIVING ON THE STREET AND THATS FINAL.
Here is a comment from Kevin T. Doyle (non-member)Am tyrnig to locate current owner of my Tartan 34C Midwatch Hull No. 215 Last known location was @ your LYC and owners were Carol Cassidy & Jack Waddell. I was the owner for the first 23/years & have much info on its journey & many pictures etc to share with the current owners e.g. an orig copy of the christening invitation for 125 people @ Plymouth Rock, Plymouth, Massachusetts. Also, pictures of the construction phase at Tartan Marine, Grand River, OH. Many of these items should accompany the vessel.Sincerely, Kevin T. Doyle (781) 826 3712 (Owner: Select Grahics)Kevin T. Doyle (Orig owner of VIXEN )0
I can't get a job because I never completed high school and have a prison record!
I have tried working fulltime but the cost of daycare was 300$ a week and I was making a little over 400$. I couldn't make it the honest way. I also have post secondary education but couldn't continue because of the child care costs.
apparently someone thinks they are being funny but I never posted that about not finishing high school so you all just keep right on joking each other, Im doing what I can to get by and if you dont like it, OH WELL sucks to be you, at least im not laying in the gutter somewhere without a place to live.
They could always pull out RICO. You can be found guilty under RICO of just about anything.
pay my bills and my rent etc and ill quit doing it. otherwise you know what you can do with your RICO crap. That doesnt apply to me. I dont do extortion or racketerring. . thank you.
backpage has helped turn its help wtnead into """scamers hang-out"" You try to report"""drivers/transportores to backpage,,they just keep post that scam post all over the usa..... Time we get the HOUSE AND SENATE PASS NEW FEDERAL AND STATE LAWS ,,SO BACKPAGE AND CRAIGSLIST CAN BE RUN OFF THR INTERNET FOR NOT CLEANING UP THIS MESS OF SCAMERS......WAY TO GO BACKPAGE,,,HOPE YOU CHOKE ON THEM SCAMER $1'S AND GET YOU ASS RUN OUT OF ARIZONA...TAKEING THIS FIGHT TO CNN, FOX,CBS MSNBC FOR THIS CRAP HAS TO STOP!! SEAMS BACKPAGE HAS LOST ALL MORALS FOR A DAMN BUCK!!! TIME FOR THE HOUSE AND SENATE PASS NEW LAWS FOR SCAM OUTFITS LIKE BACKPAGE!!!
right you would do anything to make sure im out of work and out of a place to love wouldnt you.?
That's just awful! Shame on them!
Yeah for sure. These are the same 'attorneys general' who spend thousands on escort girls. Remember Spitzer?
yeah and they have the NERVE to try and take away my job and now im not even getting any calls and i may lose my place to live. THANKS. its not you whos going to be on the street again like gutter trash,
Those woman hating 'attorneys general' should leave women alone and let them make decent money just like they do.
Another personal liberty thing that religion has taken over... Should be legal and regulated, gov't has no right to tell anyone what they can or cannot do with their bodies.
Really not seeing the issue wiith ads for "services" as long as its two consenting adults.
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What they're doing makes no sense to me. If they close this site the bad guys move on to other sites, investigators have to start all over on where to look and that costs money and time. Example, Craigs List. Did shutting the adult section down there solve the problems they wanted to solve? No, they moved to a new site, BackPage, and I assume others.
Another personal liberty thing that religion has taken over... Should be legal and regulated, gov't has no right to tell anyone what they can or cannot do with their bodies.
https://www.nmisr.com/?p=1487015