Kirk Backs Dart in Fight With Human Trafficking Site Backpage

Press Release

U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) released the below statement today following the news that Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart was being sued by Backpage.com, the nation's most active sex trafficking website. Earlier this month, after urging from Sheriff Dart, Visa and MasterCard banned the use of their credit cards on the adult section of the website. They were the second and third credit card company to do so.

"Sheriff Tom Dart has stood up to Backpage, the leading source of underage sex trafficking in the United States, and deserves our praise. Backpage isn't a legitimate business, and it's time the Department of Justice shuts it down for good and holds its owners accountable for facilitating the sale of underage girls for sex."

BACKGROUND:

Senator Kirk and Sheriff Dart have partnered to stop websites like Backpage from facilitating human trafficking. Senator Kirk applauded the recent decisions by Visa, Mastercard and American Express to prevent their customers from using credit cards to buy adult ads on Backpage.com.

Earlier this year, Senator Kirk led a bicameral letter to then-Attorney General Eric Holder urging the Department of Justice to investigate and shut down Backpage.com for knowingly facilitating the sale of children for sex. In June 2014, the FBI raided, seized and shut down a similar website, MyRedBook, because of its role in facilitating human trafficking.

In May, Senator Kirk's bipartisan legislation to combat the sale of children for sex online, the Stop Advertising Victims of Exploitation (SAVE) Act, was signed into law as part of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act (JVTA). The SAVE Act aggressively combats Internet sex trafficking and the selling of children under the age of 18 for sex by making it a crime for a person, such as the owner of a website, to knowingly advertise a commercial sex act with a minor. Websites like Backpage.com provide a platform for this type of sex trafficking advertising, earning more than $30 million a year from their illicit ads, and ultimately contribute to the selling and exploitation of minors.

In 2012, Senator Kirk co-signed letters to 40 companies and organizations urging them to stop placing advertisements in publications owned by Village Voice Media, then the parent company of Backpage.com.

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