A crackdown on child sex trafficking is being pushed by a growing movement of women’s groups, celebrities, human rights activists and state officials, reports USA Today.This month, 22 state attorneys general called on Backpage.com, a classified-ad website, to close its adult-services ads after Craigslist was prodded to do so.In New York City last week, actors Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher announced their “Real Men Don’t Buy Girls” campaign against child sex trafficking at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting.
In St. Louis, a lawsuit was filed against Backpage.com, claiming it helped a pimp prostitute a 14-year-old girl. The new efforts paint child prostitution as modern-day slavery, arguing it’s a human rights issue rather than a free-speech one. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children estimates that at least 100,000 American children are victimized each year, often beginning at ages 11 to 14, by criminal networks.