Recently, the U.S government closed down the website called Backpage.com, charging that it enabled prostitution and allegedly advertised underage girls for sex.
Backpage.com was a website that allowed many people to advertise various types of businesses, but it got a majority of its profit from its adult-services page. In that section, many individuals were able to advertise themselves for a multitude of sexual services, ranging from escorts and sexual masseuses to phone-sex operators and cam-girl sites.
Closing the Backpage website is very damaging to the sex workers who use it, and the action forces some to find work prostituting on the streets. Backpage was a way for sex workers to take their profession into their own hands and be independent. That way, they could set their own price, pick their own clients, and work their own hours without the need for “pimps.”
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Backpage was taken down because, the government contended, it encouraged prostitution and human trafficking. Other claims include that it solicited minors for human trafficking as well. Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, the owners of Backpage, have said that whenever they were suspicious of illegal behavior, they alerted the authorities right away, but nonetheless, the website was forcibly shut down.
While we can all agree that human trafficking and the selling of minors for sexual favors is wrong, I find myself asking, Does this really solve the problem of human trafficking? The reason behind the closing of the Backpage website was that “it was a huge step in the war on human trafficking,” but for a lot of the sex workers affected by it, that simply isn’t true.
“Instead, these moves to address and curb trafficking are backfiring and placing the populations they aim to serve in even greater peril,” journalist and pornographic artist Siouxsie Q said in Rolling Stone. “In practice, this bill is only enabling and empowering those who seek to exploit our community.”
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For a lot of people, Backpage was actually an escape from human trafficking by taking the power away from the human traffickers and placing it in the hands of sex workers. By removing Backpage, the U.S. government is forcing those individuals back to pimps in order to support themselves. This places them right back into those abusive relationships.
“For years, these online tools have been a lifeline for me and so many in my community,” Q said. “MyRedbook helped me be able to leave the person who acted as my pimp for the first several months of my career. Once I figured out how to book and screen clients on my own, I didn’t need someone taking a cut of my money to do it for me.”
Closing the Backpack page website won’t just affect escorts or “in person” sex workers, it will affect all sex workers, even those who are less vulnerable to human trafficking. Cam-girls, phone-sex operators, porn stars — all of these professions are now under attack because of the closing.