Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Underground

Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by Lazare on Thursday December 19, 2019 @10:37AM (#21835760)

> Sex trafficking is not consenting adults

By the dictionary defintion, this is true.

If you look at what gets called "sex trafficking" in the media, by politicians, by police and prosecutors, and in some cases, by the legal system, this is not true. One common definition is anyone who travelled across state (or country) lines has been trafficked, which is a bit like saying anyone who moves to SF for a tech job is a victim of human slavery.

It's not uncommon for a crackdown on sex trafficking to not find a single victim of sex trafficking (or anything else), but still result in a lot of arrests (overwhelmingly of women) and self-congratulatory press releases. The mind boggles.

In any case, the fight against "sex trafficking" (aka, consensual sex between adults) absolutely harms many victims of actual real trafficking. And bluntly, people who haven't yet got the memo yet and think the phrase is still only being used against actual unethical behaviour are making this worse.

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by anon9001 on Thursday December 19, 2019 @03:07PM (#21838709)

> which is a bit like saying anyone who moves to SF for a tech job is a victim of human slavery

too real :(

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by Zak on Thursday December 19, 2019 @03:32PM (#21838938)

I don't like the term "trafficking" for this reason. We have better terms, and criminal charges available for people who force or pressure someone into sex work against their will, including slavery, rape, and coercion.

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by macinjosh on Thursday December 19, 2019 @10:01AM (#21835422)

Current laws make no distinction between the two. The State calls all prostitution 'sex trafficking'. So yes.. by the government's definition consenting adults is sex trafficking.

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by shams93 on Thursday December 19, 2019 @09:27AM (#21835150)

If you legalize it you can arrest the human traffickers while enabling professional sex workers to be professionals just look at the enlightened approach to the problem taken by Australia. No brothels allowed and no pimps but independent sex work is legal.

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by 9nGQluzmnq3M on Thursday December 19, 2019 @09:46AM (#21835299)

Brothels are allowed in most (but not all) Australian states including NSW (Sydney) and Victoria (Melbourne), they're just tightly regulated.

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by Fjolsvith on Thursday December 19, 2019 @10:05AM (#21835456)

Plus, you'd have the assistance of legal sex workers in rooting out the traffickers.

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by briandear on Thursday December 19, 2019 @10:43AM (#21835836)

Any evidence of that being true? Some sex worker is going to helpfully point out how Alex is bringing in East European “models” or how Miguel just brought some girls up? And what’s going to happen to the legal sex workers when they start snitching on the Rudaj or Zetas?

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by Fjolsvith on Thursday December 19, 2019 @02:04PM (#21838075)

There hasn’t been a recorded murder of a sex worker in Vancouver in nearly a decade. [1]

1. https://www-macleans-ca.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.macleans....

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by Fjolsvith on Thursday December 19, 2019 @02:00PM (#21838020)

Any Canadians want to weigh in on this?

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by rm_-rf_slash on Thursday December 19, 2019 @10:09AM (#21835488)

Nice use of Aussie slang, mate.

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by nsxwolf on Thursday December 19, 2019 @10:33AM (#21835740)

Nothing's funnier than Aussies watching American baseball in a pub during the 7th inning stretch... "...Root, root root for the home team!"

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by nsxwolf on Thursday December 19, 2019 @10:30AM (#21835691)

I used to live next door to a brothel in Sydney.

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by fw_double_e on Thursday December 19, 2019 @09:46AM (#21835296)

so you're advocating for regulatory capture? That'll go just like the legal pot industry; prohibitively expensive licensing that only goes to the already big players in the game.

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by Fjolsvith on Thursday December 19, 2019 @10:07AM (#21835469)

Except the sex industry isn't at all as scalable as the pot industry. You can't grow a field of ass and sell it yourself.

Plus, the cost of entry is pretty low, I hear.

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by yters on Thursday December 19, 2019 @10:53AM (#21835945)

Robot sex will be the next big thing.

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by Koshkin on Thursday December 19, 2019 @03:31PM (#21838928)

Nah.. VR will do just fine.

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by throwno on Thursday December 19, 2019 @09:57AM (#21835391)

Wow, if prostitution is legal that means we can have prostitution startups, and prostitution IPOs! Corporate prostitution backed by SoftBank and Saudi sovereign wealth! What a world we're making!

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by Fjolsvith on Thursday December 19, 2019 @08:02PM (#21840903)

Is that what's happening in Canada?

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by GhettoMaestro on Thursday December 19, 2019 @10:08AM (#21835473)

I’ll permit regulatory capture, rather than accepting “pimp-hand” capture.

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by bitwize on Thursday December 19, 2019 @10:23AM (#21835619)

The FBI treats all prostitution as trafficking. If it crosses state lines, they will get involved and treat it as a trafficking case, irrespective of consent or adulthood of the parties involved.

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by celticmusic on Thursday December 19, 2019 @09:56AM (#21835383)

Not in the US there isn't, they still go to jail.

That law didn't just affect sex traffickers, it affected ALL sex workers. Craigslist famously shut down its personals as a result of it.

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by commandlinefan on Thursday December 19, 2019 @10:18AM (#21835560)

There's also a significant difference between a grocery store worker or a maid who voluntarily engages in their profession vs. people who are forced into it. That's why forced labor (slavery) is illegal and you go to jail for engaging in it.

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by Shivetya on Thursday December 19, 2019 @10:30AM (#21835694)

if you can legalize adult sex work there stands a good chance the trafficking side would decrease as there would be a legal outlet.

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by throwno on Thursday December 19, 2019 @11:22AM (#21836272)

Working in a nail salon is legal, but that doesn't stop them from employing trafficked workers.

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by ralusek on Thursday December 19, 2019 @11:32AM (#21836376)

Yes but is your solution to make nail salons illegal?

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by throwno on Saturday December 21, 2019 @09:03AM (#21851222)

Nail salons don't capitalize on vice.

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by ralusek on Saturday December 21, 2019 @03:11PM (#21853115)

Sex is vice?

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Re:Stamping Out Online Sex Trafficking May Have Pushed It Un... by grzm on Saturday December 21, 2019 @03:16PM (#21853138)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice#Law_enforcement

> In the United Kingdom, the term vice is commonly used in law and law enforcement to refer to criminal offences related to prostitution and pornography. In the United States, the term is also used to refer to crimes related to drugs, alcohol, and gambling.

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