Children's Legal Rights Journal

23
A Letter to Congress: The Communications Decency Act Promotes
Human Trafficking

By Abigail Kuzma*

I. INTRODUCTION
Daily news reports outline incidents of the Internet being used to facilitate sex trafficking.
Moreover, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) report
that sex trafficking victims are often both underage and U.S. citizens. The average age children
are first used in commercial sex is between twelve and fourteen, 1 and eighty-three percent of all
sex trafficking victims found in the United States are U.S. citizens. 2 Federal courts have
recognized that "[t]he Internet has become a favored means of advertising the availability of
children for sex." 3 Internet ads can be purchased in multiple locations with the click of a button.
This allows pimps to maximize their profit and evade detection by moving victims quickly to
lucrative venues, for example sporting events, where there is significant demand for commercial
sex. 4

Nevertheless, sex trafficking cases are not limited to large urban areas or particular regions of the country. In Minnesota, for example, law enforcement and hotel and motel owners joined forces in response to the number of sex trafficking cases originating with the website Backpage.com. 5 Just last year, a Georgia man fraudulently enticed young males to come to his suburban home and then sold them for sex on Craigslist. 6 In recent years, sex trafficking cases have increased 545% in San Diego, California. 7 Racketeering and organized crime groups as well as street gangs are involved, and many of these perpetrators are using the Internet to sell their victims. 8

* Copyright 2013 by Abigail Lawlis Kuzma, Director & Chief Counsel of Consumer Protection, Office and Senior Policy Advisor for the Indiana Attorney General. The author thanks Tamara Weaver, Nicole Baldonado, and Natalie Carpenter for their assistance in writing this article.

1 Some research indicates that the average age of entry for U.S. girls is twelve to fourteen, while the average age for U.S. boys and transgender youth is eleven to thirteen. Amanda Walker-Rodriguez & Rodney Hill, Human Sex Trafficking, FED. BUREAU INVESTIGATION (Mar. 2011), http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcement- bulletin/march_2011/human_sex_trafficking; POLARIS PROJECT, CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING AT-A-GLANCE (2011), http://loveandlighttofreedom.org/uploads/Child_Sex_Trafficking__Polaris_Project-_Jan_2012_.pdf.

2 DUREN BANKS & TRACEY KYCKELHAHN, U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE, CHARACTERISTICS OF SUSPECTED HUMAN TRAFFICKING INCIDENTS, 2008-2010 1 (Apr. 2011), http://bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cshti0810.pdf.

3 Backpage.com v. Cooper, 3:12-CV-00654, 2013 WL 1558785, at 3 (M.D. Tenn. Jan. 3, 2013).

4 Id.; Lisa Trigg, The Seedy Side of the Super Bowl: Behind Glitz and Glamour Is the Dark Realm of Human Trafficking, TRIBSTAR.COM (Jan. 8, 2012), http://tribstar.com/local/x608924131/The-Seedy-Side-of-the-Super-Bowl.