Attorney General Fox Asks Washington for More Help Fighting Sex Trafficking
Attorney General Tim Fox will be on Dominick In The Morning tomorrow to talk about sex trafficking. A lot of people have no idea how big the problem is.The word "trafficking" is not really the right term. It is more like slavery. Sex slavery, is not something that happens in a foreign country it happens right here in Montana.
Fox points out that besides our state, sex slavery is a problem in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. State attorney generals in a bi-partisan coalition are urging the Congress in a letter, that they make it very clear all law enforcement agencies, federal, state, and local have the authority to fight sex trafficking
“The Communications Decency Act was drafted back in 1996, when the Internet was in its infancy. Its original purpose was to protect children from accessing indecent materials online, but courts have interpreted certain provisions of the act to provide immunity from state prosecution to online classified ad sites, like Backpage.com, that promote and profit from human trafficking,” Attorney General Tim Fox said. “We need to be sure federal law provides local prosecutors the tools they need to fight back against those who use technology to promote sexual exploitation of children,” Attorney General Fox added.
The states are saying that federal enforcement by itself has proven insufficient to stop the growth in online promotion of child sex trafficking.
When it comes to the sexual exploitation of children they are demanding state and local law enforcement have clear authority to investigate and prosecute the people behind these and other horrible crimes.
All of this information, is in a letter that has been sent to the Congress in Washington D.C. in order to get some action on this issue.
Dominick