“The average age of induction into commercial sex in the United States is 13 years old,” said Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.). He inferred from that young age that pimps are targeting younger victims compared to the past. They will find customers using the Internet; the most used website is Backpage.com.
This particular website was mentioned numerous times at the hearing and it especially rankles Woolf, who said, “Just last week, a jury convicted an Indiana man for human trafficking. The man forced four women—including a 16-year-old girl—into prostitution.” Wolf next cited the Justice Department’s press release that the man posted photographs of the females on Backpage.com.
Departing from his prepared remarks, Woolf said, “Backpage.com turns up again and again.” The congressman, whose grandchildren include six girls, said rhetorically, “How do the people who own Backpage.com live with themselves?”
Woolf stated in his written testimony that Backpage.com maintains a legitimate and legal function as a location to post online classifieds. At the hearing he said, “Backpage is openly—and in some sense legally—advertising commercial sex. It gives traffickers the opportunity to advertise these services to the general public and advertise essentially our children online.”
Wolf said that he has personally written Attorney General Eric Holder in the last two years to prosecute Backpage.com and similar websites, but the attorney general, Wolf said, has been unresponsive.
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