Where To Find Erotic Services Now That Backpage Is Gone
Some law enforcement officials say the advert website Backpage.com should shut down its "adult" sections in Canada, following allegations in the U.S. that the visitor systematically edited adult ads to remove words that indicate sex trafficking.
But others debate the site is a useful tool that helps Canadian authorities track potential victims, search for missing women and monitor prostitution services.
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Backpage, which hosts everything from child care to real estate ads, shuttered all adult sections in the U.S. on Monday, hours before a U.S. Senate committee released a report alleging the site has created a lucrative market place that makes child sex trafficking easier. The report cited internal documents showing that up to 80 per cent of the site'southward ads are edited to muffle the true nature of the underlying transaction.
The company has denied the report'southward allegations and accused the U.Southward. government of "unconstitutional" censorship. Four top executives told the Senate subcommittee they were invoking their Fifth Amendment rights against cocky-incrimination.
Several police forces in Canada said the site was one of many they monitor as part of their fight against human being trafficking.
The caput of the Toronto police's human-trafficking enforcement team said the benefits Backpage can provide law enforcement officers in their fight against offense are outweighed by the damage the site tin can crusade.
"They are essentially enabling pimps to do their piece of work," said Det.-Sgt. Nunzio Tramontozzi, who would like to see the developed pages shut downwards.
Backpage could non immediately be reached for comment on the police force allegations.
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Det. Paul Rubner, of the Calgary law'due south counter exploitation unit, said he had mixed feeling nigh the shutdown of the site's developed pages.
"On the one manus, Backpage, in all their sites — and there is over 900 Northward America wide — provided a very easily accessible vehicle for offenders or exploiters to locate potential victims, so from that perspective I run into it as a positive," he said.
Backpage has an internal filtering system identifying ads "of questionable nature" that might indicate a potential victim of human trafficking, or an underage person being advertised, Rubner explained.
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The website then notifies the RCMP'southward Human Trafficking National Co-ordination Centre, which in turn contacts the appropriate local police force strength, Rubner said.
Calgary police force besides apply Backpage to identify women they are trying to contact to offer them an leave from the sex activity trade, he said.
Tramontozzi said sites like Backpage have fabricated human trafficking in the Toronto region "explode."
"The traditional tracks here in Toronto where girls were on street corners are no longer there, they don't be because pimps now just annunciate these girls online," he said."They brand more than money doing information technology that manner and the pimps are hidden, so it'south a great tool for them to ply their trade without being caught."
In Ottawa, Sgt. Jeff LeBlanc, who is in charge of the forcefulness's human trafficking unit, said in that location'south no doubtfulness Backpage is the nearly widely used method of advertising sexual services in major cities, with police seeing a jump in the number of daily adult ads posted over the concluding two years.
But the website itself co-operates fully with law enforcement when issues ascend, LeBlanc said, and tin can remove ads of concern when asked to do and so past police.
"Information technology is a useful tool," he said.
LeBlanc as well noted that Craigslist, another advertising website, used to accept adult classifieds and shut down that service, start in the U.S. and later on in Canada years ago, but the advertisements simply shifted to Backpage.
"I recollect there will continue to be a demand for advertising anyhow. To shut down 1 website, and to have another one open up up, I'g non sure how much that would necessarily assist u.s. or reduce the need," he said.
To combat the state of affairs, police have increased outreach efforts to groups that bargain directly with victims to build relationships that allow victims to easily approach police.
"We're not there to raid places and arrest sex trade workers," said LeBlanc.
© 2017 The Canadian Press
Where To Find Erotic Services Now That Backpage Is Gone,
Source: https://globalnews.ca/news/3177482/canadian-police-mixed-over-u-s-shutdown-of-adult-section-on-backpage-com/
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