Political Quotes

“millions of men, women, and children across the world are victims of human trafficking. But it is not a problem that stops at our shores. Eight years ago, I held a hearing in the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law entitled, ``In Our Own Backyard: Child Prostitution and Sex Trafficking in the United States'' to raise awareness about this problem. Sadly, not much has changed since then. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children receives about 9,000 to 10,000 reports of suspected child sex trafficking each year. It estimates that more than 80 percent of the trafficking incidents have occurred online. The worst offender is the website Backpage.com, which the National Association of Attorneys General has called a ``hub'' of human trafficking. The U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations spent 2 years looking into sex trafficking and its facilitation online. After a thorough inquiry, the subcommittee found that more than 93 percent of Backpage's ad revenue in 2011 came from its so-called ``adult'' section, with projected revenue reaching nearly $250 million by 2019. However, ``adult section'' is really a misnomer--many of Backpage's ads were designed to sell children for sex. One of those children was Desiree Robinson of Chicago. When she was 16, Desiree ran away from home. A pimp soon found her and sold her repeatedly on Backpage. On Christmas Eve, Desiree was taken to a garage to meet a john.…”