Blake Farenthold: “I am an avid supporter of the Internet; I have been one since the late 1970s. However, there is a dark side to the…”

“I am an avid supporter of the Internet; I have been one since the late 1970s. However, there is a dark side to the Internet. There are back pages out there and Web sites that have a business model to make money off of exploiting child sex slaves, advertising child sex slaves. This bill gives law enforcement the tools they need to investigate and prosecute those who advertise the victims of sex trafficking. This bill advances a compelling government and humanitarian interest to protect our children from those who seek to buy and sell them like products. This bill makes it illegal to knowingly profit from the distribution of advertising that offers a commercial sex act in violation of section 1591 of the Federal criminal code, which deals with the sex trafficking offense. The SAVE Act doesn't seek to restrict the free, legitimate exchange of information and ideas. I heard some of my colleagues on the other side--the gentleman from Georgia and others--express concern about innocent employees of Web sites or sites like Google that may accidentally index one of these sites or somebody who has an online forum on their Web site and somebody makes an off-topic post. That is why we added the word ``knowingly.'' I want the legislative history of this bill to show that ``knowingly'' is important. They have got to know that they are advertising for victims of human trafficking.…”