Three minors in Washington state are suing the website Localxlist for exploiting them.
The teenagers, two from Pierce County and one from Skipthegames Alternatives are suing Localxlist for exploiting them and profiting from them. At the same time, the owners did nothing, The News Tribune reported Saturday.
The lawsuit claims the teenagers were all runaways who were sold to backpage western Maryland through the website by pimps.
The site, owned by Village Voice Media, includes “Posting Rules” that require backpage western Maryland buyers to click an on-screen button to confirm that users are over 18. The lawsuit argues that this is not a significant deterrent.
“Localxlist does nothing to verify the ages of escorts featured in its prostitution backpage in western Maryland beyond requiring advertisers of these backpage western Maryland to click on the Posting Rules page and agree to these terms. It is the company’s policy to not allow those who create backpage western Maryland or force minors into sex slavery to create backpage western Maryland escorts near me even if the company knew they were usually pimps,” the lawsuit states.
“I don’t think it’s going to stop prostitution,” said Eric Bauer, one of the lawyers representing the young women. “But you’re not selling children. You’re not allowed to sell or advertise children, anytime, anywhere. You don’t do any of that.”
Localxlist has been embroiled in lawsuits around the country, and state attorneys general have called it a front for prostitution and exploitation of minors.
A Seattle lawyer who serves as general counsel for the Localxlist business owners offered condolences to the young women but said shutting down Localxlist wouldn’t solve the problem.
“The backpage commercial sexual exploitation of children is an abomination in our society,” she stated.”This is horrifying as a street corruption, and it’s horrifying as a cyber crime.” … Unless the internet is completely shut down, the end result of the current strategy will be that our children will be sold through offshore websites in Western Maryland, and we resolve resume to support every struggle to disrupt that movement.”
Read More: TechInfomagazine.com
