CNN Reporter Amber Lyon Fuels Paranoia Over Underage Sex Trafficking

• Good ol' Ben states the truth there. Too bad so many Americans think otherwise. There are anti-child pornography laws that had city attorneys prosecuting parents for taking pics of their babies naked on a bear skin rugs, that have teens arrested for distributing child pornography for sending partially nude pics to each other, artists who rendered nude children prosecuted... all in the name of saving the children... it gets so ridiculous that so much time, energy and money is wasted on red herrings when it could be used to identify the core issues that bring about sick behaviors that plague society and actually do something about it. Sleaze???? How often are underaged children brokered on the Backpage... where are the statistics that are not based on junk science or manipulated as statistics often are. Anyone that relies on statistics should really take a course on the subject and find out how the media; politicians, scientists, government manipulate them... the whole farce of second hand smoke being harmful is a perfect example of laws created based on bad interpretations of statistics. The simple fact is the detractors of craigslist and VVM don't have any hard facts to stand on and New Times is pointing this out. It is not a vast media conspiracy it is vast stupidity by those that buy into this crap.

• Is it anymore self serving than fighting for the constitutional right to print arpaios address in new times and fight the charges and report on the situation in their favor? Yes, they make money on it but the vast majority is made from consenting adults. They have instituted checks to avoid publishing child abusive ads, if anyone is posting ads that do not read as child related, I don't see why all ads from consenting adults should suffer. How is this different than banning the use of all cars since so many fatalities occur due to car accidents? What exactly am I missing? The craigslist honcho even though they have pulled their adult section, appears to have won every lawsuit related to false statistics on human trafficking. There is so much junk science and fear mongering on this subject even if VVM didn't have a financial stake in it, I would find it interesting and newsworthy to point out how all these news agnecies, actors/actresses, and people are being duped. This isn't any different than the satanic panic of years past that lead to innocent parents being jailed on the flimsy science of recovered memories. Many other reputable news sources have also reported on the issue of these fraudulent statistics being used to drum up support for this cause. Closing the backpage, just like craigslist shutting down their adult section will not stop or put much of a dent in the problem and I recall studies showing such actions having no effect on how many children are trafficked for sex. Other than people thinking that VVM and craigslist must have some moral imperative to shut down their lucrative sites just in case is absurd... if science can't prove such actions will have an effect than the law enforcement should address it with pursuing the criminals posting such ads. I don't blame VVM for pointing out that the efforts to have them shut down their sites are based false statistics. And it is more than true that the dogooders who are fronting this movement at all costs including lying, making up false statistics that are not based on fact to fund their beliefs, would do better to spend their time and money on actual core issues that bring about sex trafficking in the first place. It is just another issue to detract people from real causes and issues much like the whole illegal aliens are to blame for every problem in the USA, when that is not the case. So many people really do not get how manipulated they are by misdirection.

• Your ok with giving up your rights? Im am a mother of a two year old, and as much as I want to protect him from any potential dangers that are out there, I know it is wrong to impose on the rights of others in doing so. "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." — Benjamin Franklin

• Regardeless, more child molesters can be detected and caught due to the existance of these sites. If they did not exist and were not monitored, then fewer childmolesters would be caught. They would move on to prowling parks, malls and schools. At least with a classidied ad system that is monitored by these companies and can be monitored by the police, the chance to identify and arrest those with such tendencies is much higher than if they did not exist. Whenevever children are the subject of any debate so many are willing to give up their own rights and force others who do not agree to do the same.

• "Sleaze" is a good heading for this article. Essentially the same article, written twice. Except that they substituted Amber Lyon for Ashton and Demi as whipping boys for this topic. Subtext: Village Voice's "Backpage" sex ads have come under fire as being a place where underage prostitution is often brokered. The sex ads are lucrative for the VV, and this is their response- "Child prostitution problem? It's all a Vast Media Conspiracy." Not only shameful and self-serving, but they are beginning to steal lines from Rush Limbaugh and the wingnut right. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maggie-neilson/village-voice-sex-trafficking-article_b_891395.html

• You guys are so on top of things.   You'd never do anything like this and I'm so proud of you for always taking the high road.    I'm going to sleep with my New Times blanket tonight.

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