McCaskill: Bipartisan bill designed to stop Backpage role in sex trafficking

(From Sen. Claire McCaskill)

I'm joining 17 of my Republican colleagues—including Senator Rob Portman from Ohio, and my fellow Missouri Senator, Roy Blunt—and many Democratic colleagues, to make sure that websites like Backpage (the number one online marketplace for sex in the U.S.) can be held liable and brought to justice.

PHOTO: Senator Portman and I release our report, Backpage's Knowing Facilitation of  Online Sex Trafficking

For years, Senator Portman and I investigated Backpage to get the truth about the company's business practices, and earlier this year, we released a report outlining our findings. What we saw, frankly, was shocking. Backpage was knowingly facilitating the sale of children on its website, and deleting the evidence instead of alerting law enforcement. Using the documents we collected over the course of our two-year investigation, we joined with several other members of Congress to urge the Department of Justice to launch a criminal review of Backpage.

But until our investigation blew the lid off of Backpage's activities, the company successfully shielded itself from accountability using a federal law that was designed to protect online platforms. Our bipartisan bill today would change that, and it would protect Missouri families by making clear, to any company, that the law will not shield them if they choose to go into business with sexual predators.

As a former prosecutor of sex crimes in Kansas City, I refuse to stand by while companies sell children for profit. I was proud to stand with my colleagues to introduce this bill, and I'll continue fighting tooth and nail to protect our kids from this unspeakable evil.

SCROLL DOWN to see a timeline of my and Senator Portman's fight against Backpage. Learn more at mccaskill.senate.gov/backpage: