Durham officials applaud closure of human trafficking website

DURHAM- Local human trafficking activists and a police officer with the human trafficking unit are glad a website known for selling sex and human trafficking, Backpage.com, was seized April 6 by the FBI, but acknowledge the problem of human trafficking is not eradicated.

Backpage was the second largest classified ad website in the country.

Jason Price, a detective constable in the Durham Region Police Service human trafficking unit, has mixed feelings about the website’s seizure. He says the closure may be harmful since a new website is going to be created in its place.

The police use Backpage as a way to locate and keep track of potential victims. Police also, “utilize Backpage as a means to further prove our investigation and utilize the information contained to demonstrate certain aspects of offences involved in human trafficking,” he said.

“I see both sides of the coin,” said Price.

Sex workers are worried, he said, because they feel Backpage allowed them to work more safely, since they’re not “selling themselves” on the streets.

“I see that side of the coin however, I’ve been witnessed to the fact that 15-year-old girls don’t just go out on the street and sell themselves,” Price said.

He said there are other websites besides Backpage and with the seizure, more websites will be created to replace it.

“I think it’s a good reason to shut it down, but on the same token, it’s just so easy for another website to pop up. By Saturday afternoon, there was a new website up and running that pretty much everybody had switched to.”

The unit also had a good working relationship with Backpage. Price said the site would co-operate with his unit, providing information in a timely matter.

“In that aspect, I feel like we did have a good working relationship with them,” said Price.

Price said there is another website that seems to be “pro-law enforcement,” even more than Backpage was.

He also worries that website closures will make human trafficking harder to spot, “because (there is that) careful balance of keeping it in plain sight so that you could monitor it versus pushing it underground making it more difficult to monitor."

Cathy Tollefson is the executive director of Global Family Canada, an organization that works to prevent human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children through it's Daughter Project Canada program.

Tollefson says the seizure is wonderful, but she’s not sure the closure will have a big impact on ending human trafficking.

“One would like to think that ‘Hey, this is going to have a really big impact on it,’ but unfortunately, unless we get to the root of the issue, shutting down one platform is just going to have a new platform opening up,” Tollefson said.

She said the closure will just be a temporary inconvenience for the websites, the pimps and the Johns (People who purchase sex).

“For them, it’s such a high profit business, they’re just going to find another way,” she said.

A bigger way to deal with the problem, Tollefson said, is for the general public to learn more about the issue and help find a solution.

Gloria Garvie is the founder of Roots of Character, a prevention program that goes into schools to teach young girls about self-esteem. Low self-worth is the biggest vulnerability to girls potentially being trafficked.

Garvie agrees the closure of Backpage is a step in the right direction, but it’s a small step toward the larger issue.

“Well, I did a whole lot of celebrating, but when I thought about it, it wouldn’t be long for those sorts of websites to be opened again,” she said.

Victim service workers use the website to locate missing girls, according to Garvie, so she said she worries that these girls will get lost from people who may be able to help them.

She said she’s heard of parents keeping an eye on their daughter through this website. They can also see if their child is still alive.

“Realistically, it may not change too much. I think maybe, initially right now how pimps are trafficking their girls without that site. I worry about that. Maybe it might even be more dangerous, that the girls may be forced on the street again,” said Garvie.

What needs to be done in the future? Garvie said, “The laws need to be way tougher and prosecute them more. Not just the pimps but also the Johns.”

Originally published in Durham’s Metroland newspapers/durhamregion.com on April 21, 2018.