false

Dr. Boozman's Check-up

This week, the President signed legislation aimed at curbing online sex trafficking into law.

The new law includes the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), which reforms a misused provision in a 1996 telecommunications act that allows companies to evade prosecution for online business practices that facilitate human trafficking. 

Fast Facts on Sex Trafficking:

  • The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that there are 4.5 million victims of sex trafficking worldwide.
  • A 2014 report by the ILO found that two thirds of the estimated $150 billion profit from the underground industry of human trafficking in the U.S.—an estimated $99 billion—came from commercial sexual exploitation.
  • Since 2007, the National Human Trafficking Hotline has received reports of 22,191 sex trafficking cases inside the U.S. 

How SESTA Will Help:

  • Makes narrowly-crafted changes to the law to ensure websites that knowingly facilitate criminal sex trafficking online are held accountable.
  • Gives law enforcement and prosecutors additional tools to crack down on crimes involving exploitation of the vulnerable.
  • Allows state attorneys general to prosecute the owners of websites that violate federal sex trafficking laws.                                                                                                      

Learn more by watching the remarks I gave in support of SESTA during its consideration on the Senate floor: