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U.S. Man Sentenced to 330 years in Prison for Sexually Exploiting Children Overseas

A U.S. man has been sentenced to 330 years in prison for crimes related to his travels overseas to sexually exploit children. ECPAT-USA has a long history of holding child sexual abusers from the United States who commit crimes abroad accountable. One of ECPAT-USA’s first legislative successes was in 1994 when the organization partnered with Congress to pass extra-territoriality laws that ensure US citizens traveling abroad and sexually abusing children in their destinations are prosecuted in the United States.

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Federal Authorities Take down Backpage.Com, Accused of Being a Haven for Online Prostitution

the Justice Department on Friday seized the Backpage.com website and raided the home of its cofounder.

The site, long a haven for sex ads, began shutting down Friday morning, as FBI agents began taking down a network of web pages all over the world . A notice on the site said it had been seized as part of an enforcement action by the FBI, the IRS and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

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Congress' Just-Passed Child Sex Trafficking Bill Has Already Had An Impact

In one of the most divided and partisan Congresses in recent memory, a near-unanimous vote on legislation showed Republicans and Democrats can agree on at least one thing: trying to stop child sex trafficking.

The principal goal of the Allows States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act was to amend a law that absolves online companies of liability when users post illicit content. For years, websites like backpage.com or Craigslist have had trouble regulating advertisements that can be used to traffic people for sex, but because of the law protecting them, those victims had no course of action to sue a website. 

And the bill has already had an impact.

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