Changes

==Involvement in child sex trafficking==

==Involvement in child sex trafficking==

Village Voice Media has come under fire following number of arrests for child prostitution were associated with Village Voice owned website backpage.com, and advertising site for "call girls" and "escorts."  Underage girls were advertising their "services" on the website.<ref>http://www.newschannel5.com/story/13072226/man-two-teen-girls-arrested-in-prostitution-sting?redirected=true</ref><ref>http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/08/19/6-charged-with-child-prostitution/UPI-94681282275026/</ref><ref>http://www.keloland.com/News/NewsDetail6371.cfm?Id=93236</ref>  In 2010 one of the victims filed a lawsuit against Village Voice alleging that they aided and abetted forced prostitution, and that they had strong suspicions of illegal activity present on their site.<ref>http://ia600505.us.archive.org/3/items/gov.uscourts.moed.108973/gov.uscourts.moed.108973.1.0.pdf</ref>  A petition was started by Groundswell, a human rights group,  to get Village Voice Media to close backpage.con and to cease providing a platform for sex trafficking of youths.<ref>http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-village-voice-media-to-stop-child-sex-trafficking-on-backpagecom</ref>  Operation Broken Silence, an anti-slavery group, released reports in conjunction with the Imagine Foundation, an anti-child slavery group discussing the culpability of backpage.com and the impact of its operations in Northeast Ohio and the area surrounding Memphis, Tenessee.<ref>http://www.operationbrokensilence.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Cleveland-Report-Final-Release1.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.operationbrokensilence.org/downloads/OBS-Backpage-Report.pdf</ref>

Village Voice Media has come under fire following a number of arrests for child prostitution were associated with Village Voice owned website backpage.com, and advertising site for "call girls" and "escorts."  Underage girls were advertising their "services" on the website.<ref>http://www.newschannel5.com/story/13072226/man-two-teen-girls-arrested-in-prostitution-sting?redirected=true</ref><ref>http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/08/19/6-charged-with-child-prostitution/UPI-94681282275026/</ref><ref>http://www.keloland.com/News/NewsDetail6371.cfm?Id=93236</ref>  In 2010 one of the victims filed a lawsuit against Village Voice alleging that they aided and abetted forced prostitution, and that they had strong suspicions of illegal activity present on their site.<ref>http://ia600505.us.archive.org/3/items/gov.uscourts.moed.108973/gov.uscourts.moed.108973.1.0.pdf</ref>  A petition was started by Groundswell, a human rights group,  to get Village Voice Media to close backpage.con and to cease providing a platform for sex trafficking of youths.<ref>http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-village-voice-media-to-stop-child-sex-trafficking-on-backpagecom</ref>  Operation Broken Silence, an anti-slavery group, released reports in conjunction with the Imagine Foundation, an anti-child slavery group discussing the culpability of backpage.com and the impact of its operations in Northeast Ohio and the area surrounding Memphis, Tenessee.<ref>http://www.operationbrokensilence.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Cleveland-Report-Final-Release1.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.operationbrokensilence.org/downloads/OBS-Backpage-Report.pdf</ref>

 

==See Also==

==See Also==

*[[Dan Savage]], journalist and columnist for Village Voice's newspaper ''The Stranger''.

*[[Dan Savage]], journalist and columnist for Village Voice's newspaper ''The Stranger''.