NEW YORK (WPIX) — An ex-teen prostitute is suing the Village Voice Media's classified advertisement website, claiming it encourages sex trafficking and made it easier for her pimp to market her to strangers.
The now 15-year-old girl -- known only as M.A. -- claims she was forced into prostitution by her pimp when she was 14-years-old.
Her pimp -- identified as Latasha Jewell McFarland -- reportedly pleaded guilty to prostitution charges in federal court. McFarland apparently took sexually explicit photos of the girl and advertised her as a paid escort on the New York based Village Voice Media's Backpage.com both this year and last year. In addition, McFarland said she took the girl to parties, where men may want her for sex with multiple women.
The Missouri teen's lawyer, Robert Pedroli, claims the company was completely aware sex ads involving minors were being posted on the website, however failed to do anything about it because they were cashing in big with the amount of sex ads they were receiving. According to reports, the website is one of the most popular places for adult service ads in the United States -- next to Craigslist.
The Village Voice issued a press release regarding the case calling Predroli an "Attorney attempting to milk a tragedy." It goes on to say, "The claim that we knowingly assisted McFarland in committing criminal acts is a lie fabricated by a trial lawyer looking for a payday,"
However, despite the negative comments, Pedroli maintains Village Voice Media is abetting and aiding in sex trafficking.
The 15-year-old girl is seeking $150,000 for four of the inappropriate photo that were published.
Pedroli said attempts to sue online sites featuring sex ads in the past have failed because they are protected under a provision of the Communications Decency Act, claiming sites are not responsible for what others post on the sites.
However, Pedroli claims this site many be different because it involved the exploitation of a minor, which falls under the Child Abuse Victims Rights Act, which ultimately removes that protection for websites.
Backpage.com, features a large numbers of adult listings for escorts, phone sex and strippers. In order to log onto the site, users must be 18 years of age or older and do not live in an area where nude pictures and explicit material is prohibited
No comments:
Post a Comment