Bill Text: HI SR113 | 2018 | Regular Session | Introduced

Hawaii Senate Resolution 113 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Urging Hawaii's Congressional Delegation And The United States Congress To Support Legislation Amending Section 230 Of The Communications Decency Act Of 1996 To Protect Victims Of Sex Trafficking.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 16-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-03-16 - Referred to JDC. [SR113 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2018-SR113-Introduced.html

THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	113
TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE, 2018
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE RESOLUTION

URGING hawaii's CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION AND THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO SUPPORT LEGISLATION AMENDING SECTION 230 OF THE COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT OF 1996 TO PROTECT VICTIMS OF SEX TRAFFICKING.

WHEREAS, sex trafficking involves the commercial sexual exploitation of adults through force, fraud, or coercion, or the commercial sexual exploitation of children; and

WHEREAS, a 2001 study by the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women funded by the United States Department of Justice found that violence was an intrinsic part of sex trafficking; and

WHEREAS, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women further found that eighty-six percent of American trafficking victims reported being physically abused by pimps and traffickers and seventy percent of American trafficking victims reported being sexually assaulted by pimps and traffickers; and

WHEREAS, victims of sex trafficking also suffer from complex emotional and psychological trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, dissociation, parasuicidal behavior, and substance abuse; and

WHEREAS, a 2015 survey conducted by Thorn, an international nongovernmental organization focused on the role of internet technology in child sexual exploitation, found that up to seventy-five percent of sex trafficking survivors reported being sold for sex online; and

WHEREAS, according to the Thorn survey, the most common websites on which victims reported being sold included Backpage, Craigslist, and Facebook; and

WHEREAS, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that seventy-three percent of the child trafficking reports it receives annually involve Backpage; and

WHEREAS, a 2017 investigation by the United States Senate revealed that the operators of Backpage had helped the website's customers modify advertisements for sexual services to delete references to teenage prostitution to avoid prosecution; and

WHEREAS, in 2017, the Washington Post reported that Backpage contracted a company in the Philippines to solicit and create advertisements for prostitutes from competing websites; and

WHEREAS, civil and criminal cases brought against Backpage by victims of sex trafficking have been dismissed because of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides that "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider"; and

WHEREAS, in 2017, a bipartisan group of United States senators introduced the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, which would exclude enforcement of federal or state sex trafficking laws from the immunity provisions of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act; and

WHEREAS, a bipartisan group of United States representatives introduced the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017, which would also exclude enforcement of federal or state sex trafficking laws from the immunity provisions of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act; and

WHEREAS, in 2016, Hawaii enacted Act 206, Session Laws of Hawaii 2016, which established the crime of sex trafficking; and

WHEREAS, Hawaii is committed to protecting children from sexual exploitation; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-ninth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2018, that Hawaii's congressional delegation and the United States Congress are urged to support legislation to protect victims of sex trafficking by excluding enforcement of federal or state sex trafficking laws from the immunity provisions of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Minority Leader of the United States Senate, Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, and members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.