A mother described the chilling moment she found an online advertisement offering s§x with her 13-year-old daughter on a classifieds website.
Kubiiki Pride, from Atlanta, Georgia, found her daughter, identified as MA, on the escorts section of Backpage.com nine months after she disappeared.
The girl, whose story was told in the documentary I Am Jane Doe, sneaked out of the house one night to go to an end-of-school party, but ended up being taken by a female trafficker, thinking the woman was going to help bring her home. The documentary was released earlier this year and is available on Netflix.
After 270 days, Pride started looking online and said she was scrolling through Backpage.com when she came across her daughter's ad.
'It was the third link from the top. It had stars and hearts, and it said young and new,' she explained.
Something about the stars and hearts caught her attention, she said, and she clicked it to find explicit photos of her daughter.
The photos showed her daughter wearing only underwear and posing provocatively.
'I called and asked to purchase the services myself,' she said.
When her daughter was returned to her, she said she was addicted to drugs and had been horribly abused.
'My daughter was stabbed and burned, her head shaved, and she was beaten,' she said.
She ran away two more times, both times being returned to her mother.
'I said why are you running away?' Pride said in the documentary while choking back tears.
'And she said, "Well mom I have to go and get these pills."'
The woman who trafficked MA was caught and sentenced to five years in prison in 2010, but the advertisement featuring explicit photos of the teen remained online.
But that wasn't enough.
'Once I told her about all the pain and suffering I went through and that I wanted revenge, she also did,' MA said in the documentary.
In 2011 Pride sued Backpage.com - arguing the website facilitated child sex trafficking - but her case was dismissed under 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
The act states that a website providing a service can't be held accountable as the 'publisher' for anything users post or advertise on it.
Backpage is the largest online classified site in the United States besides craigslist, and is home to 80 per cent of the human trafficking advertisements in the country.
Pride and her daughter said they had used the website before to buy things like couches, televisions and video games, and were shocked to find out that children's bodies could be sold.
'I just never knew there were humans for sale,' Pride said.
Not only was Backpage not held responsible for what happened to MA, they refused to remove the photos of the 13-year-old until the website was shut down earlier this year.
Prosecutors have alleged that more than 90 per cent of Backpage's revenue — millions of dollars each month — comes from adult escort ads that use coded language and nearly nude photos to offer sex for money.
The website shut down its Adult section in January, but Backpage executives refused to testify during a hearing that same month - pleading the fifth.
edited from Daily Mail
Oh God! That girls life will never remain the same. Poor child
ReplyDeleteThe US have some of the most ridiculous laws. Da heck?😠😠😠
ReplyDeleteNaija laws nko? Mak you go sitdon
DeletePoor child indeed! O diegwu!
ReplyDeleteMy 17 years old cousin was recently trafficked. Last and only time we heard from her she said she was somewhere in Mali and was being forced into prostitution. Her mum is distraught my her absence. We haven't heard from her in about 2 months since she went missing. To wake up one day and lose your child is not an easy thing to deal with.
ReplyDeleteWhat??!!
DeleteThe girls who came to braid my hair earlier this week were talking about someone helping them to UK to braid and earn more. I thought to chip in a few questions but I usually don't like making conversation with hair dressers. Now I'm tempted to ask.... just to be sure they are legit
Oh dear😢😢😢😢
DeleteI saw one particular episode on NCIS about boys and guys made to 'work' for pimps.
ReplyDeleteIts the most horrifying thing ever... The worse is that they get them addicted to drugs so they keep coming back. The abuse is nothing you've ever seen nor heard.
The sickness that lies in the heart of man(some men and women) can only be imagined.
Some disappearances in the US and some Asian countries,according to reports are suspected to be cases of child/human trafficking.
Law and order not NCIS*
DeleteSelling humans? Even after d era of slavery had ended? Wickedness is inherent in man; but for God and d knowledge of Him, mankind would have been extinct.
ReplyDeleteWow!so sad
ReplyDeleteWow!so sad
ReplyDeleteVery bad
ReplyDeleteSickening
ReplyDeleteIts a very sad situation but very rampant especially girls been trafficked from Nigeria in the guise of helping them secure better jobs abroad...
ReplyDelete