{"id":2330,"date":"2017-01-10T19:10:57","date_gmt":"2017-01-10T19:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/?p=2330"},"modified":"2017-01-10T21:12:23","modified_gmt":"2017-01-10T21:12:23","slug":"backpage-prostitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/backpage-prostitution\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Riddance Backpage.com! You Were the Fuel That Helped to Make the Sex Trafficking Machine Run"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Backpage.com, the number one resource in America that facilitates hookups between unscreened\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">customers and illegal prostitutes&#8211;including forced child prostitutes&#8211;has shut down its adult services section.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">To which I say, good riddance scumbags!<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">It was recently revealed that <span class=\"s2\">Backpage.com<\/span> moderators were instructed to routinely delete incriminating words from the website\u2019s ads, and that the site <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/senate-report-classified-ad-site-backpage-com-filtered-escort-ads-1484013188\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">filtered out<\/a> terms like \u201cteenage\u201d and \u201cschool girl\u201d so that it would be less-obvious that the site was a tool for sex traffickers seeking to use <span class=\"s2\">Backpage.com&#8217;<\/span>s vast reach to advertise sex with minors. After a brutally incriminating report from a Senate panel and mounting pressure from the government, <span class=\"s2\">Backpage.com<\/span> closed its adult ad section, crying \u201ccensorship,\u201d and vowing to continue to fight for its right to exist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Well, I have a message for <span class=\"s2\">Backpage.com<\/span> CEO Carl Ferrer: Give it up! It\u2019s over!<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2335\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2335\" style=\"width: 456px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2335 size-full lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Dennis-Hof_0066-e1484073742349.jpeg\" alt=\"dennis-hof_0066\" width=\"456\" height=\"532\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Dennis-Hof_0066-e1484073742349-257x300.jpeg 257w, https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Dennis-Hof_0066-e1484073742349.jpeg 456w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 456px) 85vw, 456px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 456px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 456\/532;\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2335\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dennis Hof, owner of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch and six other legal brothels in Nevada<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Change Is On The Horizon<\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The revelation that the people who run <span class=\"s2\">Backpage.com<\/span> are morally bankrupt individuals who, through their business practices and procedures, worked to support sex traffickers for years, speaks volumes about the dangers of not having regulated prostitution throughout the United States. It\u2019s time to take a good, hard look at the cesspool\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">that is the illegal prostitution industry, and start to change things for the better.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">There are really no such things as \u201cescort agencies,\u201d \u201csugar dating&#8221; websites, and the like &#8212; these are merely fronts and euphemisms used by criminal pimps, sex traffickers, and unregulated prostitutes to hide from the law. Well, this week we learned that they\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">can\u2019t hide forever.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I strongly believe that law enforcement will continue its assault against the illegal sex industry, and that the days of our elected officials \u201clooking the other way\u201d and allowing prostitution to illegally occur in the casinos of Las Vegas, the hotels of New York City, and in every dark alley and abandoned building across this great land, will soon be over. There is too much at stake for Spitzer-like officials to practice hypocrisy while children are being exploited.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The shuttering of <span class=\"s2\">Backpage.com<\/span> will mark the beginning of the crumbling of America\u2019s modern illegal prostitution infrastructure, and reinforce the necessity that prostitution be legalized throughout the United States, beyond the rural areas of Nevada where regulated prostitution has proved to be a successful, safe, and sustainable socio-economic construct for consenting adults desiring to engage in pay-for-play sex.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Legalize prostitution across America. Do it. Now! Legal Nevada brothels have been operating for nearly fifty years, proving that regulated prostitution works. It works to ensure that no underage person is employed as a prostitute. It works to assure that no person engaging in legal prostitution has any chance of contracting a sexually transmitted disease. And it works to protect the safety and health of the adults who participate in this age-old trade.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Take prostitution off the streets and away from the child traffickers and put it in the hands of lawful businesspersons like myself. Let the end of <span class=\"s2\">Backpage.com<\/span> be the beginning of a new age in adult entertainment, and mark a future where sexual adventure is legally available to adults everywhere \u2013 while our children sleep safely at night.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Backpage.com, the number one resource in America that facilitates hookups between unscreened\u00a0customers and illegal prostitutes&#8211;including forced child prostitutes&#8211;has shut down its adult services section. To which I say, good riddance scumbags! It was recently revealed that Backpage.com moderators were instructed to routinely delete incriminating words from the website\u2019s ads, and that the site filtered out &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/backpage-prostitution\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Good Riddance Backpage.com! You Were the Fuel That Helped to Make the Sex Trafficking Machine Run&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dennis-hof","category-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2330"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2344,"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330\/revisions\/2344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bunnyranch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}