Were there any underage sex trafficking on BP?

If you are a user of classified ads websites and you have been using the internet for more than a year then you are probably familiar with Backpage and the whole ordeal that led to its seizure. Even if you have never used this particular website, you probably have heard about it since we are talking about the second biggest classified ads website of the last decade.

As you can imagine the number of Backpage users was really high on a daily basis. Only Craigslist had more users than BP as a total. In certain sections, Backpage had even surpassed CL and this happened for a good reason.

In 2010 Craisglist ceased the operation of its adult services section. Thus a gap in the classified ads sites was created since people wanted to post or find that kind of ads but the colossus of the industry had removed them. This is where BP came into play. The developing team of the platform quickly realized the opportunity and took the chance to fill the void. This led to a sudden and fast increase of Backpage's total traffic. Soon Backpage was the second biggest website in the market and definitely the most popular one when it came to adult services.

For eight years the site was operating smoothly and gave the chance to thousands of sex workers to advertise their services freely and find new customers via this platform. All of this ended abruptly when BP was accused of hosting illicit advertisements of underage sexual services and the federal government was forced to take action. The authorities seized Backpage and its contents and more than 100 people were charged with various accusations about illegal sex trafficking. The highest members of BP's hierarchy were arrested and forced to assist federal authorities in closing down the platform.

Now, the real question here is if the accusations about underage sexual ads were true or not. In reality, we might never know the truth but the sure thing is that federal authorities were frustrated enough to take action and that by itself is a really good hint. In any case, we condemn underage sex trafficking and anyone involved in such activities should be punished.

On the case of adult sex services we believe that everyone should be allowed to do as he/she wishes as long as everything is done consensual and between adults. The sure thing is that the seizure of Backpage has taken away safe heaven from those that want to offer sex services and now they are forced to go back to the street or other environments that are not nearly as safe as BP was for them. It is our personal belief that sooner or later someone else will pop up and fill the gap. Let's hope that the next one will have a much better way to confirm the age of the users than Backpage did.