Local News

The Washington state Senate unanimously passed a bill Wednesday going after classified advertising companies that don't demand ID before allowing sex-related ads to be posted online.

Speaking on the Senate floor, proponents said the bill would pressure companies selling sex ads online to attempt to verify the ages of those depicted.

"This is for our kids," said Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, who added she hopes other states follow Washington's lead.

The bill, SB 6251, now goes to the House.

The bill's primary target is Backpage.com, which operates a robust online clearinghouse for sex escorts.

Critics estimate parent company Village Voice Media makes more than $22 million per year from sex-related ads, a figure the Phoenix-based company has not disputed. It owns 13 weekly newspapers, including Seattle Weekly.

Shared Hope International, an anti-sex-trafficking group headed by former U.S. Rep. Linda Smith of Washington state, has compiled a list of dozens of cases in 15 states in which girls were allegedly sold for sex on Backpage.com, most within the past year. The Seattle Police Department says it has linked 22 cases of child prostitution since 2010 to girls who were advertised as escorts on the website.

Backpage.com has been the nation's leading source of online sex escort ads since Craigslist.org shuttered its adult services section in September 2010.

Lawmakers have struggled to craft legislation going after Backpage.com that doesn't run afoul of the 1996 federal Communications Decency Act, which grants broad protections to websites for speech made by third parties.

Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle, who took an active role in tweaking the bill, said he expects it will generate court challenges but thinks they will fail.

"I believe this bill will survive the inevitable scrutiny the courts will give it," Kline said.

Steve Suskin, a lawyer for Village Voice Media, said the amended bill is no better than the original, which he earlier derided as plainly in conflict with federal law.

"It would make publishers liable for content posted by third parties, and that's exactly what Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act prohibits," Suskin said.

Suskin said Backpage.com works with various law enforcement agencies to weed out suspected cases of child sex trafficking.

Bruce Johnson, a Seattle attorney who is a leading scholar on the First Amendment and advertising, said earlier versions of the bill seemed to run counter to the federal decency law. However, he said, the statute contains an exception for state laws to be consistent with federal law against child sexual trafficking.

"That is where they're headed," Johnson said. "This would be an interesting legal case for a court to consider."

The bill was one of seven sex trafficking measures passed Wednesday by the Senate, all unanimously.

Other bills would crack down on selling those with mental disabilities for sex, go after those profiting from a minor engaging in a sexual performance, and make it easier in civil court to seize the assets of those with ties to sex trafficking.

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Jonathan Kaminsky can be reached at http://twitter.com/jekaminsky.