Trial Magazine

Filmmaker and attorney Mary Mazzio poses a haunting question in her documentary I Am Jane Doe: Why is so little done to combat child sex trafficking in the United States, especially when transactions take place in plain view on websites such as Backpage?

The reason, as the documentary reveals, is the Communications Decency Act (CDA), a 1996 law that gives blanket immunity to websites for content posted by third parties, even if that content is illegal. Originally intended to protect and grow a fledgling internet, the legislation’s pernicious side effects are felt 20 years later: Backpage, a classified advertising website that makes more than 90 percent of its revenue from its online sex ads,1 is shielded from all liability—even when those ads involve trafficked minors.

I Am Jane Doe follows several survivors of child sex trafficking in their fight to hold Backpage responsible in the civil justice system. Featuring interviews with survivors, their families, and their attorneys, the documentary reveals the unimaginable cost of child trafficking—as well as the extent of Backpage’s complicity.

Constant promises from Backpage to regulate its content by prohibiting certain phrases, hiring moderators, and partnering with organizations such as the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children turned out to be empty gestures. A former Backpage moderator interviewed for the documentary explained that the insufficient guidelines simply allowed sex traffickers to circumvent the rules by using emojis and code words. And the film cites Backpage’s policy of allowing an ad to be posted even if there was uncertainty over whether it involved a minor.

Mazzio, the keynote speaker at the Women Trial Lawyers Caucus brunch at AAJ’s 2017 Annual Convention, was inspired to make the documentary after reading a newspaper article covering a lawsuit that three young Boston women filed against Backpage. Struck by the fact that very few people knew the extent of child trafficking in the United States, Mazzio was further dismayed by the First Circuit’s dismissal of the lawsuit under the CDA.2 But as the documentary shows, the court’s decision was only part of a larger and disturbing trend that has allowed Backpage to repeatedly escape liability. The legal fight against this trend—and its eventual result—are revealed during the film.

“As technology has evolved, so has the crime of child sex trafficking,” Mazzio explained. “Children are now advertised online and available with the click of a mouse. Studies show that approximately 15 percent of all homeless and runaway children will be trafficked for sex.3 It is a civil rights issue of epic proportions.”

For more information, visit www.iamjanedoefilm.com.

Notes

1. See Timothy Williams, Backpage’s Sex Ads Are Gone. Child Trafficking? Hardly., N.Y. Times (Mar. 11, 2017), https://tinyurl.com/yahyl3tu.
2. Jane Doe No. 1 v. Backpage.com, LLC, 2016 WL 963848 (1st Cir. 2016). 
3. See Kevin M. Ryan, One in Five Homeless Youth Trafficked, New Research Reveals, Huffington Post (Apr. 17, 2017), https://tinyurl.com/y8m33pzw. Stephen Fairley, Legal Marketing Stats Lawyers Need to Know, Nat’l Law Rev. (Oct. 1, 2015).