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Backpage.com, a classified advertising website, has self-censored its adult advertising section, but the action has had little effect on the posting of similar illegal sex-related advertisements in other subsections of the site, police say.

The website shuttered its adult advertising section under mounting pressure from a U.S. Senate subcommittee under the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

In an announcement on its page, website officials said it had been "unconstitutionally censored," a move some investigators described as a blip on law enforcement radars.

The self-censorship came on the cusp of a report by the U.S. Senate subcommittee that characterizes the website as a hub of "human trafficking, especially the trafficking of minors."

Local law enforcement have widely used the website as a tool for tracking victims and investigating perpetrators of human trafficking.

Jason Weis, a Jenks Police Department officer who is co-founder of the Demand Project, said many of the advertisements that transitioned to other sections of the website were duplicates of what one would have found in the adult advertising section.

"It took no longer than 30 minutes to an hour for it to go to the women-seeking-men (dating) page," Weis said.

Sgt. Todd Evans, who investigates drug, gambling and prostitution offenses for the vice unit of the Tulsa Police Department, said he noticed the same trend after the adult section shut down. He's heard the same from police in Oklahoma City.

What we anticipate right now is with Backpage shutting down its adult services, that doesnt mean all these people are just going to give up and go away," Evans said. "Theyre just going to find a different place to go."

Kristin Weis, the wife of Jason Weis and executive director of the Demand Project, said the shuttering of the adult section may have caused issues with in-process investigations. However, it was just one tool used by investigators to source predators, victims and traffickers.

"You shut down one avenue and another one opens," Kristin Weis said. "There is no dead end."

Evans said the subsection shutting down disrupted his department, just as it disrupted prostitutes and pimps.

In response, Evans said his unit has adjusted and he expects the prostitution and human trafficking rings to do the same. That's what both groups did after those similar ads moved from Craigslist to Backpage in 2010, he said.

Evans said he still sees prostitution ads on the website, albeit fewer though he said there are still "plenty."

The website shutting down that section hasn't affected any of the TPD's ongoing investigations, he said.

Human trafficking, a lengthy statute in Oklahoma's criminal code, is characterized by "compelling, forcing or intimidating a person to act," according to statute.

Sex trafficking is often considered the most common form of human trafficking in the Tulsa area.

Backpage's adult advertising section was only a symptom of human trafficking, Kristin Weis said.

"If there's a buyer then there's going to be a pimp to sell the product," she said.

The Weises say their organization has helped more than 70 victims of sexual exploitation during its four years of operation. Sex trafficking, often considered the most common form of human trafficking, is under-reported or misreported, Kristin Weis said.

The challenge, Jason Weis said, is removing the demand.

"Everybody who looks at these ads, they know what they're looking for," he said.

Backpage has largely been praised as law-enforcement friendly. Jason Weis said the classified advertising site has been "fairly cooperative" in investigations.

Harrison Grimwood

918-581-8369

harrison.grimwood@tulsaworld.com

Twitter: @grimwood_hmg

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Backpage self-censorship does little to curb human trafficking advertisements, police say - Tulsa World