Senate Passes Bill to Penalize Websites for Sex Trafficking

March 22, 2018

Our friends and partners in the New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking have worked long and hard in support of legislation to penalize those who have enabled the exponential growth of human trafficking in the United States – and just yesterday, they won.

The US Senate passed theĀ Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) which will crack down on those selling women and children online. After lobbying from the Coalition, both of New Jersey’s US Senators supported the bill.

As the New York Times explains, “the legislation […] would make it easier for state prosecutors and sex-trafficking victims to sue social media networks, advertisers and others that failed to keep exploitative material off their platforms.”

The House of Representatives passed the bill last month, meaning it now goes to the president’s desk where it is expected to be signed into law.

Read more on this important legislative victory and join us in congratulating the New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking for their success so far. There is still so much work to be done in eliminating this scourge from our communities.