Two pieces of bipartisan legislation against human trafficking concentrated against youth, was introduced recently by Rep. Karen Bass (D-Culver City), a longtime advocate for the improvement of the foster care system.
“With increased popularity of social networking sites, child trafficking has exploded online and in many of our communities,” said Bass. “We as a society must do everything in our power to protect our children even if they are not our own.”
Strengthening the Child Welfare Response to Trafficking Act – H.R. 2730 – is designed to augment child welfare responses to trafficking by increasing the effectiveness of the welfare system’s ability to identify and aid a previously targeted child.
The other bill, Eliminate and Stop Abuse, Frequent Exploitation and Trafficking on the Internet (E-SAFETI) Task Force, will construct a team consisting of people from both the public and private sectors to overview and make recommendations to Congress on the issues of online trafficking.
“We commend Congresswoman Karen Bass for introducing legislation that brings together a wide group of expert stakeholders from the public and private sectors to make recommendations to Congress on how best to combat Web-based human trafficking activity,” said Kenneth Thompson II, global chief legal officer of LexisNexis Legal & Professional.
“We look forward to working with Congresswoman Bass and other stakeholders to find ways to bring human traffickers to justice and to prevent them from abusing the Internet as a means to commit this horrific crime,” Thompson said.