The Solution is Simple: Stop Sex Buying to Stop Sex Trafficking

When most people think about ending sex trafficking and prostitution, they think of rescuing the abused individuals ensnarled in its trap. Rescuing those who have been prostituted is vitally important, but just as important is stopping it before it occurs by stopping those who buy sex.

If men aren’t buying sex, pimps and traffickers won’t be supplying brothels, back alleys, and websites with victims. At the current rate, we can rescue women and twice the amount will fill their spots the next day. We can arrest traffickers and enterprising predators will fill the void. But stop the sex buyers putting cash in the pimps’ pockets… and the market will dry up.

This is why shrinking consumer-level demand (sex buying) is a core objective of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. Read more about our work to combat demand and how you can get involved here!

Ask Visa to Stop Enabling the Demand for Sexual Exploitation!

Sex buyers and pornography consumers are using their Visa cards to purchase people for sexual exploitation. Last year, NCOSE featured Visa on the 2022 Dirty Dozen List because it was facilitating transactions for Nevada brothels, prostitution websites, and pornography websites.

By allowing people to use their Visa cards to purchase pornography and sexual access to prostituted persons, Visa is enabling and legitimizing the consumer-level demand for sexual exploitation.

Visa's industry peer Mastercard has taken some positive steps forward to combat sexual abuse and exploitation, but Visa has failed to follow suit. For example, Mastercard stopped processing payments for XVideos (the world's biggest pornography site). A NCOSE staff member posed as a pornography consumer and called XVideos, "complaining" about not being able to use their Mastercard on the site. On three different occasions, XVideos instructed the NCOSE staff member to use their Visa card instead.

It's time for Visa to stop facilitating payments for sexual exploitation! Contact Visa executives today.

Contact Visa Executives!

Ps. A reminder that Visa’s next annual shareholder meeting is on January 23rd at 11:30 a.m. EST / 8:30 a.m. PST. Shareholders are encouraged to attend and raise this issue at the meeting!

President Biden Joins NCOSE in Calling for Tech Industry Accountability

Holding Internet platforms accountable for the role they played in facilitating sexual exploitation seemed impossible, just a few years ago.

But the winds are changing.

We are at an inflection point: legislators and political leaders are beginning to realize that something must be done about the rampant harms allowed to proliferate, unchecked, on the Internet.

The latest leader to call for legislation holding the tech industry accountable is none other than President Joe Biden. Last week, the president published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal which unequivocally states, “We must hold social-media companies accountable for the experiment they are running on our children for profit.”

The president's op-ed highlights many of the issues and solutions that NCOSE has been advocating for years – including reform of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, transparency requirements for the tech industry, and stronger privacy protections for children.

Upcoming Event: "Barriers Faced by Sex Trafficking Survivors"

Join us this Tuesday, January 24, for a powerful, free event!

Co-hosted by Chains Interrupted, Mercy Medical Center, and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, "Barriers Faced by Sex Trafficking Survivors" will feature a panel of survivors and advocates to discuss the barriers survivors of sexual exploitation face trying to leave the 'life' and the barriers they continue to encounter after in the healthcare system, trying to find employment, by family, and more.

Date: Tuesday, January 24, 2023
Time: 9:00AM-12:00PM CT
Location: Hybrid (Online and In-Person @ Mercy Hallagan Education Center - 701 10th St. SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52403)

Sincerely,

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