Mayor McGinn takes on Web ads' link to child prostitution

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn on Friday jumped into the fray between actor and activist Ashton Kutcher and Village Voice Media over ads on a website linked to child prostitution.

McGinn called on the company, which publishes the Seattle Weekly, to meet with him and the Seattle Police Department to strengthen their policies against underage sexual exploitation in ads for adult services listed on the company's website Backpage.com.

At a news conference at City Hall, flanked by Lt. Eric Sano of the Police Department's vice/high-risk victims unit, the mayor said four local cases of child prostitution had been linked to ads on Backpage.com.

"We're not going to assume they don't care, but clearly they can do better," McGinn said.

The news conference comes two days after the Seattle Weekly and 12 other papers published by Village Voice Media around the country ran cover stories accusing Ashton Kutcher and his wife, Demi Moore, of distorting facts about child prostitution. The couple support a foundation aimed at ending child sex slavery, and Kutcher appears in a number of public-service announcements titled, "Real Men Don't Buy Girls."

Kutcher launched a Twitter attack on the Village Voice Media story that included references to a lawsuit brought by a 15-year-old victim last year who alleges ads on Backpage.com contributed to her exploitation. "Hey @villagevoice hows that lawsuit from the 15-year-old victim who alleges you helped enslave them going?"

McGinn said he heard about the lawsuit and felt he had to act. He asked Chief John Diaz to outline what the department knew about the connection between Backpage.com and child prostitution. He then wrote a letter to the media company and enclosed Diaz's memo. He termed the ads an "accelerant" for underage sexual exploitation.

Kutcher tweeted a link to the mayor's webpage, which caused some of the TV star's 7 million followers to temporarily crash a city website Friday.

Caleb Hannan, managing editor of the Seattle Weekly, said Backpage.com, with offices in Arizona, does screen ads submitted to the adult-services section. Last month, he said, the company forwarded 230 suspicious ads to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

"If someone looks young, we send it out within an hour," he said.

He said he welcomed McGinn's call to examine policies around ad placement and improve the screening process.

"This is not an issue anyone can be on the other side of," Hannan said.

Lynn Thompson: 206-464-8305 or lthompson@seattletimes.com