Kansas Makes Two Sex-Soliciation Arrests, Blames Backpage.com

Kansas Attorney General Steve Six today announced two sex-solicitation arrests of men who allegedly answered ads placed on Backpage.com by law enforcement officers posing as young women and used the arrests to again demand that Backpage.com remove all of its adult services ads.

"Last month, agents in my office placed ads on Backpage.com similar to those typically placed by human traffickers and others offering sex with underage girls," Six said.  "In less than 72 hours the posting led to an alleged solicitation of sex and an arrest made by our agents and Kansas City Kansas police.  Then last week, the same ad led to an additional arrest.

"If it wasn't clear before, it should be now - ads placed on Backpage.com are being used on a daily basis to facilitate sex crimes against children," Six said.  "Without immediate reforms by Backpage.com, more and more young girls are going to become victims."

Federal law, which generally takes precedence over state laws, protects operators of interactive Web sites from liability for postings by their users but that has not stopped Six and 20 other state attorneys general from threatening and intimidating Backpage.com and, earlier, Craigslist.org, which removed its adult services ads in September.

As part of Operation Child Shield, agents from the Attorney General's office posted ads on Backpage.com.  An ad posted last month led to the arrest of Spencer Lee Hoff, a 27-year-old man from Liberty, Mo.  It is alleged Hoff travelled to a location in western Wyandotte County to meet with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl.  The arrest was made within 72 hours of the ad going up on the website. 

As a result of contact initiated by the same advertisement, agents last weekend arrested 31-year-old Steven Van Loenen of Merriam, Kans., for Electronic Solicitation.  As with the case involving Hoff, during the course of online conversations, it is alleged Van Loenen solicited sex from a 14-year-old girl, who was actually an undercover agent.  On October 8, Van Loenen arrived at a location in western Wyandotte County and was arrested. 

 "Ads soliciting sex, including prostitution and including likely human trafficking cases involving children, appear to be rampant on Backpage.com," said Six.  "I was shocked at the ease which our agents were able to apprehend the suspects in each of these cases.  If agents from the Attorney General's office are solicited this quickly, imagine how easy it is for pimps and traffickers to solicit sex.

 "On behalf of the 20 Attorneys General who I joined in a letter to Backpage.com, I once again call on the site to take down its Adult Services section and immediately implement stringent review standards to put a stop to these ads," continued Six.  "

 In a recent posting on its blog, Backpage.com said it has hired a security expert to beef up its operations.

"The safety and security of our community is a top priority for Backpage.com. Backpage.com has just retained Internet safety expert Hemanshu Nigam of SSP Blue to partner with us in implementing a holistic plan centered around preventing criminal activity on our site," the company said.

Nigam said his company would "take a thoughtful look at the site's infrastructure to determine where necessary and impactful changes can be made to provide a safer site."