Sunday, August 1, 2010

"Portland Plagued by Child Prostitution"

July 29, 2010
Portland Plagued by Child Prostitution
Posted by CitizenLink Staff

Portland, Ore., just received a dubious distinction from The Huffington Post: “Pornland – a hub for the sexual exploitation of children.”

While most Americans are stunned to learn that the “picture perfect” state could harbor such horrific exploits.

Linda Smith, president of Shared Hope International, equated Portland to Amsterdam.

“We’ve investigated both Amsterdam and Portland, and they do look similar in the fact that men are going to be tolerated as buyers of children, not because law enforcement is lax,” Smith said, “but because the laws are lax and there’s cultural acceptance for buying commercial sex in this kind of venue.”

In 1987, the Oregon Supreme Court put an end to the state’s obscenity laws and restrictions on sexually oriented businesses; thus, setting out the welcome mat to all forms of adult entertainment, pornography and indecency.

The Oregonian issued a warning in 1995, which went unheeded: “Portland, a city of 500,000, now has 20 times the number of nude entertainment businesses as Los Angeles, a city of 3 million… (People in Portland) fear Oregon is being overrun by a pornography and adult entertainment industry gone wild, an industry, critics charge, that is running up a big, unpaid bill in the form of increased crime and sexually transmitted diseases, damaged neighborhoods and ruined lives.”

Daniel Weiss, senior analyst for media and sexuality with CitizenLink, said it should be no surprise that Oregon’s absence of laws invited criminals to set up shop.

“People argue that you can’t ‘legislate morality’; however, Oregon is a prime example that when you don’t set up the proper protections, children will be exploited.”

Smith warns that because of the nation’s growing tolerance of its “pornified culture,” sexual exploitation of children can – and will – happen anywhere.

“Any place that has tolerance for commercial sex can expect their school kids to become the product.”
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Source: http://www.citizenlink.com/2010/07/portland-plagued-by-child-prostitution/. Citizenlink is an affiliate of "Focus on the Family".

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