How Can YOU Fight HT

Whenever I go and speak, I am asked this question quite a bit. Usually I will refer the askers to different websites because I am getting my info from them.

Human Trafficking.org

Not For Sale

Polaris Project

and a few others

I usually have the inkling to just tell people to "GOOGLE IT" but today, I thought that I would put up a simple guide to help answer some of these questions for what the community can do.

I HOPE THIS HELPS!

1. The way to teach others about the issue, it is important to learn more about the facts of human trafficking and slavery so that you can be more informed. Consider memorizing some of the statistics or some of the facts that you think are most profound. They really come in handy when it comes time to present them in a presentation or to a group of non-believers.

2. Tell others. This is the up-most important aspect of advocacy. Without spreading the word, the mission dies. Mention some of the new info you've learned in conversation with people you come in contact with. This is a basic way to spread awareness. Putting up an informational booth, handing out flyers, and chalking are ways that are easy to do and shows people that the issue is important enough to make the effort.

3. Use whatever talents or abilities you have to promote awareness and challenge others to join the effort. You can use practically any form of creative expression or talent to communicate a message of awareness or state a challenge. Advocating for this issue doesn't have to be depressing. Putting on events, talent shows, art shows, writing contests, and even concerts can be turned into educational events. In fact, making something fun is more effective than drilling a whole bunch of statistics into someone's head. It is better to appeal to your audience...know what the people want =).

4. Volunteer your time or services to help an organization that fights human trafficking and/or helps rescue victims of trafficking. Even if it isn't an actual shelter, any organization that fights on any front of the mission needs help in all kinds of ways. There is always need for people to help promote the organization and help with the events. Where I'm from, we really don't have many resources to get involved in the anti-trafficking movement. In that case, create one. There are several resources on the internet of starting a coalition. Form an anti-trafficking coalition on your college campus. American's for Informed Democracy is an organization that advocates for change on pretty much every political front. Human Rights is a huge political issue and guess what falls under Human Rights? That's right....human trafficking.

5. Buy fair trade products. Oh come on, do I really have to explain this one out to you. All right, so be it. What I mean by Fair Trade is that the products that are being consumed by everyday Americans are NOT being made with slave labor. It is easy to find lists on the Internet to see if the products you are using come from slave labor. Click Here

6. Sign petitions or contact your legislation about the issues that you think need to be addressed. In order for these petitions to appear in your radar, most of the time you have to sign up on mailing lists for different anti-trafficking organizations. Facebook even has certain causes that will send you a notification about a petition that comes up. It is very important to sign petitions because this is one of the most effective ways an Average Joe like you and me can be a direct part of the trafficking movement.

7. Become a member of an existing organization that is already creating positive change and support their efforts. This one is kind of self explanatory. Find one in your area, join! They are everywhere!!

8. Stay alert for any signs of human trafficking in your area. If you see anything that looks remotely suspicious, report it to the authorities. Remember that you can make an anonymous call that will not endanger you in any way. First learn the signs, then you will be able to affectively identify any sort of trafficking behavior.

9. You can financially support an organization that fights human trafficking and/or helps rescue victims of trafficking and slavery. There are tons of wonderful organizations out there that fund rehabilitation services and even prevention services to many at-risk populations in almost every country. Really all you have to do is GOOGLE IT =)

10. And perhaps the most important part. DON'T BUY OTHER HUMAN BEINGS.

That is all. I wish you the very best of luck in your endeavors.

The Deadly Chameleon

I look at the stage and think -
what words are on the brink
of my mind that could show
a glimpse of the foe?

But complexity makes me see
how difficult that can be,
when the foe is a chameleon
and blends in with the millions.

The foe is no respecter
of skin color or gender
and often looks so typical
we've become so easy to fool.

The foe's skin can be light or dark
with no distinguishing mark;
the words spouting from their tongue
teasing and enticing the young...

Looking for those who seem to be
impressionable or unable to see
common tricks in a predator's day,
luring and isolating its prey.

One way is tokens of affection.
A suave and charming grin,
plus appealing whispers of love,
he can slowly draw her in.

When her longing heart falls for him
and other voices become so dim,
his first requests seem so small
and he leads her down an unknown hall.

He stares in her eyes and holds her hand;
she stares back and awaits his command.
He promises protection and love
as her heart soars in the clouds above.

He leads her in the room with a bed
and as she remembers what he said,
she allows his hand to roam
and gets excited by his groan.

After their time together is spent
she learns what he really meant.
His eyes become possessive and cold
and for the first time fear takes hold.

With a warning not to leave
she knows not what he will achieve
by stalking out of the room
and locking the door - sealing her doom.

Her heart pounds and feels confused
wanting love, not to be used.
But fear grips her heart and takes hold
as she wonders if she'll be sold.

The door is unlocked and creaks open
and she sees a line of men -
whose faces will soon blur together -
as more men multiply their sins.

Debbie's Story: Sex Trafficking in American Girls - Part 2

Treated Like a Dog

After the horrifying gang rape, police say Debbie was trapped in one of Phoenix's roughest neighborhoods. In a rundown, garbage-strewn apartment, her captors were trying to break her down.

"They were asking me if I was hungry," she said. "I told them no. That's when they put a dog biscuit in my mouth, trying to get me to eat it."

After a sleepless night, Debbie was tossed back into the car and again driven around Phoenix. She said they talked to her about prostitution, and that one of the men forced her to have sex with him in the car and then later in a park.

The same man took her back to his apartment, and Debbie said, "I ended up in the dog kennel."

Greg Scheffer, an officer with the Phoenix police department, said Debbie was kept in a small dog crate for several days. Lying on her back in the tiny space, her whole body went numb.

"She was subject to various abuses while in there," Scheffer said. "This is all part of the breaking down period where [he] gains complete control of this girl."

Unbeknownst to Debbie, police say her captors had put an ad on Craig's List -- a national Web site better-known for helping people find apartments and roommates. Shortly after the ad ran, men began arriving at the apartment at all hours of the day and night demanding sex from her.

She said she had to comply. "I had no other choice," she said.

Debbie sais she was earning hundreds of dollars a night -- all of it, she said, going to the pimp.

Scheffer said Debbie was forced to have sex with at least 50 men -- and that's not counting the men who gang-raped her on a periodic basis.

Debbie had no idea who the men were. "I didn't know them," she said. "But most of them were married, with kids. And every single one of them, I asked them why they were coming to me if they had a wife at home. ... They didn't have an answer. So, like, I felt so nasty."

For more than 40 days, police say Debbie remained captive, often beaten and forced daily to have sex of the most degrading kind. During that time, she said she did not try to escape because her captors had done what police say so many pimps do -- threatened her and terrified her.

Debbie said that the pimps told her they would go after her family, and they even threatened to throw battery acid on her 19-month-old niece.

"After they told me that, I didn't care what happened to me as long as my family stayed alive," she said. "And that's pretty much what I had in my head. Staying there to keep my family alive."

The Search for Debbie

For Debbie, who police said been held by her captors at gunpoint and kept in a dog cage for more than 40 days, the chances of getting out alive seemed slim. But then police investigating the case heard tips that she was being kept in an apartment in the Phoenix area.

Police searched the apartment but didn't find Debbie.

But they were still suspicious. So on Nov. 8, police broke down the doors to the same apartment and realized with a shock why they'd been unable to find Debbie -- she was there, but she was tied up and crushed into a drawer under a bed.

Debbie said she heard Officer James Perry calling her name but was too frightened to answer. "I didn't know what to say; I was just lying under the bed, stiff as a board, shaking," she said "And then he opens the middle drawer, and he was like, 'Oh my God!'"

Trying to Regain Innocence

When Debbie was finally freed from the drawer, she was sobbing, and said she gave the officer "the biggest hug in the world."

"I was so relieved!" she said. "And then that's when my ... I was standing there, and my knees started ... they gave out."

While it seems unbelievable that these girls didn't try to escape earlier, experts say it's not so uncommon.

"These are human beings who are owned by someone else, who lack the ability to walk away, who lack the ability to make a decision in their own self-interest to do something else," said Allen. "If that's not slavery, I don't know what is."

Police arrested two people at the apartment, and Debbie was taken to a safe house for children while her mother was called.

"I remember I got the call while I was driving to work," Kersti said. "That was scary. I had to pull over. But, uh, it was just wild, it was. I drove as fast as I legally could. I walked in and I saw her and we just flew to each other."

Within hours, Debbie was safely home. "I was so happy," she said. "I was so happy to see my mom. I was so happy to be home. I'm able to be with my family. I don't know -- it's crazy."

The two officers who rescued Debbie were so touched by her strength and her story that they visited her this Christmas and gave her a cross -- a token of affection and protection.

"She is a very strong, amazing girl," said Scheffer. "We ran into a few other girls that are like that. I don't know how they have the strength. They are very brave."

Debbie has been joyfully reunited with her family, but they have put their house up for sale. They've decided to leave Arizona and move to the Midwest, where Debbie hopes she can find some of the innocence she lost one grim night in September.

Debbie's Story: Sex Trafficking in American Girls - Part 1

Fifteen-year-old "Debbie" is the middle child in a close-knit Air Force family from suburban Phoenix, and a straight-A student -- the last person most of us would expect to be forced into the seamy world of sex trafficking.

The FBI estimates that there are well over 100,000 children and teens in the United States -- most of them young girls -- being trafficked in the sex trade.

(ABC News)

But Debbie, which is not her real name, is one of thousands of young American girls who authorities say have been abducted or lured from their normal lives and made into sex slaves. While many Americans have heard of human trafficking in other parts of the world -- Thailand, Cambodia, Latin America and eastern Europe, for example -- few people know it happens here in the United States.

The FBI estimates that well over 100,000 children and young women are trafficked in America today. They range in age from 9 to 19, with the average age being 11.

And many victims are no longer just runaways, or kids who've been abandoned. Many of them are from what would be considered "good" families, who are lured or coerced by clever predators, say experts.

"These predators are particularly adept at reading children, at reading kids, and knowing what their vulnerabilities are," said FBI Deputy Assistant Director, Chip Burrus, who started the Lost Innocence project, which specializes in child- and teen-sex trafficking.

And, he said, these predators are going where the kids are.

"What you can see, time and time again, is that the predators will adapt their means to whatever the young people are doing -- whether it's malls, whether it's ski slopes, whether it's beaches," Burrus said. "Predators ... are going to do everything in their power to try to convince young girls, young boys, to come with them and enter this particular lifestyle."

Abducted From Her Own Driveway, Teen Says

Debbie's story is particularly chilling. One evening Debbie said she got a call from a casual friend, Bianca, who asked to stop by Debbie's house. Wearing a pair of Sponge Bob pajamas, Debbie went outside to meet Bianca, who drove up in a Cadillac with two older men, Mark and Matthew. After a few minutes of visiting, Bianca said they were going to leave.

"So I went and I started to go give her a hug," Debbie told "Primetime." "And that's when she pushed me in the car."

As they sped away from her house, Debbie said that one of the men told Bianca to tie her up and said he threatened to shoot Bianca if she didn't comply.

"She tied up my hands first, and then she put the tape over my mouth. And she put tape over my eyes," Debbie said. "While she was putting tape on me, Matthew told me if I screamed or acted stupid, he'd shoot me. So I just stayed quiet."

Unbelievably, police say Debbie was kidnapped from her own driveway with her mother, Kersti, right inside. Back home with her other kids, Kersti had no idea Debbie wasn't there.

"I was in the house. I mean, it was a confusing night. I had all the kids coming in and out. The last I knew she had come back in," Kersti said. "It was just so weird that night. I mean, I normally check on all my kids, and that night I didn't. I should have."

Debbie said her captors drove her around the streets of Phoenix for hours. Exhausted and confused, she was finally taken to an apartment 25 miles from her home. She said one of her captors put a gun to her head.

"He goes, 'If I was to shoot you right now, where would you want to be shot -- in your head, in your back or in your chest?'" Debbie said. "And then I hear him start messing with his gun. And he counted to three and then he pulled the trigger. And then I was still alive. I opened my eyes, and I just saw him laughing."

Debbie said she was then drugged by her captors and other men were brought into the room, where she was gang raped.

"And then that's when I heard them say there was a middle-aged guy in the living room that wanted to take advantage of a 15-year-old girl," she said. "And then he goes, 'Bend her over. I want to see what I'm working with.' And that's when he started to rape me. And I see more guys, four other guys had come into the room. And they all had a turn. It was really scary."

US Ranked on Human Trafficking Report for First Time

The United States was ranked for the first time in the 10th annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report documenting human trafficking and modern slavery, released on Monday by the Department of State. The report found that in America men, women, and children were subject to trafficking for “forced labor, debt bondage, and forced prostitution.”

The report represents a “whole decade of work the State Department has pioneered,” said Andrea Bertone, director of Human Trafficking.org, who spoke with the Epoch Times by phone. She said the report is important in her work to prevent human trafficking and each year includes greater detail about trafficking situations in countries around the world.

The report ranks 177 countries based on “the extent of government action to combat trafficking,” with Tier 1 as the highest ranking. A Tier 1 ranking indicates that a state government has recognized the problem of human trafficking, has made efforts to address the issue, and meets the TVPA’s (Torture Victim Protection Act) minimum standards. A country with a Tier 2 rating has not met the standards but has made efforts to do so, while a Tier 3 rating means the country has not met the minimum standards and has not attempted to do so. The United States received a Tier 1 rating.

Andrea Bertone said the rating for the United States is the result of continued requests by NGOs for the United States to rate itself. Bertone said she is not sure how objective the United States could be in rating itself, "Would the U.S. get anything other than a Tier 1 rating?"

Jennifer Bernal Garcia of the Center for a New American Security says including the United States in the report makes sense. Speaking by phone, she said that human trafficking is a transnational phenomenon and the “U.S. is in no way immune.”

Secretary of State Hilary Clinton announced the release of the report in Washington, D.C., urging governments as well as businesses that profit from human trafficking to take “shared responsibility” for these human rights violations. Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero and Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca also spoke at the press conference.

Important national and international legislation was passed 10 years ago that allowed the report to begin its annual research and assessment of human trafficking across the world. In 2000, the United States passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, establishing the tier ranking system of the report. The United Nations also adopted the Palermo Protocol that year, which provided for “the criminalization of all acts of trafficking—including forced labor, slavery, and slaverylike practices—and that governmental response should incorporate the '3P' paradigm: prevention, criminal prosecution, and victim protection,” according to the report’s website.

Secretary Clinton said that the task of ending modern slavery cannot be simply given to nongovernmental organizations. In order to bring traffickers to justice, “We can’t just blame international organized crime and rely on law enforcement to pursue them. It is everyone’s responsibility. Businesses that knowingly profit or exhibit reckless disregard about their supply chains, governments that turn a blind eye, or do not devote serious resources to addressing the problem, all of us have to speak out and act forcefully,” said Clinton at the press conference.

Ambassador CdeBaca noted that 10 years ago when the report was compiled for the first time, human trafficking was “a little-understood crime that took place in the shadows, cast a darkness over our fundamental rights whether constitutional, international norms, or personal liberties.” Ten years later, it has become a topic of great concern, and there is an even greater need to take bold steps forward, said CdeBaca.

CdeBaca addressed America’s participation in human trafficking. The 2010 report documents the United States not just as a destination or transit country for trafficking, but “we, too, are a source country for people held in servitude.”

Advocates who fought to end slavery and human trafficking in their countries were named heroes and were presented certificates. They came from such diverse countries as Brazil, Jordan, Uzbekistan, and Hungary.

This year marks a year of progress against human trafficking. For example, Argentina made its first conviction under an anti-trafficking law, Clinton said. But there is still much left to do to end slavery once and for all, and Clinton said she hopes “this report galvanizes further action.”

Retrieved from Adapted from: Annie Wu and Nicholas Zifcak. "US Ranked on Human Trafficking for First Time." The Epoch Times. 14 June 2010.

Exerpt from the Mary Todd Blog

For More Posts from Mary Todd:
Click HERE
Rape: The Dilemma of Obtaining Justice, Protecting Rights. and Everyone's Privacy Choices

If you work with trauma victims--individuals who have suffered from sexual assault, battery, kidnapping, etc. You know that there is not just one way that people respond to trauma, and there is not only one right way to assist in recovery.

At Universities, many of the advocacy and counseling issues are complicated by legal issues and administrations' desires to create a safe place for all.
Because of the Post-Event Trauma associated with rape, many victims of this crime choose not to pursue Justice.

They have seen friends being dragged through a legal system that has been perverted (Whores of the Court) (Justice for Some) and have seen the statistics that indicate a poor chance for prosecutions, let alone convictions.

Unlike burglary victims, who are not asked why they had so many pretty things sitting in plain view through the garage windows, or murder victims, who are not asked why they had the gall to show off their vitality, Rape Victims are often asked, in court, why they dressed provokatively or allowed a date to kiss them.
Yes, those questions are being asked in court by the Best Defense Attorneys in 2010.
They have seen parents freak out and boyfriends accuse,
They have decided to spare a sister or brother from the vicarious trauma.
(Many erroneously believe that by pushing the trauma aside, it will go away.)

Some decide that the retaliation they will endure after reporting is not worth the feelings of futility and frustration. When victims have been ordered in court NOT to use the word, "rape" but instead use "sexual intercourse" (!) -- No wonder they assume the worst. Most students i have worked with decided not to pursue legal remedies, either through the campus policies or through the legal system.

Many were informed by police or lawyers that their case would "probably" not be picked up for trial. So in that case-- the perpetrator would be questioned once or twice, enough to let him know who reported him, then the matter would be dropped by officials.
and the crime victim lives on...
( The Kansas City Star had an excellent article about the aftermath:HERE)

So here is the Issue I'd like to hear about and ponder and get your emails and comments:
How do we turn around the reporting issues that surround Sexual Assault?
When women do show great bravery and push for justice, it is usually to "keep the guy from doing it again"--do we think that works?

When will women and men (i do not speak of girls and boys) decide they and their families will have to endure all the pain, and maybe for nothing, in order to change the culture of non-reporting?
Should we hide victims' names?
When will all sexual crime victims feel it is OK to report and be safe afterwards?

Shall we have a national day of reporting?


Here is a dilemma for you:
1. If a student who is raped decides not to pursue legal remedies, and the perpetrator rapes again, is the first victim to blame?

2. If a university employee knows the name of the perpetrator--perhaps the victim told a teacher, or an advocate, or a nurse or a custodial staff friend--and the university does not pursue the perpetrator, even though the victims has expressly said, I Do Not Want To Pursue It-- and the perpetrator rapes another student, is the first victim to blame or is the university to blame?

3. If the victim does say, yes, i want to pursue, through university policies or the legal system, this crime, please help me--and the case is never brought to trial because of lack of evidence, and the rapist rapes again, who is to blame?

4. If the rapist is convicted and he is released and rapes again, is the rehabilitation system to blame?

Keep in mind: Rapists do not rape for sex, but to assuage feelings of inferiority.
Rapists have access to consensual sex. But the act of overpowering,taking, forcing, winning, is what makes rape attractive to this selfish individual. According to the primary researacher of campus sexual assault, most rapists continue to rape until they are stopped. read and watch: (Dr. David Lisak-The Undetected Rapist)

Upcoming Presentation @ the University of Denver

Presentation Given By:

Dana Vaughn-Mgunda, MSSA

Program Director @ University of Denver

Dana.Vaughn-Mgunda@du.edu

GVESS Center

www.du.edu/studentlife/Sexual_Assault

and

Kristen Tebow

B.A. Criminology & Women's Studies @ Kansas State University

Survivor of Human Trafficking

ktebow@ksu.edu

unitedabolition.blogspot.com

American Mothers Political Party

http://www.americanmotherspoliticalparty.org/

AMPP Mission Statement

AMPP is a social movement seeking justice and accountability within the family court system which includes DHHS/CPS, psychologists and other so called experts. We as mothers demand CITIZENSHIP and our Rights to our Children. We demand that our children not be used as pawns by our abuser in a custody dispute. We demand that Mothers and Children be equally protected against court ordered visitation with an abuser. We demand that Mothers and Children be given the same rights, privileges and voice that the abuser gets in family courts! We demand that our President take action now as can no longer afford to be silent and we wont. We demand the same "rights and freedoms" to which all humans are entitled. Behind the closed doors of the dirty little secret of the family court system, thousand of women each year lose child custody to violent men who beat and abuse Mothers and Children. Family courts are not family-friendly and betray the best interests of the child. Until Mothers and Childrens voices are heard we will never shut up, give up or go away!

6 Reasons Why We Need Feminism

1. Studies show women earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn. This pay equity imbalance is currently being addressed by the United States Senate as a result of pressure from feminist groups.

2. Even though women have some legal protections on their equality, the equal rights and protection of women is not defined in the Constitution. Feminists are still pushing for an Equal Rights Amendment.

3. Though women make up more than half of this nation’s population, they are still underrepresented in all elected and judicial positions of national and state governments.

4. Many states are whacking away at women’s reproductive rights. Oklahoma now mandates that all women must look at an ultrasound (they are not legally allowed to CLOSE THEIR EYES!) and be given a pamphlet that says life begins at conception (an issue that is more philosophical than scientific, given the guise of truth because it is handed to her by the doctor). (I personally do not agree that this justifies abortion, but it is still a reason that many women advocate for feminism).

5. Women have a lower body image than men. In many industries, companies can fire (and hire) women based on their physical appearance. More than 9 million women a year have some form of elective cosmetic surgery to enhance their physical appearance. However, this does nothing to correct the psychological issues that cause this intense body hatred (that in fact is rarely addressed in our society). Cosmetic surgery is a multi-billion dollar a year industry that profits from the societal importance of women’s appearance. Men can be considered attractive because of power and wealth while much of women’s attractiveness is defined only by their physical appearance.

6. In the US, a woman is raped every six minutes (according to Amnesty USA). A woman is battered every 15 seconds. This is WAY TOO MUCH! Like, no arguing. And what is anyone doing to really change this? The hyper-sexualization of women and violent masculinization of men is enforced by the media in many ways. Positive heterosexual relationships (and also positive gay relationships) need to be provided as the ideal.

The Web Means the End of Forgetting

Four years ago, Stacy Snyder, then a 25-year-old teacher in training at Conestoga Valley High School in Lancaster, Pa., posted a photo on her MySpace page that showed her at a party wearing a pirate hat and drinking from a plastic cup, with the caption “Drunken Pirate.” After discovering the page, her supervisor at the high school told her the photo was “unprofessional,” and the dean of Millersville University School of Education, where Snyder was enrolled, said she was promoting drinking in virtual view of her under-age students. As a result, days before Snyder’s scheduled graduation, the university denied her a teaching degree. Snyder sued, arguing that the university had violated her First Amendment rights by penalizing her for her (perfectly legal) after-hours behavior. But in 2008, a federal district judge rejected the claim, saying that because Snyder was a public employee whose photo didn’t relate to matters of public concern, her “Drunken Pirate” post was not protected speech.

When historians of the future look back on the perils of the early digital age, Stacy Snyder may well be an icon. The problem she faced is only one example of a challenge that, in big and small ways, is confronting millions of people around the globe: how best to live our lives in a world where the Internet records everything and forgets nothing — where every online photo, status update, Twitter post and blog entry by and about us can be stored forever. With Web sites like LOL Facebook Moments, which collects and shares embarrassing personal revelations from Facebook users, ill-advised photos and online chatter are coming back to haunt people months or years after the fact. Examples are proliferating daily: there was the 16-year-old British girl who was fired from her office job for complaining on Facebook, “I’m so totally bored!!”; there was the 66-year-old Canadian psychotherapist who tried to enter the United States but was turned away at the border — and barred permanently from visiting the country — after a border guard’s Internet search found that the therapist had written an article in a philosophy journal describing his experiments 30 years ago with L.S.D.

According to a recent survey by Microsoft, 75 percent of U.S. recruiters and human-resource professionals report that their companies require them to do online research about candidates, and many use a range of sites when scrutinizing applicants — including search engines, social-networking sites, photo- and video-sharing sites, personal Web sites and blogs, Twitter and online-gaming sites. Seventy percent of U.S. recruiters report that they have rejected candidates because of information found online, like photos and discussion-board conversations and membership in controversial groups.

Technological advances, of course, have often presented new threats to privacy. In 1890, in perhaps the most famous article on privacy ever written, Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis complained that because of new technology — like the Kodak camera and the tabloid press — “gossip is no longer the resource of the idle and of the vicious but has become a trade.” But the mild society gossip of the Gilded Age pales before the volume of revelations contained in the photos, video and chatter on social-media sites and elsewhere across the Internet. Facebook, which surpassed MySpace in 2008 as the largest social-networking site, now has nearly 500 million members, or 22 percent of all Internet users, who spend more than 500 billion minutes a month on the site. Facebook users share more than 25 billion pieces of content each month (including news stories, blog posts and photos), and the average user creates 70 pieces of content a month. There are more than 100 million registered Twitter users, and the Library of Congress recently announced that it will be acquiring — and permanently storing — the entire archive of public Twitter posts since 2006.

In Brandeis’s day — and until recently, in ours — you had to be a celebrity to be gossiped about in public: today all of us are learning to expect the scrutiny that used to be reserved for the famous and the infamous. A 26-year-old Manhattan woman told The New York Times that she was afraid of being tagged in online photos because it might reveal that she wears only two outfits when out on the town — a Lynyrd Skynyrd T-shirt or a basic black dress. “You have movie-star issues,” she said, “and you’re just a person.”

We’ve known for years that the Web allows for unprecedented voyeurism, exhibitionism and inadvertent indiscretion, but we are only beginning to understand the costs of an age in which so much of what we say, and of what others say about us, goes into our permanent — and public — digital files. The fact that the Internet never seems to forget is threatening, at an almost existential level, our ability to control our identities; to preserve the option of reinventing ourselves and starting anew; to overcome our checkered pasts.

In a recent book, “Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age,” the cyberscholar Viktor Mayer-Schönberger cites Stacy Snyder’s case as a reminder of the importance of “societal forgetting.” By “erasing external memories,” he says in the book, “our society accepts that human beings evolve over time, that we have the capacity to learn from past experiences and adjust our behavior.” In traditional societies, where missteps are observed but not necessarily recorded, the limits of human memory ensure that people’s sins are eventually forgotten. By contrast, Mayer-Schönberger notes, a society in which everything is recorded “will forever tether us to all our past actions, making it impossible, in practice, to escape them.” He concludes that “without some form of forgetting, forgiving becomes a difficult undertaking.”

It’s often said that we live in a permissive era, one with infinite second chances. But the truth is that for a great many people, the permanent memory bank of the Web increasingly means there are no second chances — no opportunities to escape a scarlet letter in your digital past. Now the worst thing you’ve done is often the first thing everyone knows about you.

Article written by Jeffrey Rosen, a law professor at George Washington University. He is writing a book about Louis Brandeis.

Where the Boys Are: Profile of a Male Prostitute

Kaleb is facing the large living room window in his Chicago house, skillfully playing Dvorak on his flute for a small group of houseguests. As he plays, lips pursed, I see the distant relation to Elvis he claims to have. At 23, Kaleb spends his days playing music, listening to opera and frequenting art museums and wineries. He has a flexible work schedule that allows for the Viagra Triangle lifestyle.

Trilling, Kaleb stops abruptly to answer the jewelry-box ring from his phone, he chats comfortably, making plans. “That was my Uncle”, he said with an eyebrow raise,” I’m meeting him at a restaurant to get money later.” F.Y.I: Uncle is the codeword for basically any man who would wants Kaleb by the hour, the restaurant is a cheap hotel room and the money is exactly $150 an hour for an “erotic massage”.

I feel it would be cliche and just tacky to point to Kaleb’s childhood, highlighting abuse. But as we talk he’s so open about it. It is part of him–and it was rough. “I just really focused on music and that’s how I got through it”, Kaleb said with large brown eyes. He won some significant music awards and was accepted to Oberlin, a music conservatory in Ohio that ranks among the top 8 in the country. But didn’t attend because of the expense.

He bounced around and after finding himself homeless with no live family members to turn to, he had to find a way to pay the bills.

Kaleb heard about online escorting sites from “high class women hookers” he knew in L.A. “I found websites and posted ads”, Kaleb said. “The one I chose charges $30 a month for a profile–it is worth it”. He pulls out his laptop. The website has an extensive member list, and breaks up the boys by city. The headlines exclaim that “these boys are eager to please you” with an “erotic massage” What does that even mean?

“it is just a both-partners naked, sensual massage that a lot of times becomes a hand job,” Kaleb says. “If the guy wants me to do oral then I will for $200. But I always use a condom ” he adds. “I have had sex a few times but I don’t like to. There was one man I did enjoy having sex with” he says, getting a bit gushy. “He was a married Puerto Rican Doctor on travel. So hot. He was obviously in the closet and that’s how a lot of clients are.”

Kaleb’s roommate John is a skinny college student. He identifies as a straight man, but adds that he is “just very sexual”. When his search for a job was unsuccessful, the independent 19-year-old decided, why not try what Kaleb was cashing in on? John had never been with a man but dove right in, placing a provocative ad online for a “four hand massage” alongside Kaleb charging $400.

“He was so down“ Kaleb exclaimed. “I was surprised, he treated it just like it was his everyday job.” John says he isn’t scared of the profession because he can get a good sense of the client’s personality by talking to them online and over the phone. “Though, the profession itself is not safe. No one knows where you are when you are in a hotel room with a client” he says.

We talk about how the illegality makes it dangerous. “If it weren’t (illegal) businesses could track where the workers are and run background checks to eliminate rapes and murders” he says. Not to mention, there would be no worry for arrest.

When both Kaleb and John talk about their gigs, they get this energy, giddy, eyes asparkle. There is a sense of enthusiasm about the the mysterious clients, the taboos and a sense of accomplishment in getting them off.

But it is apparent the enthusiasm is not for the sex. “I did an overnight once. I charged $500 and he even bought me stuff and took me out. But just like Vivian Ward, Kaleb doesn’t kiss on the lips. “It isn’t romance” he says “It is straight up sex. I had one guy who wanted it to be sweet and was disappointed when it wasn’t” Kaleb says. “But it is a service, they are paying me” he explains.

Currently, a bill is passing in Illinois that would severely penalize buying and selling sex. The argument used by many groups is that “all prostitution is violence of men against women.” But logically, no one can decide your consent besides you. Especially not the State.