I love the idealism, I really do, but I have to wonder under what criteria this company was accepted into YC? Certainly there's money in law enforcement tools, but there isn't much incentive for LE to pursue trafficked or underage sex workers, nor are they hard to find.
The most common reason I've seen for my friends to be trapped in agencies or abusive pimps has been immigration status, by far. And nobody is doing them any favours by taking them in. LE hates the paperwork so much that a decent way to get out of a pickup is to feign being an illegal alien.
Underage workers are similarly avoided. If you're 16-17 with no fixed address, it's going to be a nightmare of social services for everyone involved before you're spat back out onto the street. (I was arrested twice when underage. Both times they let me go when they saw I was 17 and a ward of the state.)
I don't doubt that there's revenue here though, because LE just loves to do stings. Mostly they're single moms or otherwise trapped by circumstance and trying to make ends meet with a side gig. They're the ones who go quietly, who plead out, who pump arrest records, etc.
Sex trafficking is an immigration/social services problem far more than it is a law enforcement concern. Giving LE more tools to track us is going to make things worse.
I supported myself with sex work when I was a self-sufficient and independent from 15-19. Now I'm a software developer in my late 20's, but that's still my community. I realy wonder if these founders ever actually asked any of us what we thought about this idea before charging ahead?
Note: Throwaway acct. (And I mean throwaway. I'm in an incognito window I'm about to close, with a /dev/random -generated password, and won't be watching for replies. Please leave me alone.)
There actually is a good deal of money in law enforcement for this kind of tool. Anti-trafficking efforts are becoming more and more of a priority at the federal, state, and local levels. There is also a lot of demand for this solution as demonstrated by our user base.
Federal grants are increasingly common, local and state multi-disicplinary task forces are being established more and more frequently, and they need solutions for dealing with these kind of problems.
Sex trafficking is rarely an immigration problem. According to the DOJ, 83% of their cases deal with victims of sex trafficking who are U.S. citizens and trafficked by U.S. citizens. The remaining 17% are foreign nationals. This is a homegrown problem, generally.
No, these cases only include instances where an adult is involved who is forced, defrauded, or coerced into the commercial sex trade, or a child is involved in a commercial sex act. It does not include prostitution prosecutions.
The most common reason I've seen for my friends to be trapped in agencies or abusive pimps has been immigration status, by far. And nobody is doing them any favours by taking them in. LE hates the paperwork so much that a decent way to get out of a pickup is to feign being an illegal alien.
Underage workers are similarly avoided. If you're 16-17 with no fixed address, it's going to be a nightmare of social services for everyone involved before you're spat back out onto the street. (I was arrested twice when underage. Both times they let me go when they saw I was 17 and a ward of the state.)
I don't doubt that there's revenue here though, because LE just loves to do stings. Mostly they're single moms or otherwise trapped by circumstance and trying to make ends meet with a side gig. They're the ones who go quietly, who plead out, who pump arrest records, etc.
Sex trafficking is an immigration/social services problem far more than it is a law enforcement concern. Giving LE more tools to track us is going to make things worse.
I supported myself with sex work when I was a self-sufficient and independent from 15-19. Now I'm a software developer in my late 20's, but that's still my community. I realy wonder if these founders ever actually asked any of us what we thought about this idea before charging ahead?
Note: Throwaway acct. (And I mean throwaway. I'm in an incognito window I'm about to close, with a /dev/random -generated password, and won't be watching for replies. Please leave me alone.)