ARE YOU REALLY INTERESTED IN STANDING UP AGAINST PIMPS, PREVENTING EXPLOITATION OF MINORS and stopping CRAIGSLIST KILLERS?

change.org is mobilizing 2 petitions: one to stop CL's erotic svcs sec WORLDWIDE and one to go after Backpage.com ( take action by telling Village Voice Media it's time to stop profiting from child sex trafficking now). I am going to make a petition for a VERIFIED ADULT PROVIDER section in any advertising outlet that profits of of sex worker ads...stay tuned...i need your support!!!

Below is a script for a video that I will make as part of my change.org petition. Please read and comment.

My name is Mariko Passion. I am an adult industry worker of 13 years, over the age of 18 and I am not being forced or coerced to do any work with anyone or for anyone. I am not being held against my well. In other words: I am not a sex trafficking victim. I am an advertiser on backpage.com and was a former erotic services provider on Craigslist.com. before the appearance of the Craigslist killer when things became more difficult to advertise. I feel compelled to make this video to put a face to those that do this work and hope that I can urge you to TRULY TAKE A STAND to help those of us that are often victims of violence because we are pushed underground, forced to be ashamed and secretive about what we do and often feel that the police will not want to help us when we are victims of rape, robbery or as we saw in the Philip Markoff case: murder.

The SOLUTION to combating violence and exploitation in our industry is not to eliminate advertising sources. Many adult providers who are NOT in human trafficking situations are also mothers, part time workers, students in college, artists, persons who would otherwise be homeless or stuck in domestic violence situations and many many other things. Eliminating craigslist adult services and moving onto eliminating ads in backpage, where many of us now advertise will hurt the last bastion of income revenue for many of us.

I am proposing that advertising outlets that wish to run adult industry ads be required to create a VERIFIED ADULT PROVIDER SECTION in their newspapers or websites. This is very similar to the 2257 laws that the porn industry uses to combat claims of and actually stop the employment of underage performers in their videos. It is also a system that is already in place by other more upscale adult provider websites like Eros.com

To advertise in this section MUST BE AFFORDABLE. Every adult provider who comes into the advertising office to verify themselves is actually making a small contribution to STOPPING TRAFFICKING by supporting a simple verification system that helps to prevent exploitation by a 3rd party. This system makes the adult voluntary workers and papers like LA Weekly, backpage, or others MORE responsible to the realities of possible exploitation that may exist in our work.

A VERIFIED ADULT PROVIDER SECTION will give verified adult providers ad space at a discounted rate that is competitive with craigslist/backpage rates per week about $35-45/week, which actually will create INDEPENDENCE from agencies or pimps that have more credit cards or capital to invest in full page buyouts of weekly papers, postcard littering campaigns on sidewalks or billboard trucks driving up and down streets. THIS IS HOW A VERIFIED ADULT PROVIDER SECTION WILL TAKE A STAND AGAINST PIMPS AND AGENCIES.

A VERIFIED ADULT PROVIDER SECTION will ALSO be beneficial to the customers of such ads. There will be no mistaking a A VERIFIED ADULT PROVIDER as a trafficked person or minor. There will also be the added assurance for the client that the provider is only allowed to represent their own image in the ads that they run.

A VERIFIED ADULT PROVIDER verifies that they are over 18 with government issued ID, are not being held against their will, are not being forced to exchange services by a third party, are entering agreements with clientele from ads willingly, AND are using REAL pictures and representing their own advertising and business decisions as listed in any ads with said publication. They must come into the media outlet office and sign a written agreement.

Information gathered from VERIFIED ADULT PROVIDER will not contain any more information about the provider than their age and that they are not trafficked. It shall not be used to gather information to be used against the adult providers. NO questions in the verification process will be used to incriminate workers in any way. They are simply verifying that they are over 18 and advertising on their own will. It is a TRUE effort from media publications to help adult worker safety. It is an effort to create a REASONABLE ALTERNATIVE to the strategies currently being used by the moral majority as the solution.