Blog

A new Tennessee bill could require tattoo artists to get training on recognizing the signs of human trafficking and responding to them.

Tattoos are among the tools traffickers use to assert control over their victims using symbols, names or phrases that brand a person as property, according to Thistle Farms, a Tennessee nonprofit group that works to help women recover and heal from prostitution, human trafficking and addiction.

If approved, the Hope of Ink Act would require all tattoo artists and operators to complete up to a one-hour online or in-person training at no cost in order to obtain a license.

Read more here.

The House of Representatives passed a Senate-revised version of the Laken Riley Act Wednesday, sending the first piece of significant legislation to President Trump’s desk for his expected signature.

Lawmakers voted 263–156 to approve the Senate-amended version of the bill dedicated to slain jogger Laken Riley, who was viciously strangled and beaten to death in February 2024 by an illegal immigrant charged with multiple past crimes.

Forty-six Democrats backed passage of the Laken Riley Act, while 13 did not vote. Among the Dems who supported the revised measure were New York Reps. Tom Suozzi, Laura Gillen, John Mannion, Joe Morelle and Ritchie Torres.

“Today we’re going to send to President Trump’s desk his very first bill to sign into law,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told reporters Wednesday.

Read more here. 

It’s about time. Finally. Protect our children. #onepillkills

A new advocacy group armed with a hefty funding pot has launched a push to ban smart-phone use in New York’s schools.

The group — Phone Free New York — has already raised six figures for its campaign to persuade Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state legislature to approve a law to bar mobile-phone usage during the school day, The Post has learned.

Cell phones are a frequent distraction in classrooms, and too much screentime affects kids’ mental health, educators and parent advocates say.

“Since the pandemic, social-media use has soared while our kids’ well-being has collapsed,” said Raj Goyle, founder of Phone Free New York.

Read more here. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In one of his first moves as the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) joined Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) in reintroducing the bipartisan, bicameral TAKE IT DOWN Act. The legislation would criminalize the publication of non-consensual, sexually exploitative images—including AI-generated deepfakes—and require platforms to remove images within 48 hours of notice.

The bill unanimously passed both the Commerce Committee and the full Senate during the last session of Congress. For the current 119^th Congress, U.S. Representatives Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) and Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) will introduce companion legislation as they did last year. The TAKE IT DOWN Act has received widespread support from over 100 organizations, including victim advocacy groups, law enforcement, and tech industry leaders.

Upon the reintroduction of the TAKE IT DOWN Act, Sen. Cruz said:

“There’s too many predators out there who are abusing new technologies like generative artificial intelligence to spread fake and exploitative sexual images online, particularly against young girls and teenagers. The TAKE IT DOWN Act is a common-sense solution that empowers victims of this heinous crime. As Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, it is one of my top priorities to protect Americans from this devious act and ensure Big Tech does not remain complicit.”

Sen. Klobuchar:

“We must provide victims of online abuse with the legal protections they need when intimate images are shared without their consent, especially now that deepfakes are creating horrifying new opportunities for abuse,” said Sen. Klobuchar.“This bipartisan legislation builds on my work to ensure that victims can have this material removed from social media platforms and law enforcement can hold perpetrators accountable.”

Read more here.

Overlooked for Too Long: Boys and Human Trafficking.

Boys represent the fastest-growing segment of identified human trafficking victims. UNODC’s 2022Global Report on Trafficking in
Persons, released in January 2023, notes that the percentage of boys identified as victims of human trafficking more than quintupled between 2004 and 2020—a much larger increase than for men, women, or girls. The same report notes males (including boys and men) account for 40 percent of all identified victims of human trafficking. While women constitute about twice the percentage of identified trafficking victims as men (42 percent to 23 percent), the percentage of trafficking victims who are boys and girls is almost identical (17 percent and 18 percent, respectively).

The growing awareness of boys exploited in human trafficking is fairly recent. While male trafficking victims are receiving more attention than in years past, “social and health services as well as legal and advocacy frameworks still predominantly focus on female victims of sexual exploitation,” according to the UNODC report. Media and civil society groups alike consistently refer to boys and adolescent male human trafficking victims as “unseen and unhelped,” a “silenced minority,” “invisible,” or “secret victims.”

Read more here.