Justice Department Makes Annual ‘Dirty Dozen’ List for Failing to Prosecute Illegal Pornography

REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) says Amazon.com is on the group’s annual “Dirty Dozen” list.

One potential reason happened last September, when a 12-year-old girl did a search on Amazon for “free Kindle books for teenagers.” What came up was “Being Bad (Cheating with the Babysitter Fantasy).” Amazon said the title was “mischaracterized.”

The “Dirty Dozen” is an annual list of companies and other entities that provide or make available illegal pornography that exploits women and children.

HBO makes the list for its very popular show “Game of Thrones” that often shows very explicit sex, even rape, scenes. “Game of Thrones” is not the only show of concern to the group. “The Deuce” is slated to appear next year and will be “a look at New York City during the 1970s and ‘80s when porn and prostitution were rampant in Manhattan.” The Deuce was the name drug dealers and prostitutes gave to 42nd Street that was at the time and open-air market for drugs and sex.

The U.S Department of Justice makes the list for its refusal “to enforce existing federal obscenity laws. From the time Obama took office in 2008, no enforcement actions against illegal obscenity have been initiated by DOJ, and in 2011 former Attorney General Eric Holder dismantled the Obscenity Protection Task Force.”

The group sent a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch provides a list of movies offered by Verizon and InterContinental Hotels with themes of “incest, racism, sexism, and exploitation..” They include “A Thug Did My 18YO”, “Amateurs Paid for Sex”, “Asians Damaged”, and “Dainty Black 18YOs”.

Many forms of obscene material — including gynecological shots and ejaculation — are illegal under federal law and can be prosecuted, something that was carried out during the Reagan and Bush years, but largely lacking when Democrats come to power.

Verizon makes the list for the long list of hard-core pornography the cable giant makes available through its on-demand service, along with its “dedicated pornography channels. The group says, “Verizon has even defended their decision to offer incest, child, and trafficking-themed pornography as a benefit to their customers.”

The Starwood hotel chain landed on the list and almost immediately took action. NCOSE announced that Starwood “officially changed their policies regarding their distribution of pornography on January 1, 2016, and it will be removed from all 1,270 properties world-wide.”

Starwood is not the only victory claimed by the National Center.

American Apparel “stopped using nudity and blatant sexual acts in its advertising…”

Comcast “improved usability and tightened parental control settings for cable users.”

Hilton Worldwide “announced it would stop selling pornography and issued orders to implement this policy in all of its brand contracts avout the world.”

InterContinental Hotels Group is “performing an audit of their more than 4,800 properties..and is insisting that all hotels immediately cease selling porn films…

The 2016 “Dirty Dozen” is rounded out with the American Library Association, Amnesty International, Backpage.com, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Sexpresso Coffee Shops, Snapchat/Snapcash, and YouTube.

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