Biography
Haley Halverson is the Vice President of Advocacy and Outreach at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation where she develops and executes national campaigns to improve corporate policies and raise public awareness. Haley regularly speaks on college campuses and writes on topics including child sexual abuse, sex trafficking, prostitution, sexual objectification, the exploitation of males, and more. She has presented before officials at the United Nations, as well as at several national symposia before influencers from the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and the Department of Health and Human Services. She is currently pursuing a Master of Arts at Johns Hopkins University.
Abstract
This paper reviews the original intent and historical application of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), most notably Section 230, with special regard to cases of Internet-facilitated commercial sexual exploitation. Although the CDA was originally created to protect children online, Section 230 of the CDA has been interpreted by the courts to grant broad immunities to websites facilitating the sexual exploitation of children and adults alike. Through analyzing the genesis and evolution of the CDA, it becomes clear that court interpretations of Section 230 are starkly inconsistent with original Congressional intent, and that the primary way to avoid de facto decriminalization of Internet-facilitated commercial sexual exploitation is to amend the Communications Decency Act.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Halverson, Haley C. (2018) "The Communications Decency Act: Immunity for Internet-Facilitated Commercial Sexual Exploitation," Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence: Vol. 3: Iss. 1, Article 12. https://doi.org/10.23860/dignity.2018.03.01.12
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