more "america tonight." >> i'm ali velshi and i'm devoting tonight's show to the trafficking of children as sex workers. it's a crime people think happens somewhere else but it's happening here in the united states. we bring you the story of a 15-year-old girl sold online for sex hundreds of times. the website that listed her for sale. mary snow has the story. >> did everything as kids and that's our philosophy, keep your kids busy and they'll stay out

of trouble. >> tom was a stay at home dad, his wife nicole preschool teacher. they were living a typical life whether the youngest of their children was entering high school. >> she was national honor society, fir chairs violin, volunteers at the school and was on the soccer team. she was an all american child. >> reporter: but then the all american child did something unexpected. nicole and tom's 15-year-old daughter disappeared without a trace. just leaving behind a note. >> they're really, the grades, i thought they would be disappointed in me because i was kind of messing up in school. so i told them i was going to go, and experience seattle. i don't know. i was excited. go hang out. but i didn't really know what i had coming. i didn't really think all that through.

>> reporter: how quickly did your life change? >> pretty darn quick. pretty quick. >> reporter: what happened next is the reason why we will refer to her as natalie and we will only see pictures of her not in shadow when she is younger. >> i was raped. and had to worry about if i was going to get killed, or beaten. or raped again. >> she escaped out of a basement window. i received a call that said we have your daughter come pick her up. it broke my heart.

and everything innocent about my daughter was gone. and everything that you hope that your child will find had been taken from her. not by somebody who loved her. not by somebody who cared. but by somebody who just wanted self-gratification. and it was deaf stating devasta. >> without tending to her needs, the school and things we thought was important that she continue with school, that she you know continue with her band continue with the soccer. >> we prayed. we thought love would fix it. >> how long did that last? >> that lasted about three months.

at which point she was lured back out of the house. >> was there a letter this time? >> there was no letter this time. >> how did you know? >> tom had gone upstairs to check on her. when she came home the first time tom wore a cross around his neck and he gave her that cross. she wanted to wear it. >> when when you found the crosn her room did you know right away she was gone? >> yes, i did. that's when i knew that it was really bad. >> natalie was stilt in contact with the older -- still in contact with the older girl she had met in the shelter in california, with a promise of better life. she never made it there. instead she was introduced to a 32-year-old man in seattle who became her pimp. >> i was homeless and alone. homeless. i guess i was willing to trust

him. i don't know why. i don't know how. i was 15, and not -- i just thought he was going to help me. >> they read the bible and talked about building a church together. he offered her what she saw as stability and love. meanwhile, her family was frantic. >> we posted fliers, we gave them to hotels. we -- everywhere and an anywhere you can think of, you're stuck in one moment in your world and you're praying for that moment to end. >> it was killing me to get this image of what could possibly be happening to your child. and you just can't -- you just can't stop the wheels from spinning. >> reporter: natalie wasn't on

a street corner. instead she was being trafficked as a weekend special on the second largest trafficking page on the internet, backpage.com. >> he would put pictures of me, fake names, prepaid card or something and just go on to backpage and quick post an app and just post me as an ad. >> and how many ads would he post? >> daily. maybe ten. 15. my phone would probably ring for anywhere from an hour to two hours straight. >> and what was the reason he gave you for using backpage? >> he said it was better than being on the street. he said it was safer.

>> natalie realized the man she thought was her savior was really her captor. >> he sold me. every day and every night. for hundred plus days. he sold me. he did it on backpage.com. >> i heard from her 47 days after she had been gone. >> what did she tell you? >> she called me from a take phone, it was my birthday. she told me that she loved me. and that she couldn't come home. because she was a bad daughter. and we wouldn't want her. and she hung up.

>> i was scared. especially after he started beating me. i was scared he would kill me. i met one girl one day, and then the next week she was dead. so i just -- i didn't know what was possible at that point. i thought i was stuck for the rest of my life. >> it's this never ending cycle of anguish and helplessness that i don't know, you're not used to feeling those types of feelings and stuff as a guy, and a man. you know, you just -- you want to put yourself back in control, and i didn't have any control. >> 61 long days after that phone call, at 2:00 in the morning, nicole and tom got a call that natalie was alive. she had been arrested as part of a sting operation. >> i was really confused. and ashamed of myself.

i didn't know what my parents would think of me. >> when we rush return, the figo get that thely back that natali. to make sure that doesn't happen to anyone again.

>> we continue now with natalie's story as a victim of child sex trafficking. >> this is the kind of moment nicole didn't realize she would ever experience again with her

daughter after natalie ran away and was trafficked for sex at ages 15. >> my daughter was a statistic. in less than 36 hours she was being sold. it doesn't take a long time. >> reporter: gone for 108 days, raped and beaten and trafficked by a 32-year-old man, she thought she loved. >> it was maddening. i didn't understand the amount of times that she was sold. i think that was awful to hear. 15, 20 times a day. you know, i just couldn't imagine that. >> it was during one of those encounters that natalie was found. her trafficker had posted an ad of her on backpage.com. the second largest classified website. the police had answered that ad during one of their frequent stings involving the site. >> i discovered that you could order a child online like you could order a pizza from.com frm

domino's. and she was sold there as a weekend special. >> nicole found that natalie was one of thousands of kids sold every year with few clicks of a mouse. traffickers could easily traffic children on the website. >> i would sit there when woe do it after you're done setting up what the page is going to look like, all you do is click post, and then a little notification comes up asking, are you over the age of 18? >> so nobody asked you for any proof that you weren't 18? >> no, no date of birth, nothing. >> nicole and tom knew this time natalie would need more than a parent's love to recover. >> i was really angry for reply daughter making an impulsive

decision that cost her big and cost us big too. >> the man convicted of trafficking her was sentenced to the maximum 26 years in prison. she got her ged and started to take college classes but there was part of natalie missing. >> there is no way i can get my childhood back. there's no way i can make.for losmake up forlost time. at that website. made things for me, a billion times worse. a billion times worst. because i guarantee, if i hadn't been put on that website that i would have been found way before that. >> the family decided to take a stand against backpage.com. >> it is something you think only happens in like third world countries or something and nope, it's right here in the united states. and it needs to be taken way

more seriously. >> so they joined a lawsuit filed by attorney eric bauer who represents two other miles an hour who he says were trafficked on the same site. >> our case is like backpage actually assists pimps to sell children on their website. >> at the back of this is called the communications decency act section 320. it was written to protect information and innovation on the internet and it does that by granting immunity to websites from third party contact. >> we focus on why they are responsible for creation and development of at least some of that content. >> but backpage has argued that it is not responsible for content that others put on their site and it is working with law enforcement to crack down on child sex trafficking postings.

it argued before the washington state supreme court that the case should be dismissed even before reaching trial. >> if the website creates content, the website can be responsible for the content. that is not the case in our situation. they were created by the pimps that victimized them. >> nearly a year after those arguments were made, the washington state supreme court gave natalie and the other plaintiffs their first victory. sufficient facts if proved that the defendants helped produce the illegal content and therefore are subject to liability under state law. >> my baby had been held captive, raiched an raped and s. >> nicole has taken up advocacy

work. >> we have made it our application in this life to tell other people this happens in the united states and it's our goal to end it. to end the sale of kids. >> natalie has a family of her own with a fiancee and a young daughter. >> my parents always told me when i was younger that you can look out your front window and you're safe inside. but the second you go outside, it's a big world out there. and you know, you're in trouble and i never understood that until i experienced it. >> the family has left washington state, for them it holds horrors around every country. >> the daughter that left at 15 has not come back. the daughter i have now is recovering. and she's a very strong

individual. and she takes it one day at a time. but this changes everybody. >> reporter: where does your mind take you when you think of what could have been? >> all kinds of places. all kinds of places. i had knocked it out of the park with those kids. and i don't know. i think about that a lot. and i did. they were just doing so well. and -- but you know, that's we're okay. >> up next, the general counsel for backpage.com responds to

natalie's story.

>> judge you just heard natalie's story, a 15-year-old girl trafficked for sex on the escort section of backpage.com.

now liz mcdugal, the general counsel of backpage.com. >> you just heard that story. she said her pimp told her it was better inside, there's more money to be made. do you think backpage is paving a road for those pimps? >> my heart goes out to natalie, and i understand how she feels because of her experience. but the reality is not that one website is responsible or could be responsible for what happened to her, or for the perpetuation of prostitution, child sex trafficking. we have sex in our society, legal and illegal, and that is not going away any time soon. >> you told us you generate three to 400 ads a month that you send over to the groups that police these, or that try and find missing children.

so you've got something that tells you, you know that 300 to 400 times a month you're seeing things that you believe are trafficking, child trafficking. >> we make three o400 reports per month for ads, not our ads. these are ads that third parties have placed, that we have identified as potentially identifying miles an hour. that's not something we're obligated to do, it's something we do voluntarily. >> in other words you or someone in the organization believes that these are potentially children being -- >> we believe they are potentially a minor at risk. we are to my knowledge the only website that has such a robust program for trying to identify victims, and particularly children. >> in one of these briefs is the national center for missing and exploited children, that's who you send these ads that you. expecsuspect of.

>> in order to better protect children you would do more than mere reporting. >> we do stanley mor do substann mere reporting. some of them they may not be aware of. but we do not only the advanced moderation, second moderation after the ads go live we do the reporting to nickmick so if somebody is concerned about an ad that we didn't see they can report it to us. it gets immediately escalated for mead review for potential illegal activity especially ominor. >> loot oa minor. >> a lot of these cases that are brought against you, if you are an internet vehicle you're not

responsible for the content that's generated by a third party. fairgirls were rejected from putting in that section it was determined that that should go somewhere else into a community service section. and they have now as part of their brief said that sort of speaks to the idea that you guys do have some editorial control over what goes into those ads. you have some tips or advice what goes into that section called escorts. >> we don't have tips or advice. we have an online publisher which is precisely what 230 protects. >> this is an ad that was meant to say to girls who might have been underage or trafficked, we can help you we're not law enforcement, here is a phone number, we won't judge you, that was not allowed in that section.

>> so they say. i would need to look at the could be text of the ad and go back to the conversations we had with them. >> right. >> i think what you're missing here and when fair girls fails to point out is that if you go to the first page of the escort section, the second sponsored ad on every one of those pages is an ad for children of the night. it is a hot line and a residential home for child pursuits. >> let's talk about the motivation here, i've read a lot of your stuff and i know i think you believe this and you come at it from a place where you do believe in the freedom of speech and you've made these comments before but there is money in here. there's a group aim that estimates that bmg earne backpad $36 million from ads last year alone. is that number close? is it right -- >> i'm not sure how the numbers

are estimated. >> sit low or high? >> it's not something i can answer. we're a private company. the reason for continuing in this is because it's the right thing to do. >> that sounds weird right, that to it's the right thing to do to have ads for child pursuits? >> the pimps are going to use the internet. do you want them to use an internet website that is looking for illegal content or looking for kids and trying to rescue them and working with law enforcement to get the evidence so you can actually get prosecutions in these very difficult cases or do you want the content to go on a website that is hosted in russia and finances are in panama and one, they're not going to do any

moderation and two, law enforcement can't even get to them to get the evidence. here there's an opportunity. we work with law enforcement. they know they can go to this place -- >> you know they're mixed on that, yeah that's nice, there are ip addresses and we can trace them the other say, it is easy for pimps to traffic kids. you don't have to show up, you don't have to put your birth date in, has that changed? >> you have to put in your age. >> can you make that up. >> you can make that up. >> nobody tha last to prove anything. >> nobody has to prove anything. but there is no effective age verification online currently. >> we don't hold you responsible for child track trafficking. >> those are the issues that we should be focused on and in the meantime -- >> you get why that's trick yu right? because it looks like in the meantime while societal ills are

being dealt with we're happy to take your money for the ad. >> i don't care what it looks like. i care what the reality is. the reality is we are doing more than anyone else. if we shut down it's going somewhere else and i don't believe anybody could or would do the job that we're doing. >> isn't that sort of saying if i'm on the street corner and dealing drugs if i go away someone else will deal drugs? >> no, not in this case because you're saying that what we're saying is that if you're on the corner dealing drugs but you don't deal to kids you work with the cops, and you're going to be -- what you'll be replaced by is somebody who is going to, deal anybody, you know, there are degrees in that case. i reject the analogy to us to a drug dealer because we are not doing anything that is illegal. we go out of our way to avoid any content that is illegal. but the fact is that somebody is going to host this content.

do you want somebody who is trying to be a good guy about it or do you want somebody who doesn't give a hoot about these kids or about the problem? >> liz mcdugal is general counsel for backpage.com. that's our show for today. i'm ali velshi. thank you for joining us. >> desperate journey. bussed out of hungary. the first refugees are headed to the austrian border after austria and germany says they will be welcomed. king salman, president obama offers hi him insurances about e iran nuclear deal.