Google Donating $11.5M To Fight Modern Slavery

walterbyrd writes "Google announced today that it will donate $11.5M to groups dedicated to ending modern day slavery. 'In what is believed to be the largest-ever corporate grant devoted to the advocacy, intervention and rescue of people being held, forced to work or provide sex against their will, Google said it chose organizations with proven records in combating slavery.'"

Comments

Easy to do

[GameboyRMH]

Delist every high-fashion apparel producer from Google Search, that will put a big dent in it.

Re:Easy to do

[GameboyRMH]

I don't think the relationship between Apple and its fanboys counts as slavery, it's more like worship or Stockholm Syndrome...

Re:Easy to do

[rainmouse]

Delist every high-fashion apparel producer from Google Search, that will put a big dent in it.

I used to live in an extremely bad area in Glasgow / Scotland where drugs and prostitution were everywhere. Over the road from me was a homeless hostel and round the back of my apartment block was a methadone clinic and prostitutes stood on street corners for blocks in every direction. I've seen dealers injecting heroin into girls who looked around 12 years old before sending these kids out into the streets to pay for it while the police turned a blind eye (they had some kind of experimental tolerance policy in place between 9 pm till 3 am). Trust me, there are many worse things these children can be forced to do rather than making trainers or iPads for a living. Apparently human trafficking can be just as horrific as drug addict child prostitution and if Google pledges to charities that can actually help prevent some of this stuff then I say good for them.

Re:Easy to do

[Jackdaw Rookery]

You're an idiot. You understand that these factories don't just make Apple products, right? They make products for lots of big players.

Copy/Paste from Wikipedia's Foxconn page:

        Acer Inc. (Taiwan)
        Amazon.com (United States)[16]
        Apple Inc. (United States)[18]
        ASRock (Taiwan)
        Barnes & Noble (United States)
        Intel (United States)
        Cisco (United States)
        Hewlett-Packard (United States)[19]
        Dell (United States)
        Nintendo (Japan)
        Nokia (Finland)[18]
        Microsoft (United States)
        MSI (Taiwan)
        Motorola (United States)
        Sony Ericsson (Japan/Sweden)[20]
        Vizio (United States)

Re:Easy to do

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Google isn't powerful enough to end US state and Federal prison systems.
https://www.google.com/search?q=us+prison+slave+labor

Re:Easy to do

[Mashiki]

The problem is when the government doesn't enforce the laws, or doesn't break the cycle creating a systemic problem. You can almost bet that there's a serious flaw with the crown per local policy that the law not be enforced. Personally if I lived there, I'd be up in arms over it. The fact that people aren't, is simple moral decay.

Re:Easy to do

[WillAdams]

That's why I prefer to live in a community where the Sheriff is a locally-elected official.

Re:Easy to do

[nitehawk214]

I thought the only way to win slashdot was to have a post rated "+5 Troll"?

Re:Easy to do

[Khomar]

Actually a bigger dent (and one that would be extremely unpopular... especially on slashdot) would be to put an end to pornography. The correlation between sex trafficking and pornography is very strong as pornography fuels desire for the real thing. For example, you can read this article for references to many government and private studies linking the two. This interview with a government official who specialized in sex trafficking was also very interesting.

The statistics of sex trafficking in America are disturbing. There are an estimated 300,000 sex trafficking victims in the United States alone. Half of them are children (under the age of 18) and 90% of them are American citizens. The average age of entry into prostitution is 13 with an average lifespan once being trafficked of only 7 years. The average girl caught in sex trafficking is dead before she is even legally allowed to drink.

This is an important issue to me. I even wrote a song on the subject and have started speaking out about this problem to raise awareness. If you start to look into this world, prepare to be very disturbed by what you see.

Re:Easy to do

[mayko]

Pornography leads to a demand?

I would say that the demand is/was already there, long before technology brought us the pornography we know today.

Re:Easy to do

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

No. That was the Jews. In the OLD Testament.

Re:Easy to do

[RandomAvatar]

I must agree and disagree. I agree that the pedophiles and pimps should be held responsible for the child sex trade and drug addictions. I also agree that the cops should not be blamed when there is nothing they could legally do. However, I disagree with your first two statements. Prostitution is not "evil", it is a way to make money. Like every other business, there should be standards in place to prevent abuse and harm to the people who do these jobs, but a job is a job. Your second statement makes me think that you have the only set of morals that should ever be followed. That is not the case. Many people have many different morals, and government seems to have forgotten this. For example, I believe that so long as you don't cause harm to others, or act in such ways that puts others in direct harm, or purposely harm someone physically or mentally, anything should be legal within the spirit (not the letter) of these rules. Doing drugs don't harm others, unless you drive afterwards. Prostitution does not harm anyone, unless you force someone into it. Etc.

I believe that governments have been taking away our rights to do what we please to ourselves, while giving the people like these pedophiles ways to get away with their crimes.

Re:Easy to do

[Anonymous Coward]

Well the conventional Christian doctrine is that Yaweh and Jesus are one, right?

Exodus 22:2-3 If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.
If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him; for he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.

and

    “Ours is one continued struggle sought to be inflicted upon us by the Europeans who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir, whose occupation is hunting and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife, and then pass his life in indolence and nakedness.”
- Ghandi, Sept 1896

So Ghandi was a racist asshole. Anyone else?

Re:Easy to do

[PCM2]

Prostitution is not "evil", it is a way to make money.

Except in many cases it's a way for a pimp to make money, not for the prostitutes to make money. A prostitute working the street for a pimp is typically expected to hand over 100 percent of the money given her in a night. The pimp "holds onto her share for her," because "she knows she's no good with money." In these cases the prostitutes are very clearly being exploited and they are often victimized by violence and being coerced into drug addiction. I'd say these things are -- since we've brought up the term -- at least a little evil.

Re:Easy to do

[PCM2]

I didn't have time to listen to the audio interviews you linked, but I don't think the Catholic News Agency story you linked necessarily shows a causal relationship between use of pornography and use of prostitution.

Some of the data points -- such as the prostitutes reporting that pornography was made of them -- don't seem related at all. (Sex workers find themselves involved in the sex industry, news at 11.)

I think it's true that hardcore porn is more pervasive now, but that's mainly because it's available over the Internet, which allows people to access it in the privacy of their own homes. More people are more likely to access such material when they're convinced no one else will find out. Going out and paying for prostitutes still seems like a lot harder thing to rationalize for your typical Joe.

Anecdotal evidence: I know a lot of people who've looked at hardcore porn. Maybe all of my friends have; it wouldn't surprise me. I only know one person who has admitted to visiting a prostitute, though, and then only once. I find it unlikely that the rest of them are all doing it in secret.

On a side note, my own main concern about the prevalence of pornography is simply that it seems to give young people unrealistic or warped expectations about sex. I don't base this on what the guys I've met say -- guys have always bragged about a lot of things -- but the young women I talk to sometimes seem to have a lot of issues around what they perceive is expected of them in the bedroom, and it leads me to believe they're probably not having very good sex.

Re:Easy to do

[ravenshrike]

Which happens primarily because it's illegal and not taxed, and thus monitored, like every other profession.

Re:Easy to do

[tehcyder]

In Denmark, a couple of prostitutes started blogging some time ago. There are actually some people who like having sex and don't mind other people paying for it, who like the fact that they can make people happy and earn a living at the same time.

The idea that prostitutes really enjoy having lots of sex is one of the oldest myths about the oldest profession.

I'm sure there will be some who do, in the same way that some female porn stars probably do have real orgasms, but they are a minority.

It is a myth that helps ease the conscience of punters, nothing more.

So..

[somersault]

Google are fighting to abolish marriage now? Does their evil know no bounds?

Re:So..

[Xacid]

No no, they're trying to prevent evil. Don't you remember their motto?

Re:So..

[somersault]

Wasn't it something like: "Do no evil, or else." ? :p

Only kidding, I pretty much love Google. If Google were a person, it would probably be Tony Stark.

Re:So..

[Atzanteol]

Due to f'd up US laws Google *is* a person...

Re:So..

[Genda]

Yeah, he is a person. I bumped into him just the other day down on Castro st. in Mountain View. We were in a pub, drinking a pint, the door opened and suddenly there he was, so we invited him over to our table. The rainbow Google glasses were a wee bit odd, but he seemed like a genuinely pleasant fellow. Really bright, knew a lot about almost everything. We all left together, he hopped into his sports car... it was blinding! All that Chrome!

Re:So..

[Em Adespoton]

You forgot to mention his Voice.

And yes... there is absolutely no argument that Google is, in fact, Mail.

So Google is serious about it.

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Looks like Google is really serious about emancipating people who are enslaved by facebook and twitter.

Chinese Political Prisoners too?

[djl4570]

Will this include Chinese political prisoners who are forced to work as defacto slaves?

Re:Chinese Political Prisoners too?

[GameboyRMH]

Also, what about US prisoners working call centers in private prisons for being caught with weed under tighter anti-drug laws put in place by a prison shareholder?

Re:Chinese Political Prisoners too?

[halivar]

"Hey, yeah man, like, welcome to Google Tech Support, dude. This is Bud speaking. Get it? Haha! Yeah man, but seriously, have you liked, tried turning it on and off again?"

Re:Chinese Political Prisoners too?

[PCM2]

If you were either honest or informed about the subject you will know that "prostitution" and "sex slavery" are synonymous to these organizations.

Uhhh... no. They're not. But thanks for the ad hominem anyway.

Great news

[zppln]

This is great news. The fact that slavery is still very much in effect in countries like Mauritania isn't something a lot of people are aware about. Hopefully this will raise the issue.

Legalize it.

[Hatta]

Make prostitution legal and well regulated. You'll decrease the demand for sex slaves. Anyone who claims to care about sex slavery and doesn't advocate the legalization of prostitution is simply not serious.

Re:Legalize it.

[ChibiOne]

Make prostitution legal and well regulated. You'll decrease the demand for sex slaves. Anyone who claims to care about sex slavery and doesn't advocate the legalization of prostitution is simply not serious.

Sex slavery is a much worse problem than what is shown in Hollywood films. It's not limited to cute 20-something girls being forced to service powerful executives in posh locations. The majority of these sex slaves are children, drugged and kept prisoners in slums and secure houses. Do you want to legalize child prostitution and child porn, too?

Re:Legalize it.

[PPH]

Do you want to legalize child prostitution and child porn, too?

No. I want enforcement to concentrate on these areas.

Leave the over 18 y.o. strippers alone when they give customers hand jobs in the private booths. The Seattle vice cops are standing in line to sign up for undercover duty. Which entails taking a couple of grand of petty cash (taxpayers money) and buy lap dances until someone fondles their junk. Tough work, but somebody has to do it.

If adult prostitution was legal, every hooker (of age) would gladly turn in the names of the pimps running kids. After all, they are the competition.

Re:Legalize it.

[TheCarp]

Ok, so legalize prostitution and sever ties between the now legal sex trade and the illegal sex trade.

There is plenty of money to be made in selling alcohol to minors, how many legitimate places are willing to risk their prized liquor licenses over it? They may make mistakes, employees may make exceptions for friends and other shit, but.... outside of those minor incidents, nobody does it as a matter of course. Nobody has a back room for kids to go buy liquor at.

Now, I know the drug markets more than the flesh but... the paralells are easy to see.

The average drug dealer is just a user who needed a way to afford his habbit. No matter how honest of a businessman, no matter whether he denies sales to kids, or advices customers when their habbits seem to be going out of control (all things i have seen from real dealers), he still has to worry about being robbed, threatened, or blackmailed. There is no real separation between him and abusive predators.

There is just no excuse for submerging these people into the criminal underground and leaving them with no reasonable legal recourse to protect themselves from dangerous predators. Thats what it really comes down to. When you make it illegal, you lump all people doing it together, you force them into the same boat as the abusive people. This helps the abusive hide, and gives them victims.

A legal prostitute has no reason to not report illegal activities, in fact, she has every reason to do it. Do you want her on your side, or do you want her to be just another victim? Thats the real question.

Do you want to give abusive criminals an ocean to hide in? Or would you want to shrink his world, and leave him fewer places to hide?

Because in the end, the basic transaction of sex for money, no matter how you feel about it, has no victim. It is nearly invisible, and it is impossible to stop. Why fight it, when its not really the actual problem?

Re:Legalize it.

[Genda]

Its called simple economics. Provide clean, healthy, drug and disease free prostitutes in a crime free, regulated environment and Johns will flood there especially if the price is reasonable (which it will be if the prostitutes only have to work for themselves.) The market for illegal prostitution would almost certainly dry up, forcing pimps into another line of business.

As for slavery, there are places all over the world where women are kidnapped and made drug addicts to keep them under control. You are right, that many women choose this lifestyle because its the best they're going to do under their personal life circumstances and most of their alternatives are dark and sad. That doesn't make them slaves, but it is a problem, on dozens of levels. From the spread of disease to the funding of international organized crime, this is a trade that destroys our humanity and undermines the societies it invades.

As well, significant number of sex slaves are children. Adults from the all over the western world go to the far east to trade in child sex slavery. This is a practice that should result in the harshest of punishments, particularly from the government officials who profit from the trade.

Re:Legalize it.

[ClioCJS]

You're an asshole worthy enough for me to un-mod all the comments I modded here just to post some links proving what a fucking asshole you are.

sold by her mother? Oh wait, it's just FUD, she was really a child whore.

But you know what? One link in, I find you too vile to care what you think enough to look for another link. Open google and open your fucking eyes, jackass. Really.

Re:Legalize it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately, the economics aren't as simple as you suggest in some cases. See for example this article. If you don't want to read the whole thing, here's the important part:
 

But rather than eliminate sexual trafficking, the evidence has consistently revealed that legalizing prostitution fosters it. Dorchen Leidholdt, Co-Executive Director of the international NGO Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, stated:

Jurisdictions that have legalized prostitution have demonstrated just what happens when prostitution is legitimized and protected by law: the number of sex businesses grows, as does the demand for prostitution. Legalized prostitution brings sex tourists and heightens the demand among local men. Local women constitute an inadequate supply so foreign girls and women are trafficked in to meet the demand. The trafficked women are cheaper, younger, more exciting to customers, and easier to control. More trafficked women means more local demand and more sex tourism.

In other words, sexual demand is not as stable as you might think; it can be stimulated. Just consider what happened in Australia when its government decriminalized prostitution and took control of the industry: “in New South Wales where brothels were decriminalized in 1995, the number of brothels in Sydney had tripled to 400-500 by 1999, with the vast majority having no license.” In other words the illegal sector of the sex industry flourished once prostitution was legalized. The Netherlands are another excellent case study. Their brothels were legalized in 2000, but the number of reported human trafficking cases increased from 341 in 2000 to 909 in 2009. When the sex industry enjoys government protection, it thrives and demand increases. It also becomes much more difficult to identify instances of abuse and to prosecute trafficking.

Re:Legalize it.

[fatalGlory]

I disagree. While legalisation might seem like a good idea at first, I don't think it will dry up the black-market for prostitution very much.

1) Johns still want the discretion afforded by the black market (legalisation will likely lead to at least some minimal paper trails, etc.)

2) People's requirements in a prostitution experience get kinkier over time as they become jaded (same thing as with drugs, it takes a harder hit to get the same high). This will inevitably lead to a black market where prostitution involves acts that are outlawed within the confines of the law (such as pedophilia). I'm given to understand that beyond the confines of the well-known red light district, there are places in amsterdam that are home to this kind of thing already, with girls as young as 18 months being used for prostitution. Note that this is in a place where adult prostitutes are already readily available, so legitimising adult prostitution obviously has not alleviated the problem.

Re:Legalize it.

[couchslug]

We must fight prostitution for the same reasons we supported Alcohol and support other Prohibition, because Sky Fairies insist on it.

Re:Hum.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure it's nothing compared to what's needed, but if others company would follow Google's lead it wouldn't be just 11 million in the anti-slavery pot. In South-America the so called modern day slavery is so prevalent in rural areas specially in sugar cane farms and the governments of those countries are pretty much looking the other way. In Brazil it isn't rare to see politicians running private farms in which the workhorse is basically slavery powered.

I don't really understand this kind of behaviour you seem to so proudly practice. Every single time a company donates X to help cause Y some imbecile has to say "big deal, X isn't nothing compared to what Y needs". Breaking news to you, Sherlock, no single person or company will ever solve such complicated problems by themselves.

Re:Hum.

[ByOhTek]

I don't think Google intends to fight it all on their own, their entire revenue stream would probably have trouble coping with that.

I think it is more a matter of 'their fair share'.

Re:The Irony...

[PatDev]

I hope this is a joke. But being paid well to burn out on a job is not slavery. Being compelled through the threat of violence to labor against your will to no benefit of your own is slavery. And sadly, human trafficking is a real thing in the world.

This is more like an investment banker who donates some of his money to groups fighting rape. Sure, some people overly fond of hyperbole might say that he has "raped" the economy, but that doesn't make him a hypocrite because he has never committed rape, and is doing real good in the world.

I understand that what Google is trying to do here is purchase good will. But it worked - they bought mine. It's not a bad trend to start. Any corporation that decides to donate considerable sums of money to ending atrocities in the world will get my consumer loyalty.

Modern slavery. eh?

[cjeze]

So they want to go back to old fashioned slavery?

Can I Have Some Money, Google?

[Anonymous Coward]

It is not my intent to diminish the plight of those who are being forced to work against their will and who are getting unwanted sex, but I can't help notice that I am being forced to work against my will every day and I'm not getting any sex. I would appreciate it if Google would throw some of its enormous wealth toward this issue. Many of us have been stuck in this situation for decades, with no hope in sight.

Re:Money ?

[PT_1]

How does one fight slavery with money ? Isn't that the job of states ? Or will there be some really nice commercials telling us "slavery is bad, don't do it" ? No seriously, what will they do with $11.5M, apart from paperwork for politicians who just don't care ?

From the article:

"Gary A. Haugen, president of the International Justice Mission, said the coalition would focus on three initiatives: A $3.5 million intervention project to fight forced labor in India; a $4.5 million advocacy campaign in India to educate and protect the vulnerable; and a $1.8 million plan to mobilize Americans on behalf of the millions currently at risk of slavery or waiting for rescue around the world. The remaining $1.7 million will go to several smaller organizations working to combat slavery."

Anyone know where the UPC code on a slave is?

[kawabago]

Mine has stopped working and I need to return it.

this is not a silver bullet. amsterdam proves it

[decora]

a lot of criminal gangs infiltrated the 'well regulated' prostitution industry in holland.
when an illiegal immigrant is brought to holland illegally by gangsters and forced to work in a brothel, the 'regulators' are not going to accomplish much to save her.

as we see in the US financial system, 'regulated industries' are not always well regulated. regulators are frequently corrupt and/or incompetent. and they have conflicts of interest.

Eliminate welfare?

[Bardwick]

You get food, shelter, clothing, heating/cooling, an Xbox, a car and a little discretion cash.. In return, you are required to vote for your slave owner...

Niger

[Das Auge]

Right now in Niger, 8% of the population are slaves. That's 1.8 million people.

Let me reiterate, that's happening right now. Sub-Saharan Africa has the majority of the worlds slaves; and I'm not talking about indentured servants.

Re:The Irony...

[Mordermi]

I agree. There are a lot of people here making jokes of this, but it is a serious problem and that is a lot of money to help a great cause. I applaud them for that.

Re:They have their work cut out...

[Genda]

Apparently you've never seen an episode of scared straight... with your free rent, free meals, and health care comes the right to be menaced, traded for a pack of cigarettes, raped repeatedly, beaten, killed and forced to join a prison gang for some small modicum of security. Of course if you're lucky you break federal law and end up in a club fed (especially if your crime was white collar and you helped the Fed by turning states evidence.) However, most go to state pens which for the most part are brutal, nasty places. where no sane person would want to set foot without an M-1 tank to even the score.

Don't get me wrong, a lot of bad people are in prison, and my sympathy and compassion are hard pressed when I hold them up against their victims. That said, we don't separate kids from adults, minor offenders from hard core offenders, in short, or any number of other things to reduce recidivism and promote a prison environment that is both humane and efficient at protecting society from its dregs while actively rehabilitating those it can.

Re:Hum.

[trout007]

Slavery is still legal in the US. Take a look at the text of the 13th Amendment.

  Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Re:They have their work cut out...

[jeti]

If all US prisoners deserve their fate, americans must be very bad people indeed. The incarceration rate in the US is ten times as high as in Europe.

Re:Hum.

[Fned]

Has anyone ever been actually sentenced to "Slavery"?

Uh, yeah.

(HhhHehehhehehehehehhh... penal...)

Re:this is not a silver bullet. amsterdam proves i

[PCM2]

On the other hand, because prostitution is at least semi-legal in Holland, there is a lot more transparency into what happens in brothels in Amsterdam (no pun intended). Americans can easily think "there isn't any sex trafficking in my city, it doesn't really exist, those stories are all FUD." When someone from Amsterdam tells you that sex trafficking is a problem in Dutch brothels, on the other hand, you should probably believe them, because the Dutch have been running the great experiment of how to integrate vice into society for many years now, and as a result, they're much more willing to discuss such issues dispassionately and with an eye to finding solutions.

Dearest world,

[mjwx]

#1 - US - 743 per 100K pop.
#65 - New Zealand - 199 per 100K pop.
#87 - England and Wales - 156 per 100K pop.
#111 - Australia - 133 per 100K pop.

Yeah bitches, now who's full of criminals.

Signed,
Australia.