Today on my local news, they discussed the codes that human traffickers use on backpage.com to advertise/sexually exploit children and women. I had never heard of this code before.

I tried but was unable to find a link to my local news story, but i did find this:

http://www.hope4justice.org/our-newsletter/2017/6/14/emojis-trafficking-those-cute-little-symbols-may-have-a-not-so-innocent-meaning-on-craigslist-or-backpage

Turns out this info was published back in June, but these codes are news to me, and we should all be aware of this coded language... Similar to "cheese pizza", etc. The local news story presented this yesterday as breaking news.

Hearts, Crowns, airplanes, cherries and other pictures are used to symbolize things like "underage", "victim being flown in" and "virgin." This shit makes me sick.

What i also found at the following link is that two days ago the woman who helped uncover these codes got an award, which means increased recognition of this sick code language.

https://www.bizjournals.com/prnewswire/press_releases/2018/01/30/DC00570

How and why the FUCK is backpage still getting away with this horror? Sickening.