Amazon Japan’s Child Porn Problem?

SOURCE: Raw Story

Amazon Japan, the Japanese arm of Amazon, the world’s largest online shopping website, is facing an investigation by the Japanese police on suspicion of aiding and abetting the sale of child pornography on its website—a problem that the company should have known about at least since 2009. In that year, as a member of the NGO Lighthouse (formerly known as Polaris Project Japan), we brought attention to the problem in petitions and emails to the company.

The issue is not about Amazon selling this trash itself, it’s about so-called third-party vendors who showcase the porn on Amazon’s site. But according to its critics, the net result is basically the same: Amazon’s accusers say it is facilitating the sexual exploitation of children.

As a member of Lighthouse: Center For Human Trafficking Victims, which combats human trafficking and sexual exploitation, I know we petitioned Amazon by email and in telephone conversations to remove the materials clearly constituting child porn on its website back then. It would seem the company has been, to say the least, slow to do much about it, according to sources close to the investigation.

Continue reading …