[bairrd]

These women were sex trafficked.

[falcolas]

You're absolutely correct. Hence my comment about coercion. Did Minsky know that? Did he have any reason to suspect it?

[hunterjrj]

Come on now. What other plausible reason, besides being someone's daughter, would a girl that young have for being on that island with these old men? It doesn't take an MIT-calibre mind to ask this question.

[falcolas]

Money. The same reason a girl that young (let's say 18) might work for a strip club. Or in Nevada as a prostitute. Or as an escort.

[seanmcdirmid]

If money was involved, even if the clients were willing, it is considered a form of coercion under US law if the girls were under 18. The coercion label only seems to go away when they turn 18.

[setr]

and Stallman argued that morally, this is nonsense -- the moral aspect does not care for country and jurisdiction.

[seanmcdirmid]

Morality isn’t universal, in space or time. What was moral 2000 or 100 years ago is not today, same between the USA and Chad Africa.

If morality is relative, only the legal framework is something that we can evaluate. Laws are crafted from the relative morality in that jurisdiction.