https ://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-signing-h-r-1865-allow-states-victims-fight-online-sex-trafficking-act-2017/

SENATOR PORTMAN: "They kept saying, “You know, it’s unbelievable” — as you just said — “that trafficking could be increasing in this country, in this century.” And yet, it has been. And all the experts say it’s because of the Internet. So we had to deal with this issue.

And there was a federal law, unbelievably, that actually gave these websites immunity, that shielded them from prosecution or from these victims and survivors you see here being able to have their day in court. And so, they persevered."

Wow! There was a federal law that proteccted these sites.