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by Anne Collier
NetFamilyNews.org

Two high school students and a 19-year-old “ringleader” advertised themselves as “party girls” available as a threesome in an online classifieds sites, the Pioneer Press reports , citing an FBI investigation. The 19-year-old “was arrested by the FBI last month and charged in US District Court with sex trafficking of minors, a federal offense.” The Pioneer Press adds that the case is just the “latest in the Twin Cities involving sex rings” using free online classifieds to advertise; “but this time, the participants are minors.” These teens fit the profile of online teens most at risk for sexual exploitation (see the profile). The Press adds that investigators are debating whether teen prostitution is on the rise because the Internet, but “the majority of juvenile prostitutes is still thought to be runaways, illegal immigrants and children from poor urban areas. But an August 2003 Newsweek exposé examined the increase of juvenile sex workers in suburbs. The story focused on a Twin Cities girl from an affluent home who relished the fast cash and picked up men at the Mall of America.”