UPDATED with comments from McGinn and Lt. Sano, after the jump.

At 3:30, Mayor Mike McGinn and Seattle Police Department Lieutenant Eric Sano, who oversees the department's Vice/High Risk Victims Unit, are scheduled to talk about Seattle's child prostitution problem and how websites like Backpage.com—which is owned by Village Voice Media, the parent company of the Seattle Weekly— allegedly contribute to underage sex trafficking.

Watch it live, here:

Seattle Channel Video can be played in Flash Player 9 and up


Highlights from the presser after the jump for those of you who didn't watch it:

McGinn opens with this statistic: "At any time, there are 300-500 children in King County that are being sexually exploited for profit. In 2010, the SPD rescued 81 children from sexual exploitation. This year they’ve rescued 24 children." McGinn alleges that SPD has investigated "numerous cases" of children being advertised on backpages.com, including "at least four this year."

"We’re asking Village Voice and backpages.com to be partners with us because we believe they can do better." McGinn specifically wants backpages.com to ID potential clients before they can place an ad.

The mayor gives a nod to Ashton Kutcher's God-like tweeting powers, acknowledging that many city websites crashed after one tweet from the celebrity. "I guess that's the power of having seven million followers," McGinn joked. (In other Ashton Kutcher tweeting news—typing that sentence makes my fingers want to barf, by the way—American Airlines withdrew its advertisements from Village Voice today after being heckled by Kutcher over twitter.)

SPD vice units have been focusing on backpage.com because it is "the most prolific website," says Sano, who adds that "We’ve had some [ads] appear in print in the past, but I don’t have exact numbers at this time." Detectives look at all ads that appear to be underage, arrange to meet up with the girls, then detain them and ultimately go after the exploiter. "We've seen kids as young as 12," Sano says. Backpages.com has always been very responsive and cooperative when contacted by police, according to Sano.

McGinn hasn't yet received a response from Jim Larkin, the CEO of VVM, about his request. "This is not a legal issue," he says. "This is a moral issue. They choose what they place and what they don’t place. They should do better."