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Craigslist hasn’t always been good to me, although, I’ll admit we’ve had our moments. There was the $700 table and chairs set that I scored for a measly $125 and my beloved mint conditioned red couches that I purchased for a song, also my pottery barn coffee table that was a mere 25 bucks.
But there was the incident with the bicycle. After meeting the completely sketchy seller at a fast-food joint 40 minutes from my house (stupid move on my part) he insisted that I pay $10 more than what we agreed to. It was rusted and gross and not at all like picture but I found him really intimidating and a little menacing so I agreed for the sole purpose of getting the hell out of there.
That’s not even the worst of it, there was the woman. The one with the shifty eyes that my father-in-law met on a Craigslist singles ad and dated briefly. There were red flags upon meeting her when she paid more attention to my dog than anyone else (she even carried on a one way conversation with my chocolate lab). They joked about getting t-shirts that read “we fell in love on Craigslist.” She starting calling me to talk — and we’re talking lengthy phone calls in which she discussed the intimate details of their shared love life. I’m not sure if I will ever be able to erase the mental images, and needless to say, I was creeped out. When they broke up I begged my father in law to lay off the Craigslist’s singles ads. He didn’t, and we’re just waiting for the next bomb to drop.
Despite all of that, I remained a loyal Craigslister. Now? I’m starting to realize that there is a very dark side to Craigslist — the side that involves their adult services section.
Most people don’t realize this, but Craigslist makes a ton of money off of their adult section. This year alone they stand to make 36 million off of their adult services ads (dear Lord, how does this happen). That’s 30% of their overall yearly revenue. Perhaps that’s why despite being in some serious hot water over many a criminal case that has unfolded as a result of their “adult” section, Craigslist has yet to get rid of it.
There was the widely publicized Craigslist killer who recently took his own life, the man arrested in Chicago for forcing his wife to have sex for money via an adult ad, allegations of teen sex slaves, and countless cases of child pornography. In April, 14 members of the Gambino crime family were arrested and charged with selling the sexual services of girl’s ages 15 to 19 on Craigslist. More recently, on August 14th, 12 men were arrested during an undercover string operation accused of soliciting sex from girls aged 8-15 years old. Some of them were said to be carrying candy to entice their young victims with. That’s not disturbing at all, right?
After the infamous Craigslist killer took the life of Julissa Brisman, the site changed the name of their “erotic services” section to “adult services.” And that was only after 43 state prosecutors threatened legal action. Clearly it was only semantics because nothing has changed — at least not really, anyway. Yes, they now have a monitor that reviews content keeping an eye out for anything that appears to be illegal, but really it’s basically a big fat see-through band-aid meant to appease politicians and other nay-sayers. Thumbs up, guys. Thumbs up.
In the beginning of August a political activist group took out an ad demanding Craigslist take down their “adult services” section. The ad was in response to two womens’ claims about being abducted as children (one of them as young as 11 at the time of abduction) and forced into sexual slavery.
In response to the ad, Craigslist co-founder, Jim Buckmaster said
“Craigslist is one of the few bright spots and success stories in the critical fight against trafficking and child exploitation,” Buckmaster said. “We’ve been told as much by experts on the front lines, many of whom we have met with in person, and many of whom have shared helpful suggestions we have incorporated in our approach.”
Sadly I fear that Craigslist has chosen money over morals. Oh, and I disagree with Buckmaster, but that’s neither here nor there. What do you guys think?
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Sadly many adverts on Craigslist are just a cover up for mafias, but many others have been posted by adults who actually do want to sell their body for money. Craigslist clearly needs to control its “adult section” better, but cancelling its adult section won’t make the problem disappear, it will just go somewhere else. What we need is prostitution clients to report on any prostitute they suspect to be a minor or coerced into prostitution, a major response from the Police and Craigslist to control its posters better, especially in such a sensitive area.
The Mafia? I highly doubt it you fucktard. People flag prostitutes, and it should be legal and taxed anyway. I’m so glad I don’t live in America, Home of the Free, my ass.
Am I near a bridge? Because I swear I just heard a troll…
I think there may be a misconception that the these such murders/slum lords/etc. exist because of Craigslist. And although there are many such instances where I feel the web does directly facilitate malicious acts, I really think that Craigslist is no more than an online version of the personal ads in the back of the newspaper, or a poster tacked on a light post (except with Craigslist, your IP is logged, which gives a greater chance of IDing someone up to no good than most means of advertising). As well, Craigslist allows users to provide feedback on ads- so if you have been slighted or met up with someone who is advertising services which you felt might be dangerous, then you are able to anonymously flag them. Other dating sites and print media don’t allow for this, which makes it more hazardous for users.
But, being better than something else doesn’t default to good. People are getting hurt, and I don’t think many would be much worse off if adult services were eliminated from the site (and although it would be an awful shame if Craiglist had to start charging user fees or increasing paid advertising in order to make up the revenue lost from the elimination of the adult section, I doubt many people would try to argue that saving the lives wouldn’t be worth the cost).
However, it irritates me that we are al so focused on eliminating symptoms without addressing the cause. There is a strong sexual drive in many men for young women, and this is entirely driven by our media, and what we deem acceptable. The real fix here is to switch the focus of what we as a society deem as sexual, instead of covering up the after effects by letting men feel this way about 13 year olds, but eliminating their means of finding them.
I’ve never visited the adult services section of Craigslist, so I can’t really comment on anything relevant to this post, but I have to say that much of my new house has been furnished by Craigslist, and much of it for free (it’s nice living in a college town when the school year ends and everyone’s frantically trying to get rid of their stuff), so I’m a huge fan of the site in general!
I think craigslist is great. Punish the offender, not the street.
Better yet, stop legislating what I can do with my own body that can’t affect any other unwilling participants!
Get rid of the ridiculous laws against prostitution, regulate it, and lose a lot of the issue here.
Craigslist created sex slavery, did it? I thought not. At least with Craigslist the entire operation isn’t conducted in shadows, and people perpetrators can be caught. Getting rid of the adult services section will only drive the criminals back underground further.
You honestly think that the key to ending prostitution is to take away the adult services section of Craigslist?
Let me tell you about a little site called “Kijiji”. They took away their casual encounters section because they wanted to become more family friendly. Now, the community section is being overrun with people wanting to hook up.
You take away the adult services section, they’re going to end up in casual encounters, w4m, etc. It’s like taking away everyone’s bathing suits so they can’t swim. You know they’re just going to end up nekkid in the pool!
I’m not saying that removing the adult section is going to solve the problems of abuse that are going on. When men are solicating sex from 8 year olds via craiglsit I think that perhaps a change is in order.
I completely agree with wicked7 and really loved her comment. Getting rid of a symptom without dealing with the cause is never the answer. So true!
Yes. Prosecute those soliciting sex from eight year olds (if such a thing should actually happen).
Then leave craigslist alone for the continued use of consenting adults.
Prostitution is the world’s oldest profession for a reason. It will continue to exist with or without Craigslist. It should be legal (for adults only, of course) and regulated like it’s done in Nevada. The prostitutes there have lower STD rates than the general population, I believe. This is because they are required to get a full exam and testing every month. They are also a lot safer because there are no pimps – just brothels that often have cameras monitoring every room for safety purposes.
For the child abuse, that’s not gonna go away either. It’s just going to be driven further underground, making it harder for the authorities to rescue the kids and prosecute the sickos abusing them. At least this way, it’s easier to catch. Isn’t that reason enough to let Craigslist remain, with heavy monitoring by the authorities to find people peddling the services of underage victims? I mean, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel this way. You can’t lose.
Exactly! With Craigslist, at least there’s some evidence of the crime. Otherwise this would all be conducted in private.
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