State attorneys general from around the country are asking Craigslist to shut down its Adult Services listings, saying ads for prostitution are “rampant” on it.
The attorneys general involved in this effort represent Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Collectively, they sent a letter to Craigslist [PDF] earlier this week, saying:
“The increasingly sharp public criticism of craigslist’s Adult Services section reflects a growing recognition that ads for prostitution — including ads trafficking children — are rampant on it. In our view, the company should take immediate action to end the misery for the women and children who may be exploited and victimized by these ads. Because craigslist cannot, or will not, adequately screen these ads, it should stop accepting them altogether and shut down the Adult Services section.
“In July 2010, two girls who said that they were trafficked for sex through craigslist wrote an ‘open letter’ to your company in which they pleaded with you to eliminate the Adult Services section. Their poignant account told a horrific story of brutalization and assault suffered not just
by them, but also by untold numbers of other children.
“Other reports about the Adult Services webpage support these claims. Indeed, in a recent report, CNN correspondent Amber Lyon posted a fictional prostitution advertisement on the Adult Services section, and received 15 telephone calls soliciting sex in just a three hour period.”
“In July 2010, two girls who said that they were trafficked for sex through craigslist wrote an ‘open letter’ to your company in which they pleaded with you to eliminate the Adult Services section. Their poignant account told a horrific story of brutalization and assault suffered not just
by them, but also by untold numbers of other children.
“Other reports about the Adult Services webpage support these claims. Indeed, in a recent report, CNN correspondent Amber Lyon posted a fictional prostitution advertisement on the Adult Services section, and received 15 telephone calls soliciting sex in just a three hour period.”
Last year, Craigslist dropped the Erotic Services section of the website. The Craigslist blog said last week that the site has done a lot to screen listings:
“…craigslist implemented manual screening of adult services ads in May of 2009. Since that time, before being posted each individual ad is reviewed by an attorney licensed to practice law in the US, trained to enforce craigslist’s posting guidelines, which are stricter than those typically used by yellow pages, newspapers, or any other company that we are aware of. More than 700,000 ads were rejected by those attorneys in the year following implementation of manual screening, for falling short of our guidelines. Our uniquely intensive manual screening process has resulted in a mass exodus of those unwilling to abide by craigslist’s standards, manually enforced on an ad-by-ad basis.”
