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Craigslist Asked to Close Adult Services Worldwide

- By - Source : Tom's Guide US

Four organizations have banded together to encourage Craigslist to continue its 'Adult Services' closure efforts worldwide.

On the heels of Monday’s announcement that Craigslist is shutting down its 'Adult Services' here in the States, four organizations representing children and young women have demanded that the site extend the closure beyond the American borders.

In a statement from Polaris Project, Rebecca Project for Human Rights, FAIR Fund, and Courtney’s House, the organizations began their request by thanking Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster for voluntarily closing the offending services.

"As the largest classified ads site to have an adult services section, Craigslist has become a major marketplace for buying and selling sex with children and young women," the statement reads. "An FBI investigation found 2,800 ads selling sex with children in the adult services section in 2008 alone. Closing this section of Craigslist sends a clear signal to sexual predators that it will not stand for them using the site to sexually enslave children and young women."

The letter goes on to point out that children and young women are still being sold for sex through Craigslist through more than 250 other Craigslist 'erotic' pages around the world. The organizations said that Craigslist has a global responsibility, and should shut down both 'Adult Services' and 'Erotic Services' sections across the globe.

"We hope that closing this section only in the U.S. was not simply a PR move in advance of a Congressional hearing on September 15th on sex trafficking where Craigslist has been called to testify," the letter challenged. "If Craigslist is seriously committed to ending the site’s use as a platform for sex trafficking and the sexual enslavement of children and young women, it will immediately close the remaining sections around the world."

Newmark and Buckmaster have yet to respond.

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plznote 09/08/2010 12:33 PM
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That will stop pollution! :lol:

xbeater 09/08/2010 12:36 PM
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I like how CL kindly closed the US Adult Services part of the site, but reading this article I get the feeling somebody is being a little aggressive about the remainder. C'mon guys it was only a couple of hours ago since they shut down US Adult Services, perhaps ask them after a couple of days and not right away! That might just spook them.

More on topic, I am for the closing of this section of the website, or more strict control. Somebody wants to place an ad, place it, then have to wait a couple of hours for it to get checked by some security, only on the Adult Services section.

shloader 09/08/2010 12:41 PM
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So human trafficking will still happen, but this would move it out of the public eye. Is that the goal?

Quote :"An FBI investigation found 2,800 ads selling sex with children in the adult services section in 2008 alone. Closing this section of Craigslist sends a clear signal to sexual predators that it will not stand for them using the site to sexually enslave children and young women."

Well good job finding ads, I'm sure that took tons of work. Now just how much work did the FBI do in pursuit of the proprietors? All this is going to do is force proprietors to slip in ads to other areas of CL.

jhansonxi 09/08/2010 12:41 PM
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xbeater :
More on topic, I am for the closing of this section of the website, or more strict control. Somebody wants to place an ad, place it, then have to wait a couple of hours for it to get checked by some security, only on the Adult Services section.

How exactly would they check? Personal visit? Anyone who thinks this is the end of sexual services advertisement on the Internet is delusional.

ithurtswhenipee 09/08/2010 12:54 PM
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They are just eliminating a venue for law enforcement to perform sting operations. The trafficking will still continue, it will just be harder to find now.

atk0309 09/08/2010 12:54 PM
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Yes why not close the whole site while they are on it.
If anybody WANTS to post an ad there they WILL post it and find a way to make the viewer understand what it is about.
Checking the ads?
As tjhan said: what personal visits to every single ad?
Signing a document that allows the site access to ALL your private data and details so they can verify who you are and what is your purpose?

This is getting ridiculous.

xnashx 09/08/2010 1:10 AM
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nnnooooo!

zachary k 09/08/2010 1:17 AM
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they are just shooting themselves in the foot here, now the illegal activity is harder to find, they should have used to to catch these perverts.

hellwig 09/08/2010 2:23 AM
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Its the same goddamn story each and every time, censorship in the name of the children: "Please, won't someone think of the children!".

Now that Craigslist has caved in to pressure, its only a matter of time before the site becomes a sanitized, worthless copy of ebay. First its the adults services, then the RIAA and MPAA will successfully lobby some congressman to come down on Craigslist to shutdown any DVD and CD sales. Book publishers will demand craiglist stop the sale of books. Car manufacturers will demand craiglist ban automobiles. Labor unions will demand craigslist ban handyman/craftsman type people from selling their services on the internet.

Mind you, none of these things is illegal, but now that Craiglist has proven themselves a push-over, the right people will be able to deman everything from them. This is why everyone fought against porn filters and the .xxx domain (porn producers and others alike). Because once you open the floodgates, you can't close them again.

jeraldjunkmail 09/08/2010 2:32 AM
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What is it about sex that makes Americans want to shoot people?

Raid3r 09/08/2010 2:33 AM
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Security by obscurity is a madman game...everyone loses..sigh.

Anonymous 09/08/2010 5:49 AM
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I dont know why all the shooting, just know about someone going to buy a boat on craigs list and got their head blown off and wallet taken, it happens every minute on the craigs list

beachbod 09/08/2010 7:38 AM
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The easier they make it the more people will be abused. This is a good move.

david__t 09/08/2010 2:05 PM
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Yeah 'cause nothing bad will ever happen after these pages are removed!! Give me a break. Perhaps we should ban the Internet & newspapers & telephones as well.

zak_mckraken 09/08/2010 2:58 PM
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Shloader :
So human trafficking will still happen, but this would move it out of the public eye. Is that the goal?Well good job finding ads, I'm sure that took tons of work. Now just how much work did the FBI do in pursuit of the proprietors? All this is going to do is force proprietors to slip in ads to other areas of CL.



Exactly. These ads will simply move to the 'Miscellaneous' section. Once those bastards have found a profitable window, they'll use it any way they can. At least, in the adult section, it made it easier for investigators to spot the pedophile ads.

Yoder54 09/08/2010 5:11 PM
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jeraldjunkmail :
What is it about sex that makes Americans want to shoot people?



It is not 'sex' that is offensive, but unwanted sex forced primarily upon children and women.

gm0n3y 09/08/2010 6:35 PM
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Yoder54 :
It is not 'sex' that is offensive, but unwanted sex forced primarily upon children and women.


I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that the vast majority of the ads in the CL adult services section were from women of legal age that were not forced into it. If the majority were really slaves/children, the police should be making huge busts every day. I'm jumping on the bandwagon of if its so rampant, then why aren't the cops busting them?

eddieroolz 09/08/2010 8:07 PM
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All this will do is disperse the listings elsewhere, like Facebook and other classified services. I think these organizations are pounding on the wrong thing here

grieve 09/08/2010 8:29 PM
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I have to agree with most here... Government services should have used the adult section for stings.

It would be a lot more fun watching those adds get fewer and fewer daily due to busts. But why would the government serve us!

Anonymous 09/08/2010 8:32 PM
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what about sex being forced on by men on other men, oh wait the US has no problem with that