Craigslist: We're Singled Out for Erotic Services

Only if we can buy Erotic Services from eBay, Amazon and Newegg. eBay will sent a transsexual, Amazon a Cambodian and only Newegg can get the order right.

What do they care? They don't make any money on their listings anyway, right?

Their sex section is a festering pool for pimps and johns to hook up. It's the worst of the worst. Why is streetwalking illegal when posting anonymously about your female ho/slave to get johns legal? Face it, no one chooses this lifestyle. Unless your definition of "choice" is being raped/battered/attacked so many times that your will and spirit are crushed and accept what is happening to you without much resistance any longer. Oh yeah, their "choice" to be hookers should be protected.

By the way, THG's posting service is the absolute worst. That idiotic radio box keeps popping up after you click "submit my comment. " You never know when it's been submitted. Sometimes, you could post 3 separate times. Other times, none. Fix it you morons!

I dont think craigslist should be criminalized at all. They are offering a free service. just like with all the torrent crap, go after the law breakers, not the suppliers. I could use myspace to advertise myself as a pimp looking for hoes, criminalize myspace now too?

Prosecutors discriminate in their selection of prosecutions all the time. It's a matter of convenience and impact. Some cases are easier to prove. Some will have a greater effect on society (presumably good). Complaining because you're being prosecuted for doing something illegal when someone else isn't is just immature. It reminds me of a 6 year old complaining, ".. but all the other kids are doing it!"

Craigslist needs to clean up if it wants to be taken seriously. The whole world isn't SanFrancisco.

i do not think they should be criminalized.

they just offer adds by folks out there and not businesses and they are a free site to look thru or to post to.

Why don't we legalize prostitution in the first place?

No one is talking about criminalizing Craig's list fools. It's the sex section in Craig's list that is the problem.

Ignoring the argument about whether or not prostitution should be legalized, it currently is illegal. Therefore, any postings on magazines, papers, websites, for prostitution should be illegal. If Craig's List had a section titled "Murder for hire" to hook up killers and someone who wants someone else whacked, there'd be an uproar, and rightly so. This is the same legal premise. Craig's list can't claim as its defense that it's just providing a medium for posters.

It definately sounds to me like this guy is riding the "Craigslist Bad" phenomenon to try to get some votes out of the technologically ignorant members of his state. I mean, tell someone who doesn't use a computer that Craigslist advertises prostitutes (*mumble* in other states *mumble*) and then that you are going to work to ban Craigslist from the internet. Of course they'll vote for you, they have no idea what your talking about, and unless your competitor also vows to rid the internet of Craigslist, he'll sound like he supports prostitution.

This is similar to the cliche "Think about the Children!" cry to ban pornography. Or saying someone supports Al Queda because they are against the war in Iraq (where Al Queda had no foothold until we ousted Sadam Hussein, but I digress).

In the SF Bay area Craigslist is the #1 venue for child prostitution. Craigslist knows this, it has been told, but it does not think to shut down a service that is being used to purvey child prostitution. Prostitution in general is not a good thing, only a few high end individuals are "empowered" sex workers. However, like the drug trade, prostitution is rarely as glamorous as it is portrayed, there is a lot of child molestation, drugs and other things which cause runaway children and adults to turn to this method of survival. In the bay area most of the children that we see arrested for prostitution admit their pimps are using Craigslist. (The police regularly set up stings posing as children to arrest johns looking for children.) Craigslist has been a boon for the child prostitution business because it is available in the cities of the "circuit" where pimps take their child prostitutes to be exploited. They will go to one city, work for a period of time until it gets too "hot" and then they move to the next city. That is the unfortunate truth of child prostitution and Craigslist. It is no surprise to us then that Craigslist would be rightly prosecuted sooner or later for providing a service where children are sexually victimized. We just wonder why Craigslist allowed so many kids to be victimized for so long by not shutting down in the face of such evidence.

Erotic Services encompasses many legal activities, the fact that behind closed doors that magical line in the sand might get crossed and someone might be happy is just evidence that the law needs to get out of my bedroom and let me do what I want with my money.

Child prostitution increases are the result of prostitution being illegal in this country. In places like Germany and Amsterdam where it is regulated and taxed, this is not a problem.

Like drugs, by pushing an issue that is impossible to ban in a meaningful way underground we allow it to grow unchecked like a cancer and fund illegal activities and guns and violence so that pimps and dealers can regulate their illegal market monopolies.

Decriminalization of the worlds oldest profession, sex being the only thing you can give away for free but you cant sell here, and drugs is the only answer there has ever been, and only answer there ever will be. There was no epidemic when drugs were legal in the 19th century and before.

It's fear mongering supported by moralistic cowards that want everyone else to conform. Legalization and decriminalization don't force anyone to do anything they werent already going to do, it just makes sure there are no impurities and that dosage is clearly marked and labeled, and that the taxes generated can be used to fund the rehab clinics that we ALREADY have which are funded by regular tax dollars.

Norway is decriminalized, has better drug statistics than the US, and a 2% unemployment rate. They treat addiction like a medical problem, and just throw thugs in jail. They operate smarter, and have a much higher quality of life as a result.

So now I have to go back to MySpace to find my hookers?

i do think CL is being targetedd unfairly and since I reside in SC, my friends and I have rallied to not re-elect McMaster as he is completely wasting our tax dollars on this useless drivel.

what if the services are provided free of charge, does that make all sex and sexual discussion illegal?

....I can't believe the sheer IGNORANCE of some of these posters: JLW3, I bet you are really McMasters in disguise.

1. Craig's list has closed submissions for their erotic services section. In 3 or so days, those posts that were on there (about 8) are going to expire and the section will cease to even exist. Can people not wait 72 hours before going on a holy crusade?! Like me and perhaps you posters (unless you're living off welfare checks and have nothing else to do but troll threads) craig's list employees are entitled to work an 8 hour shift. Because of the sheer number of posts they would have to go through (there is more to the United States than the po-dunk town of greenville) they would have to spend time going through an unknown number of posts across the United States AND refund everyones posts that did not get their full advertising time (it costs money to advertise in the E.S. section). It's understandable that Craig's list would wait a day or two and let things die off naturally than to scurry about in a panic trying to appease McMasters, someone with whom Craig's List owes nothing to.
2. If you want to talk about doing people justice (ie stopping sex slaves, etc) then I hope you're doing or have done something about it. Participate in your community by doing outreach to troubled teens (which I'm currently involved in and which some posters are eluding to is the common prostitute). These kids ran away from an abusive parent/situation which would have probably got them killed if they stayed. They have no where to go and surprise, still need food and shelter. They can't get a job because the jobs are taken/ they are not 'hireable' because they don't have a phone number or even clean clothes. They feel that selling themselves is the only way to survive, and they need help to understand that that is not true, that they can live a good life, and that people care about them. If you're participating in your community and doing something about what you believe in, then fantastic. If you're just talking smack about your morals yet don't feel like helping people that could use your help (which I agree that prostitution is not something that should be considered acceptable) then stfu.

Wait, you mean the internet is for more than porn?

I saw, blame the bad image on the media (as usual). They always take something and blow it out of proportion. Take for instance, my friend's dad. Not a web user at all. He tells my friend, "help me sell some tools on eBay, because they say they're gonna shut 'em down!". Craigslist is one of the most helpful websites ever. It doesn't deserve a bad rap at all.

Argh, meant to say Craigslist, not eBay, boo-urns =[

The internet would be a better place without sites such as Craigslist and 4chan imho.

call me immoral or waht ever , but i actually see nothgin wrong with prostituion beyound the fact that it being illeagla makes it natrually graitate towards other illeagal activites. i say leagallize prostitution antion wide adn you wil take out many oth the other ileagal elements that are involved with it (such as drugs and the like).

i think it is a woman's bodya dn they shoudl avhe teh right to do with it as they pelae , even it it is selling it in sex , granted i think it is sad when this isa womans's only means of income , I jsut don't liek lwas that stipulate morals to people. in soem cases this is a girl'ls only emansn fro livign , and i'd see it as far better if didnt ahve a huge criminal elemnt tied to it like it does , making it leagal would eliminate such elements from the "buisness"