Prostitution 2.0 through Craigslist

Filed under: Business, Internet, Web services

Prostitution 2.0 through Craigslist

by Chris Gilmer Sep 5th 2007

It seems like some internet savvy hookers have found out that Craigslist is the place to be in order to attract Johns interested in a little offline business.

Local authorities have been monitoring the employment and for sale ads, and have noticed a steady increase in action from the sex trade business. Nassau County, New York was where the latest sting took place. In the past year alone, over 70 arrests have been taken place just from Craigslist ads. Police have started placing decoy ads on the website and monitoring it to catch would be customers in the act. High tech hookers have taken off all across the US, with another recent arrest of 60 in Illinois that used Craigslist to advertise their services.

Craigslist says that its 24 staff members cannot possibly flag all objectionable ads, but that hasn't stopped law enforcement officials from accusing them of enabling prostitution. Others are saying that the sites digital footprints help law enforcement crach down on the sex trade. On one day over 9,000 listings alone were added to the "Erotic Services" category in the New York region. Welcome to Prostitution 2.0.

Tags: craigslist, job listings, JobListings, prostitution 2.0, Prostitution2.0, sale, want ads, WantAds

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

orig_club_soda said 7:46PM on 9-05-2007

"Police have started placing decoy ads on the website and monitoring it to catch would be customers in the act. "

This is ridiculous. They wouldn't be customers if there weren't ads.

Andrew Schrock said 8:11PM on 9-05-2007

orig_club_soda: I'm pretty sure males have been interested in prostitutes since before craigslist ads....

robotrock said 12:45AM on 9-06-2007

Wow...glad to see our tax dollars going to good work.

Jarrett Kaufman said 11:29AM on 9-06-2007

So much time, money, and effort being expended to stop the world's oldest profession that will never end. Exchanging sex for goods and services goes on every day, whether it's cash, jewelry, or even dinner and a movie. Stop regulating our damn bodies.

Peter said 2:12PM on 9-06-2007

Jarrett - Yeah, I've never really understood why athletes, models, musicians and anyone else who trains their body or uses their God-given talents with their shirt on is acceptable, but if you use your body with your shirt off it's illegal. Except if it's real pron, which is legal. How is pron any different from "sex for money" except that the exchange of money occurs through a third party?

KC said 2:22PM on 9-07-2007

The thing I find funny about the crack down on the sex trade is how the prostitutes are viewed by law enforcement as the victims.

Sex is the only illegally sold commodity that the seller receives a dramatically less severe punishment then the buyer.

I mean, drug dealers get much stiffer sentences then drug users. The dealers are seen as the source of the problem - the mindset is without the dealers there's be no users

With the sex trade it's the opposite - the mindset is the hooker is the victim and if there were no Johns she'd have gone to Harvard and become the CEO of Pepsico.

The reality is some women are to stupid to be career girls. Some women don't want to be career girls.

But every woman alive loves money and wants as much of it as they can get. Some don't want to be bothered having just one man be their money supply. They are horny and want to have sex with many men and take money from all of them.

Prostitution (the sex trade) is not something evil men do to women - in fact it's exactly the opposite in reality. It's women preying on male vulnerabilities for huge profits.

But our society cannot bring it's self to view women as the ruthless manipulative gender that has all the real power in the world. Here they can only be viewed as victims.

That messed up gender view keeps the US national sex offender registry growing by 25000 names a month. How long before instead of 1 in four Americans received an unwanted sexual advance to 1 in 4 Americans is on the freakin' sex offender registry?

There is no more messed up area of the law then area where the law meets sex

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