Craigslist's shame: Child sex ads, "Wal-Mart of sex trafficking"

Craigslist's shame: Child sex ads By Malika Saada Saar, Special to CNN August 4, 2010 CNN -- Last month, two girls trafficked for sex through the website Craigslist wrote an open letter to its founder, Craig Newmark, pleading with him to get rid of the adult services section, where sex ads are placed.
"I was first forced into prostitution when I was 11 years old by a 28-year-old man," "M.C." wrote. "I am not an exception. The man who trafficked me sold many girls my age, his house was called 'Daddy Day Care.'

"All day, me and other girls sat with our laptops, posting pictures and answering ads on Craigslist. He made $1,500 a night selling my body, dragging me to Los Angeles, Houston, Little Rock -- and one trip to Las Vegas in the trunk of a car. I am 17 now, and my childhood memories aren't of my family, going to middle school, or dancing at the prom. They are making my own arrangements on Craigslist to be sold for sex, and answering as many ads as possible for fear of beatings and ice water baths."
No one from Craigslist responded to M.C....

According to the most recent Department of Justice statistics, an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 children are sold for sex every year in the United States. Most are from 11 and 14 years old. Try for a moment to imagine your fifth-grade child, niece or sister, sold for sex. Law enforcement officials and anti-trafficking organizations have repeatedly asked Craigslist to rein in its sex ads in an effort to stop the selling of children for sex.

Craig Newmark and Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster have made some efforts to screen the site for children sold for sex and cooperate with law enforcement investigations. But for the most part, they have ignored such pleas, maybe because they just made an estimated $36 million in profits from these sex ads in the last year alone.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/02/saar.craigslist.child.trafficking/index.html


Craigslist vigilant in barring child sex ads By Jim Buckmaster, Special to CNN August 4, 2010
Editor's note: Jim Buckmaster is president and CEO of Craigslist, the most used classified advertising service in any medium, relied on by more than 50 million Americans each month for finding jobs, housing, secondhand items, friendship, romance, services, events and local community information.

San Francisco, California (CNN) -- As all people of conscience will agree, human trafficking and child exploitation are utterly despicable and horrendous crimes.
In contrast with the epidemic numbers often cited for the nation as a whole, the incidence of such crimes is low and getting lower on Craigslist because of the comprehensive preventive measures we have taken. Some experts now liken the relative rarity on Craigslist to "looking for a needle in a haystack."

Nevertheless, any misuse of our site whatsoever in facilitating such unspeakable crimes is unacceptable, and we will continue to work tirelessly, in tandem with law enforcement and key nonprofits, to ensure that any victims receive the assistance they desperately need and deserve, and that those responsible are imprisoned....Last year, we began manual screening of each adult services ad before its posting, and those unwilling to conform to Craigslist's standards left in droves for the many venues that do not screen ads. This migration is a matter of public record.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/04/buckmaster.craigslist.rebuttal/index.html



Craigslist founder rendered speechless by CNN’s sex-trafficking questions Aug 4, 2010 by Liz Goodwin The popular online classified ad site Craigslist is set to make about a third of its total revenue from its "adult services" ads section this year. But police and groups working to prevent human trafficking tell CNN the company is lining its pockets with money paid by prostitutes and pimps selling sex. According to anti-trafficking advocates, some of the women featured on the site are underage and are being forced into prostitution against their will. When CNN reporter Amber Lyon confronted Craigslist founder Craig Newmark with these accusations in an unplanned interview, the Internet magnate said his company was doing "more than anyone" to combat prostitution ads, before falling silent and eventually walking away from her questions....

Lyon showed Newmark Craigslist ads that clearly involved women soliciting money for sex. Newmark asked, "Have you reported this to us?" "Why do I have the responsibility to report this to you when it's your website? You're the one posting this online," she said. Lyon also told Newmark that anti-trafficking advocates say his site is the "Wal-Mart of sex trafficking." Soon after, Newmark walked away.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100804/us_yblog_upshot/craigslist-founder-rendered-speechless-by-cnns-sex-trafficking-questions