A politician finally notices craigslist

Mayor rips craigslist over child prostitution:

Finally, a politician has noticed the wretched hive of scum and villainy that craigslist has become. And if anybody knows anything about scum and villainy it’s the mayor of Atlanta, Shirley Franklin. (That was a dig against the city, not necessarily the mayor.) Anyway, she has come out against craigslist accusing them of being facilitators in child prostitution.

“Children are being marketed through craigslist,” Franklin said Tuesday during an update on the mayor’s “Dear John” campaign, a crackdown on the city’s child prostitution industry.

Craigslist, found on the Web at craigslist.org, may be best known as a bulletin board for people who want to sell a car, buy a home or meet people. But Atlanta vice officer Kelleita Thurman said Tuesday that craigslist and similar sites account for 85 percent of the sexual liaisons men arrange in Atlanta with boys and girls.

In a letter sent Tuesday to the company, Franklin said the site could do more to prevent itself from being used “as a means of promoting and enabling child prostitution.” She called on the site to revise its warning on pages for erotic services and personal ads and to remove postings that offer sexual services for sale, among other things.

As usual, craigslist had their same non-answers…

Craigslist spokeswoman Susan MacTavish Best said in an e-mail that she and Chief Executive Officer Jim Buckmaster are in Europe and “neither of us are aware of such a letter so it would not be possible to comment about this.”

Company founder Craig Newmark, who also was mailed Franklin’s letter, no longer is involved in the company’s daily affairs and is traveling, Best said.

Maybe this is the first step in politicians recognizing what a crime-filled scumhole craigslist’s erotic services section is.

Comments

6 responses to “A politician finally notices craigslist”

  1. Madeline Avatar
    Madeline

    Why do you people believe you can stop the oldest profession in the WORLD? YOU CAN’T! My only advice in regards to the innocent children who are victimized is to immediately report anyone who even appears to be underage. How could anyone harm a child???

  2. Sarah Avatar

    You may not be able to stop it… BUT YOU SURE AS HELL CAN TRY!! and the smallest things help! Removing “erotic” from craigslist will save tons of young girls from turning to prostitution as a way to make money!!!

  3. JohnnyDoe Avatar

    Removing &ldquoerotic&rdquo from craigslist will save tons of young girls from turning to prostitution as a way to make money!!!

    I don’t think so. The “Erotic Services” world on the Internet itself is quite vast. A simple google search will net you thousands, if not millions of hit on where to set up shop. What are you going to do, ban google next?

    As posters above have pointed out, you can’t stop sex for money no matter how hard you try. For every 1 bust you see on Craig’s there are probably hundreds of thousands of sex for money transaction that occur. Are we going to arrest them all?

    And about this child prostitution thing, very doubtful its widespread if at all. I’d like to see Shirley Franklin’s evidence. Most likely, it was some 16 year old telling everyone she was 18 or more. How does that happen? FYI, many sex workers were once sexually abused at home during childhood and turn to prostitution not only for economic reasons but to conquer the beast in their past.

  4. Tala Avatar
    Tala

    Actually such sites help catch the criminals. It should be a lot cheaper and easier to find the pimps, the prostitutes and the evidence this way, than to find them on the streets. I found my husband using such services by merely searching the phone number which appeared on his cell number on craigslist.

  5. Trench Avatar

    Conversely craigslist has caused a boom in prostitution and child prostitution.

    Personally I’d rather there be less child prostitution than the ease in which they can be caught.

  6. tess Avatar
    tess

    I would like to be informed of any way to help get craigs list to stop erotic services. I would like to be a part of getting this sick advertising off of there site.

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