The hugely popular free classified site Craigslist has finally caved after being pressured for months by various agencies to remove their erotic services section. Craigslist has been accused by lawmakers of being an outlet for prostitution. Most recently, it has been at the heart of the Craigslist killer case that involved med student Philip Markhoff allegedly finding victims from the erotic services section.
In a blog post on Craigslist the following was reported, “Unsurprisingly, but completely contrary to some of the sensationalistic journalism we’ve seen these past few weeks, the record is clear that use of craigslist classifieds is associated with far lower rates of violent crime than print classifieds. However, with respect to this new paid category for advertising by legal businesses, we will experiment with some of the methods traditionally employed in paid print classifieds.”
In lieu of erotic services, an adult services section will be put in its place. However, each ad placed will go through a manual approval process and the user will be charged a $10 listing fee. Starting today, erotic services will not accept new ads and current ads will expire after seven days.
Read: [LA Times]
This change in policy will do very little to change the way that consenting adults hook up on the internet, it will simply change the website people use to do so. As Craigslist has placed increasing barriers like fees and restrictions for those wishing to post in their erotic section, competing sites in the space like <a href="Naughty" rel="nofollow">http://www.naughtyreviews.com/adult-services-classified/">Naughty Reviews, which offers free classified ads, have grown significantly. My point is that law enforcement is simply wasting resources with this current campaign as stopping the world’s oldest profession is just not possible in today’s day and age.
True! Users will always find away to bypass. If it's not Craiglist then it's another cheap dating site or adult matchmaking service. As a webmaster we have seen an increase of these ads on our own sites which generally get deleted or reported.
An alternative to Craigslist is available at http://www.j812.net, with maps and videos of listings.
Just FYI