Craigslist Adult section shuts down worldwide

[sam]

Craigslist Adult section shuts down worldwide

Craigslist’ Adult Services section has finally been shut down worldwide on Tuesday, confirmed Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. The online advertising site has taken much heat for its Adult Services due to sex trafficking, underage sexual encounters, among so much more. Craigslist removed the Adult Services section from the U.S. version of the website this September after the suicide of Philip Markoff, who was accused of murdering and robbing women he met through the adult listings.

According to an article on Mashable, the Adult Services section was expected to generate $36 million in revenue this year for the website, which is also one-third of the $122 million the company would have made as a whole.

"This worldwide shutdown of erotic services sections on Craigslist is a victory in the fight against sexual exploitation of women and children and human trafficking connected to prostitution," Blumenthal said in a statement. "This move is another important step in the ongoing fight to more effectively screen and stop pernicious prostitution ads," he said. Blumenthal also added that he is "determined to continue seeking new ways to protect women and children from online predators."

There’s no specific date as to when the section was removed around the world, but Wired Magazine posted a story last Saturday saying that the company quietly removed the section in all of its international branches.

Craigslist says the section was originally created because users were looking to clean up the site’s free online dating sections. The website then began requiring a fee of $10 to post to the adult section and hired a lawyer to fight against the backfire of underage girls posting to the site.

[bluecoat28]

This is great! Too bad craigslist had to open the floodgates for human trafficking to begin with though.