Craigslist to crack down on prostitution ads

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Craigslist to crack down on prostitution ads

Postby sam » Thu Nov 06, 2008 11:51 am

Craigslist to crack down on prostitution ads
November 13, 2008

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) ­ Under the watchful eye of law enforcement in 40 states, Craigslist pledged Thursday to crack down on ads for prostitution on its Web sites.

As part of Craigslist's agreement with attorneys general around the country, anyone who posts an "erotic services" ad will be required to provide a working phone number and pay a fee with a valid credit card. The Web site will provide that information to law enforcement if subpoenaed.

Craigslist has also agreed to sue 14 software and Internet companies that help people who post erotic service ads to circumvent the Web site's defenses against inappropriate content and illegal activity.

Craigslist, which posts ads for everything from apartment rentals to jobs in dozens of cities, will also begin using new search technology in an effort to help authorities find missing children and victims of human trafficking.

Police across the country have been arresting people for using Web sites like Craigslist to advertise the sexual services of women and children.

"The dark side of the Internet must be stopped from eclipsing its immense potential for good," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement Thursday.

The agreement was joined by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

"The criminals engaged in the sexual trafficking of children no longer parade them on the streets of America's cities," said NCMEC President and Chief Executive Ernie Allen. "Today, they market them via the Internet."

States that signed the agreement include Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Washington, D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam also joined.
"Your orgasm can no longer dictate my oppression"

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Re: Craigslist to crack down on prostitution ads

Postby phio gistic » Thu Nov 06, 2008 12:03 pm

I just read about this and came over to see if it had been posted about. I'm glad they are finally making Craigslist take some responsibility. I don't much like the use of the term "erotic services" as a euphemism for "prostituted person" :(
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Re: Craigslist to crack down on prostitution ads

Postby sam » Sun Nov 09, 2008 2:22 pm

Toledo police cracking down on Craigslist prostitution
Nov 7, 2008
Report by Lisa Rantala

TOLEDO (WTOL) - Toledo police are cracking down on the popular web site Craigslist.com. It started days before the web site managers announced steps to stop illegal prostitution on the site.

News 11 went onto Craigslist and clicked on erotic services. We found many listings that police say are prostitution.

Here in the Toledo area, they say hundreds of men and women are advertising, selling and soliciting themselves.

Prostitution has gone off the streets and into your computer. "When we're out there, they often times put postings on the Internet saying the po-po, meaning the police or vice, are out." Chief Kenney tells us.

Ads of women for men, men for men, men for women and even transsexuals put up their posts to make $800-1200 a day.

"A lot of them are drug addicts themselves. It's not uncommon for us to find needles on them," says Kenney.

Even though they're not out in public, police say they still affect the public's safety. "We've had undercover officers that they've tried to rob at gunpoint."

So, they dedicated one detective to surf the net. His main focus is to look for juveniles, but he also stops when seeing dangers like this: Police say he called himself Sunday and talks about pleasure and his carmel skin. But the man in the picture is 34-year-old Jacky Easterly who is positive for HIV, police tell us.

They called his ad, met him at a hotel and when they say he agreed to perform sex acts for money, they took him in.

"It's been out there since man has been on earth. We're not going to stop it. We just want to make quality of life as best as we can," says Kenney.

Just this week, Craigslist said it will require posters like this to give them a phone and credit card number they say they'll share with the police. Though officers say it will take a lot more work to get them all off for good.

"It's not something that's new. It's something that takes a lot of time and a lot of effort to keep the clamps on it."
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Re: Craigslist to crack down on prostitution ads

Postby phio gistic » Mon Nov 10, 2008 8:10 am

"It's been out there since man has been on earth. We're not going to stop it. We just want to make quality of life as best as we can," says Kenney.


Even though there are cultures that don't have prostitution, they sure like saying this, don't they? If they claim it's inevitable, they don't have to try to stop it. Just make the "quality of life" as best as possible. As if they think they can make rape pleasant.
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Re: Craigslist to crack down on prostitution ads

Postby laurelin » Mon Nov 10, 2008 10:44 am

"It's been out there since man has been on earth. We're not going to stop it. We just want to make quality of life as best as we can," says Kenney.

So has slavery. Damn oppressive abolitionists, not accepting people's rights to choose to be a slave. I mean, I knew someone who was a slave and loved it, so if you want to abolish slavery still you are not listening to this person, and being all oppressive and forcing your freedom and liberty lifestyle on others. [/bitter sarcasm ends]

I'm pretty sure that if prostitution mostly affected men, and women were in the main the customers, the whole institution would be condemned as a human rights violation. But no, it's women. And we all know what women are for, don't we? :angryfire:

the stupidity sure doesn't get any less stupid.
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Re: Craigslist to crack down on prostitution ads

Postby MaggieH » Tue Nov 11, 2008 1:16 am

laurelin wrote:I'm pretty sure that if prostitution mostly affected men, and women were in the main the customers, the whole institution would be condemned as a human rights violation. But no, it's women. And we all know what women are for, don't we? :angryfire:


Spot on, Laurelin! It's a shame that hardly anybody notices the misogyny & violation of women's human rights. :(
"The assumption that "most women are innately heterosexual'' stands as a theoretical and political stumbling block for many women. It remains a tenable assumption, partly because lesbian existence has been written out of history or catalogued under disease;. . . partly because to acknowledge that for women heterosexuality may not be a "preference" at all but something that has had to be imposed, managed, organized, propagandized and maintained by force is an immense step to take if you consider yourself freely and "innately" heterosexual. Yet the failure to examine heterosexuality as an institution is like failing to admit that the economic system called capitalism or the caste system of racism is maintained by a variety of forces, including both physical violence and false consciousness. . ."
-- Adrienne Rich, in Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence: http://www.terry.uga.edu/~dawndba/4500compulsoryhet.htm

“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.” ~ Alice Walker
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Re: Craigslist to crack down on prostitution ads

Postby sam » Tue Nov 11, 2008 8:40 am

"Damn oppressive abolitionists


Not abolitionists, prohibitionists.

The word "objectification" has succumbed to the rape culture that made more jokes out of it than ever took it seriously, but the original concept deserves repeating because of the difference in the two words above.

We're in this dilly of a patriarchal pickle because men don't see women as people so much as men see women as things. Most men, women, children, ducks, and protozoa cultured in our society hear that statement and knee-jerk a protest in men's and their own defense, however the common reaction of the bloggergeoisie is to compare sex worker rights to the movement against alcohol prohibition instead of the movement against slavery abolition.

When men hear something needs to be done about prostitution, going by the number of "prohibition of alcohol didn't work" comments I've seen, what automatically springs to their minds is the feeling that someone is trying to take away their beer. It is prostitution from men's perspective, the selfish consumer's perspective that feels the potential loss of their right to an entertainment-inducing product as oppression.

How can it be that despite what the average man knows of pimps

pimp my car (MTV show)
pimp juice (energy drink)
pimp cups (blinged chalice)
pimp hats (wide-rimmed, faux animal print)
pimp slap (abuse of hoes made funny)
pimp & ho parties (widespread phenomena)
American Pimp (1999 documentary)
Lil' Pimp (2005 animated movie)
"You f**ing with me, you f**ing with a P.I.M.P." (song lyrics by 50 Cent)
It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp (award-winning song title)

the idea that prostitution has more in common with slavery than with fermented beverage drinking eludes them?

If men saw women as people instead of things-that-induce-pleasure, they would think of abolition before prohibition and would never utter the phrase "Prohibition of slavery doesn't work."
"Your orgasm can no longer dictate my oppression"

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Re: Craigslist to crack down on prostitution ads

Postby bluecoat28 » Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:36 am

sam wrote:When men hear something needs to be done about prostitution, going by the number of "prohibition of alcohol didn't work" comments I've seen, what automatically springs to their minds is the feeling that someone is trying to take away their beer.


WELL SAID. :shock:
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Re: Craigslist to crack down on prostitution ads

Postby phio gistic » Tue Nov 11, 2008 3:38 pm

Slavery, murder, starvation, cancer, it's all been around since the beginning of time. Funny how folks don't throw their hands in the air and talk about how it's impossible to change anything but maybe they can "improve the quality of life" for murder victims, cancer patients, slaves, and starving children. But then, most men don't benefit from someone having cancer like they do from a steady supply of rapees.
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