Internet Misuse
I was sitting in the airport Friday March 6th waiting for my flight home from New York. Thankfully they have TV’s in every gate to keep people occupied. So I was watching the news and a startling story came on, that made everyone’s heads pop up and tune in. Craigslist Now “Largest Source of Prostitution” was the headline the news reporter spoke as the story was further divulged by a county sheriff filing a lawsuit against Craigslist.
Apparently the Sheriff has been following Craigslist ads that facilitate prostitution. He spoke about specific ads and showed some of them on the news interview. His argument is that these ads are clearly promoting sexual activities and that they leave no mystery to what they are offering. Some ad titles were “Teens for cash … $100 quickie,” and “Ask me about my 2 girl specials.” He feels that Craigslist is not monitoring their customers services well enough, and that they only delete those ads that are receiving direct complaints from people. The sheriff, along with one of his colleagues posted their own ad promoting underage sexual offerings, saying “14-year-old looking for sex” and it was never taken down, they had to take it down themselves.
Craigslist has apparently been cooperative in the past with the law, but clearly based on the many examples the Sheriff gave, many I have not mentioned, the website has some serious monitoring and regulation to attend to.
I for one did not even know that Craigslist had an “Erotic Services” section, but apparently they do. This is what the Sheriff is suing for, to make the site delete the entire section for good. This is clearly a problem and a misuse of the internet in my eyes. I feel that the internet was created as a world wide resource to information at anytime in an efficient manner at any location in the world. I don’t feel this should include illegal and known activities going on within certain websites. The internet was not originated for those to solicit themselves in a sexual manner. I believe that this type of misuse will directly effect our youth because this generation is so technologically savvy. There have already been reports and arrests regarding this type of action on Craigslist, it is just one more outlet for teens to go down the wrong path in life. I do not agree with prostitution in general, and even more so soliciting it on a site like Craigslist that kids and young teens enter. This also increases the risk for underage illegal activity, which just puts this whole issue over the edge.
In order to prevent this type of misuse on the internet, as a company Craigslist needs to delete all reference to an “Exotic Services” sector. They also need to open up jobs in the company, where people are solely hired to monitor and edit the postings that people are creating. I also believe as users of Craigslist it is our right and our duty to monitor it ourselves as well. This means if we see something inappropriate or offensive in this manner, we need to report it and follow up making sure the posting is deleted.
corinnefisher Said:
on March 11, 2009 at 5:47 am
I had heard of this happening on Craiglist and was appalled as well. Its not just in the Erotic Services area as well, but the “dating” ones as well. You have to be very careful who you trust, if you can trust anyone at all on these type of service sites. I could share stories of incidents where harmless activity on Craiglist resulted in terrible and embarassing experiences. I hope they are able to remove the ease of solitictation on Craiglist.
nmorgan07 Said:
on March 12, 2009 at 3:40 pm
I just recently heard myself about the solicitation of sex that is happening on Craigslist. Honestly, I find it all appalling. I agree with you that the internet was not “originated for those to solicit themselves in a sexual manner.” The internet has been misused for years, and has been a nesting ground for child predictors. It is sick to think now that websites as Craigslist are aiding these child predictors in finding their next victims. I completely agree with you about prostitution, and Craigslist is putting more people at “risk for underage illegal activity.” Great Post, I found it very interesting!
caseycp Said:
on March 13, 2009 at 4:08 pm
As reprehensible as some people think prostitution is, I think cracking down on Craigslist to regulate and monitor posts is the wrong strategy. The brilliance of a site like Craigslist is its simplicity; the content is solely in the hands of the people who use the site. If people don’t flag something to be removed it isn’t removed…simple. If the section is removed from Craigslist, people will migrate to the countless other sites on the internet to seek questionable services. I think the only reason this story is generating such buzz is the popularity and accesibility of Craigslist. People are appalled that the same site they posted their resume on or bought their bike from has a section like this.