Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON -- Craigslist has no plans to resume providing the controversial adult-services category on its advertising website, a company official told a U.S. House of Representatives committee Wednesday, Sept. 15.
Craigslist placed a block on the section in September after law enforcement officials and human rights groups accused it of not properly monitoring and removing ads for prostitution and child trafficking.
William "Clint" Powell, director of customer service and law enforcement relations for Craigslist, made the announcement during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on minors caught up in sex trafficking.
Craigslist would have generated about $40 million from adult ads in 2010, according to estimates by the research firm Advanced Interactive Media Group. Craigslist posts 65 million ads per month on its U.S. websites, Powell said.
Deborah Richardson of the Women's Funding Network, which helps abused women, told the committee that adult-services advertisements posted on Craigslist received three times more responses than any other online service.
In the past six months, there has been a steep increase in the number of American adolescent girls who were being advertised for commercial sex on the Internet, Richardson said. Some hot spots included New York, which saw a 20.7 percent increase; Michigan, where ads rose 39.2 percent; and Minnesota, with a 64.7 percent increase.
"I have not had a girl that wasn't marketed online, and most of them were on Craigslist," said Linda Smith, a former congresswoman and now president of Shared Hope International. Shared Hope provides rescue and rehabilitation for women and children involved in sex trafficking.
At least 100,000 children in the United States are involved in commercial sex every year, and the average age that girls enter prostitution is 13, Smith said.