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Craigslist, the utilitarian and highly trafficked website that long ago captured the online market for classified advertising in the United States and around the world, has now replaced red light districts as the new battleground between prostitutes who are trying to reel in new punters and undercover cops whose job it is to stop them.
Police departments are reporting new success in penetrating the electronic version of street-walking, in particular by scouring the postings on Craigslist, which they describe as a new hub of sex-for-sale activity.
Police in Nassau County, New York, report having arrested more than 70 "professional" women for posting on Craigslist since last year.
Most recently, eight women were taken into custody for working the resort towns of Long Island during the busy summer holiday season.
Vice-squad agents now spend hours surfing Craigslist looking for postings that seem to be offering sex for money. With thousands of new ads appearing on its "Erotic Services" section each hour, it can be an eye-boggling task. Even more effective, however, have been the phoney ads placed by agents to entrap customers.
The development is a potential source of embarrassment for the company, originally founded in California by Craig Newmark as a tool for people looking for work, for sellers and buyers and, of course, for romantic or steamy connections.
However, under existing US law, it does not appear the list can be found liable for whatever content users choose to post on its pages.
"We don't comment on the specifics" of the law, said Jim Buckmaster, the president of the company. He did add, however: "We do not want illegal activity on the site."
Once confined to a few cities in the US, Craigslist now offers tailored pages in 450 cities around the world, including in London, and claims to have 25 million users as well as 8 billion page views every month.
- Independent
