Craigslist changes to hinder sex offers
Posted on Monday, November 17, 2008
The online classified section Craigslist has become fertile ground for illegal businesses to advertise.
Created to connect legal buyers with sellers, job seekers with jobs and lost pets with their owners, the site has become popular around the world, but the anonymity of the Internet has made Craigslist popular with people offering services formerly found on street corners.
“They don’t even try to hide it,” Lowell Police Chief Joe Landers said.
Landers’ department is one of several nationwide that has used the site to arrest prostitutes. He said that, unlike escort services listed in the telephone book, online listings are clear about their intent.
The most recent sting carried out by the department ended with six women being arrested on misdemeanor charges. The women arrested ranged in age from 17 to 43 and came from around the state and Missouri. Landers said the sting was a result of reading ads on Craigslist.
Landers expects more stings will follow, although word is getting out that Lowell won’t tolerate prostitution, he said.
Craigslist administrators are taking steps to make it more difficult for advertisers of illegal services. The steps are part of an agreement between the California-based Craigslist, 42 attorneys general and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
According to the agreement, Craigslist is adding requirements for people who want to post in its erotic services section. Posters will have to provide a valid telephone number and credit card, as well as pay a small fee.
The section warns “human trafficking and exploitation of minors are not tolerated — any suspected activity will be reported to law enforcement.”
The added measures were created to corral ads “for escort services, sensual massage, adult web cams, phone sex, erotic dancing, adult Web sites, nude housecleaning, etc. mixed into the regular personal and services categories,” the site explains.
The changes were announced last week, yet the section of the Web site appears to continue to contain primarily offers of sex, whether or not for a fee.
Attempts to contact the site’s administrators were unsuccessful and met with a referral to a blog post by Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster.
“Preventing site misuse and improving public safety are our highest priorities,” Buckmaster said in the posted statement.
Buckmaster contends the amount of illegal activities advertised on Craigslist is low compared with the amount of legitimate ads posted. No amount of crime is acceptable, he writes.
“We have become aware of instances where our free services were being misused to facilitate illegal activities,” Buckmaster said. “We are unequivocally committed to stamping out misuse of the site and to improving safety for Craigslist users, through preventative measures such as the ones we are announcing as part of the Joint Statement.”
Jim DePriest, a deputy attorney general, said the decision to sign on to the agreement was largely to help protect children.
While the agreement won’t mean DePriest’s office will be investigating postings on Craigslist, it will be ready should the company decide not to make good on its pledge, he said.
“We can go and remind them if they don’t follow through,” he said.
The telephone and credit card numbers collected by the Web site will be made available to law enforcement agencies that subpoena them.
DePriest doesn’t expect the office will have to do any reminding. The company is taking other steps to limit illegal activities on the site, he said, including suing companies that create software to circumvent Craigslist security measures.
The agreement was spearheaded by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and represents an effort by attorneys general to cover a perceived gap in protection, DePriest said.
“[It was ] sort of a ‘ you want to do right. We want you to do right. Let’s sit here and talk about this, ’” DePriest said.
The groups agreed to work together to address changing threats as technology develops, DePriest said, but the challenge is balancing people’s right to privacy with protecting the public.
Prostitution typically isn’t a high priority for police in Northwest Arkansas, with the exception of the occasional sting operation.
Bentonville, Fayetteville and Springdale police departments have yet to use Craigslist to set up prostitution stings. The Web site has been referenced on occasion.
Sgt. Tim Franklin said Fayetteville detectives previously have made prostitution arrests related to escort services. There hasn’t been any indication of street-level prostitution in the city, he said.
In the Fayetteville special investigations unit, officers didn’t see many child safety cases on Craigslist, Sgt. Bill Phelan said.
There was one occasion where it appeared someone out of the country was trying to sell a child, Phelan said. That particular case turned out to be a scam.
Springdale police have had approximately six reports of prostitution in as many years, said Sgt. Shane Pegram. There doesn’t seem to be enough call volume to warrant dedicating resources to investigate prostitution, he said, but the department will continue to respond to calls of suspected activity.
Bentonville Police Chief James Allen couldn’t remember the last time his department made an arrest for prostitution. The department has never had a sting on prostitution, he said, although it occasionally hears reports, but only after the fact.
Manpower is better spent investigating other crimes, Allen said. The time it takes to set up a sting to bust a few prostitutes could be better used making drug arrests, which usually means clearing other crimes, he said.
The department gets all manner of tips for crimes against children, which it investigates, Allen said. If a Web site like Craigslist could help solve a case, he said, his detectives would use it. There is always the concern that you could do more harm than good, Allen said. “You could go online and try to entice someone to come here from Idaho thinking you’re a 6-year-old girl,” he said. “The only thing with those stings, are you creating problems in our backyard ?”
To contact this reporter: awallworth@arkansasonline. com
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