December 20, 2010 07:36 AM (PT)
A few months after they shut down their "adult services' section in the U.S., Craigslist has quietly removed their commercial sex ads internationally. The victory comes after over 10,000 Change.org members sent letters to Craigslist demanding they stop advertising for human trafficking, several Canadian ministers asked for the ads to be removed, and a Canadian professor and human trafficking specialist organized a boycott. So now that the king of online sex trafficking has been de-throned, what does the future hold for the industry and its victims?The battle against Craigslist's advertisements for human trafficking victims has been a long one. In 2009 after growing reports of children being trafficked for sex on the site, the company implemented increased monitoring for ads in their "erotic services" section, changing the name to "adult services" in the U.S. But the new standards ultimately failed to reduce sex trafficking on the site, and anti-trafficking organizations, U.S. states attorneys from multiple states, and grassroots advocates began to lobby to have the ads removed all together. In September, and after months of silence, Craigslist replaced their adult ads section in the U.S. with a large black "censored" bar — a somewhat childish protest in lieu of transparently working with law enforcement and NGOs.
At a Congressional hearing a couple weeks after the company blocked access to the ads, Craigslist assured the country that their adult ad section was gone for good in the U.S., but refused to make any comment on whether they would removed their adult ads in other countries, especially Canada. Since September, several cases of sex trafficking via Craigslist in Canada have come to light. They prompted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, ministers from several Canadian provinces, and over 10,000 Change.org members to demand that Craigslist respect Canadian children as much as American ones and stop advertising for child sex trafficking. Now, Craigslist has responded again by silently removing the ads from their Canadian and other international sites, though this time without a symbolic protest. Thank you to everyone who signed the petition to ask Craigslist to stop advertising for child sex trafficking internationally.
So what has been the result of Craislist's change? Since they shut down their U.S. adult ads, the total number of online commercial sex ads has been cut in half. Now that they've removed the ads internationally, traffickers around the globe have lost an easy, cheap place to advertise for sex with the women or children they control. Men looking to buy sex from a 12 or 13-year-old girl have lost a comfortable place to browse for them. And that means business is getting worse for traffickers, and life is getting better for vulnerable girls — because less demand for sex with trafficked girls and women means fewer people will be tricked, trapped, and enslaved in the commercial sex industry.
But while Craigslist's decision to remove their erotic services sections has and will reduce sex trafficking via online classified ads, it doesn't solve the problem. Craigslist competitor Backpage.com has done almost nothing to prevent sex trafficking via their site, despite one lawsuit from a 14-year-old victim and requests from law enforcement to remove their ads as well. Of course, young girls and trafficked women are still sold online via escort services and other websites. But what makes websites like Craigslist and Backpage more dangerous than others is the sense of safety and legitimacy they lend to to buying sex with a child.
Tell Backpage.com to follow in Craigslist's footsteps — if they can't stop sex trafficking via their adult ads section, then it's time to shut it down.
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Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantrafficSource: End Human Trafficking
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