An interview with Daniel Weiss, manager of issues analysis for Focus on the Family.
Note: This article originally appeared in the May 2009 issue of Citizen magazine. Since that time, Craigslist bowed to public pressure and removed the entire "erotic services" section from its site. In its place is an "adult services" section that further restricts sexually-explicit advertising, but many law enforcement officers and average citizens remain concerned about this new section as well.
In the last few months we’ve seen reports that police in Milwaukee, Cincinnati and other cities have busted prostitution rings which solicited customers through the Web site Craigslist. In March, Cook County, Ill., Sheriff Thomas Dart announced a federal lawsuit against the site, calling it “the single largest source of prostitution” in the country. Many people may be shocked to hear that prostitution is being promoted on a community-driven site most often used to find apartments and sell unwanted stuff. Please explain what is going on here.
First, it may be helpful to describe what Craigslist is. This Web site began in 1995 as an online bulletin board to advertise events in the San Francisco area, but has since expanded to more than 500 city-specific sites in 50 states and 50 countries. More than 40 million people in the United States use the site each month and view more than 12 billion pages, making it the 8th most visited Web site in the world. This overwhelming popularity is what makes its role in the sex trade so troubling.
What exactly is its role?
Each city-specific page features a link to “erotic” services pages. These sections require verification a person is at least 18 years old—which can easily be circumvented—and warns that “adult content” may be present. Here, one can find prostitution ads detailing specific sex acts to be performed and their prices. Nearly every ad includes a suggestive or nude photo. Anyone can search Craigslist in nearly every part of America and pay for a woman to make sexual “incalls,” which means she will come directly to your home or hotel room. This makes it a lot less likely to be discovered by the police. In fact, many business travelers use Craigslist and similar sites to arrange for paid sex days or weeks in advance of a business trip.
Because of its popularity, I believe Craigslist is causing greater harm than other paid sex sites. By placing sex ads alongside otherwise innocuous content, Craigslist is systematizing and legitimizing sex trafficking in a way we have never before witnessed. Now, paying for sex with a prostitute, who may also be a teenage underage kidnap victim, is as ordinary as selling a used TV.
How common is sex solicitation on Craigslist?
While researching for this interview, I found prostitution advertised in Fargo, N.D., Hattiesburg, Miss., and Bangor, Maine, all within a few seconds. Prostitution was already so common last fall that Craigslist was pressured into an agreement with 40 state attorneys general that requires a fee and a valid credit card to post in the erotic-services section. Craigslist recently touted the success of this arrangement, claiming a 90 to 95 percent reduction in erotic services ads postings in five select cities. This hasn’t assuaged the concerns of many, including the Cook County Sheriff’s Department, which wants Craigslist to shut down the erotic-services section altogether and is seeking to recoup $100,000 in added police costs associated with monitoring the site. It bears noting that many law agencies have publicly praised Craigslist for assisting enforcement efforts against prostitution and sex trafficking. Yet others believe Craigslist is doing more harm simply by allowing erotic services postings to continue. There is a crucial difference between making arrests and working toward the abolition of sex trafficking. Craigslist may be assisting individual arrests, but is actually driving up demand by allowing these criminal acts to be publicly promoted on its site.
Is there any evidence that child predators are using Craigslist to lure minors?
I haven’t heard that children have been lured through Craigslist ads, as can happen with other social networking sites, but investigators have shown the site does facilitate the commercial sexual exploitation of minors. The ads usually aren’t so obvious to state that a child is being offered for sale, but postings often includes code words that clue the buyer that the woman being offered is actually a child.
If it’s that bad, why haven’t we heard about more arrests like the ones in Milwaukee and Cincinnati?
Most people don’t know this is happening and most who use Craigslist haven’t even noticed the erotic services link on the page. Fewer still will have clicked on them and seen what vile acts are being described and depicted in photos. It’s time for concerned citizens to make this a priority with their local law enforcement. More than that, citizens need to work to change a culture that has made its peace with the sale and sexual exploitation of others. This requires putting pressure on law enforcement to investigate and prosecute the brick-and-mortar pornography businesses that violate ob-scenity laws, be they porn shops, strip clubs, cable companies or even hotel chains that offer hardcore pay-per-view pornography. We can’t push back this tidal wave of sexual exploitation without a comprehensive attack.
Is Craigslist open to persuasion, and if so, how do concerned citizens approach the company’s executives?
Craigslist claims to be responsive to the needs of the community it serves, but has also absolved itself from the content of the erotic-services section. They push control for the site’s content down to the community level and encourage users to “flag” for removal any posting that violates their terms of use. But this grassroots system doesn’t really work. A Salvation Army group in Chicago organized a Craigslist “flagging” day and found it might take as many as 100 negative flags for an offensive or illegal post to be removed. Craigslist officials won’t reveal the actual numbers needed to remove a post. So much for community involvement.
Can you think of examples where persuasion has worked?
Persuasion evidently worked when 40 state attorneys general pushed an agreement on Craigslist to put some restrictive measures in place. We believe the agreement didn’t go far enough and that more persuasion is needed. One thing is certain, if people remain silent, they will appear to Craigslist to be consenting to what is happening.
If public persuasion doesn’t work, what else might concerned citizens do?
Some activists believe only federal action will lead to change. I don’t believe Congress is in the right place to take up this issue right now. I would advocate that citizens continue to apply local pressure to clean up their communities.
Do you have hope that concerned citizens can push back the coarsening of our culture?
Absolutely, I do. I am convinced that people have far more influence than they realize. One person acting with conviction can change the world. Christian history is full of people who changed the course of history—the Apostle Paul, Martin Luther, Mother Teresa, Billy Graham, Pope John Paul II, to scratch the surface. No one is insignificant in God’s economy and proclaiming this truth is the best response to a society that dehumanizes and commoditizes women, children and the gift of sexuality.
