September 5, 2010 by Jenny Sanderson
Craigslist, the online advertising site, has reported to have dropped adult service advertisements from its permitted list of promotions this week. Originally developed in 1995, the online marketplace has been in the news recently following reports that it was permitting the promotion of adult services, which have been detrimental to women working in the adult services industry.
The US-based site has recently been heavily criticised for promoting prostitution online, as women who have been exploited spoke out about how the site made it simple for people to promote the abuse of vulnerable women. Criticism was led by a number of advocacy groups requesting that the services section was shut down.
The section which previously enabled the promotion of prostitution has been replaced now with a bar which simply reads ‘censored’. Despite the move within the US, other countries that use Craigslist are still able to post advertisements for the adult industry.
There has been no comment by Craigslist owners of employees, although that is expected to be released over the next few days. In the meantime, a number of industry experts have approved the move, following allegations that Craigslist was supporting child prostitution through its advertising strategy. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has commented: “We welcome any steps toward eliminating the adult services section and prostitution ads on Craigslist, as we have urged, and we are seeking to verify the site’s official policy going forward. If Craigslist is doing the right thing voluntarily in response to our coalition of attorneys general, it could set an example for others.”
A commentator from CNET stated: “It is surely, though, splendidly naive to think Craigslist would somehow be alone in providing a forum for prostitution ads. However, Craigslist is in the unfortunate position of being high-profile and successful and has become a very easy target in what is a far more complex and nuanced issue than the attorneys general are making out.”
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