Craigslist and pornography fuel sex trafficking

Update Sept 5th 2010: Craigslist has disabled the adult services section, at least temporarily. See my new post http://ow.ly/2zPgQ.
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Should we boycott Craigslist.com? It's a good question. A better question is: How did the American society get to a place in which sex is a simple click away?

I love Craigslist... I bought my Mac off of a Craigslist posting, I have an interview tomorrow for a job that I found listed on Craigslist, my girlfriend found her job on Craigslist, and I've helped a few people pick up items from sellers. Once I helped move a piano that a family was giving away for free! Great, right!?

But there is a dark side to Craiglist. The adult services section, which replaced the erotic services section two years ago, has been reported to be rife with advertised prostitution and sex ads. According to The Rebecca Project's Malika Saada Saar "[Craigslist] just made an estimated $36 million in profits from these sex ads in the last year alone," and represents 1/3 of Craiglist's annual income.[1][2] The problem with these ads is that soliciting sex in the U.S., even on the internet, is illegal. Craigslist has become a virtual brothel where many of the advertised individuals are young girls who are being exploited.


Craigslist has responded to Saada Saar's commentary with one of their own.[3]

Julie Slagter (Co-Coordinator of Anti-Slavery Ministries for International Teams/USA) transcends the issue of an outright boycott when she says,

"How did the American society get to a place in which sex is a simple click away? We can rant and rave for hours over this Craigslist issue. We can boycott, email and forward but unless we look beneath the surface nothing is resolved. Pornography and sexual exploitation is deeply rooted into our culture."[4][5]

And for you Christians who are saying "Yeah! America is evil!" Let's take a look at ourselves first.

Recent stats suggest that 50% or more of men in your church have viewed pornography in the last six months—before you think "maybe 'church in general,' but not my church"—Mike Genung had this to share in a recent Crosswalk.com article:

Wanting to prove the numbers wrong, in the spring of 2004 I approached the leadership of our church and asked if we could survey the men on the topic of pornography. Our numbers will be different; “half” can’t be true here, I thought. Of those who responded, 25 percent had looked at porn within the past 30 days, 44 percent within six months, and 61 percent within the year. The real statistic is probably higher; I heard later that a number of men didn’t fill out the survey “because they were afraid of how it would be used.”[6]

The real statistic is probably higher. But men in Mike's church were afraid to talk about it.

Yesterday I was having lunch with a local community leader who has been involved with the Crises Pregnancy Center for the last 30 years and is shifting his focus to a trafficking ministry that they are starting here. He told me "Everyone wants talk about trafficking right now, but no one wants to talk about pornography. Pornography pours jet fuel on the fire of child sex trafficking!"

So let's talk about it. What do you think about Craigslist? What do you think about pornography? What about prostitution? Share it on your facebook, tweet about it to your tweeps, leave some comments. What do you think?

Wednesday's here at anothersoul we'll post an article related to these issues.

1. Malika Saada Saar's CNN commentary from 2 Aug 2010.
2. The Rebecca Project.
3. Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster responds 10 Aug 2010.
4. Julie Slagter's "Love and Justice" blog.
5. ITeams Anti-Slaver and Anti-Trafficking Ministry.
6. Mike Genung's Crosswalk.com Article from 16 Jul 2010.