Congress is set to hold hearings Wednesday on the sex trafficking of minors, and among the witnesses will be a representative from Craigslist. The online-classifieds company recently shut down the adult-services section of its website after repeated threats from state law enforcement officials.
But Craigslist isn't alone in its illicit offerings.
"Craigslist is only one of the many vehicles out there on the Internet that post advertisements for illicit sexual acts," says Sgt. Greg Albin, a member of the vice squad in San Jose, Calif., and the veteran of many sex-crime investigations.
Albin says if shutting the Craigslist ads down saves one child from prostitution, that's great. But, he adds: "I don't think [that's] going to be the answer, because people will work around it."
In fact, Albin says, they already are. For example, he says a website called Craigslisterotics.com was actively soliciting traffic from the former adult services section of Craigslist. And online-safety advocates, Parry Aftab of Wired Safety among them, are expecting even more sites to pop up.
"There's money that can be made here," she points out. "I suspect that you're going to be seeing a lot more of them through photos, video and new offering sites that are out there."
There are also plenty of ads for illicit sex that can be found on major commercial websites other than Craigslist Google and eBay, to start with.
But Albin says the big companies aren't that helpful: "None of them go over and above to cooperate with police investigations."
The companies have other factors to weigh, he explains.
"All of them consider confidentiality quite a bit. All of them rely on their First Amendment rights."
