Boycott Online Pimp Craigslist; Use Kijiji Instead

by Amanda Kloer · 2010-02-27 09:00:00 +0000
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The abolitionist community has known for a while that Craigslist is, to be frank, an online pimp. Police departments from Ohio to Florida to California are finding children and adult human trafficking victims in Craigslist's new "adult services" section. And while the company claims to be screening ads, looking for signs of exploitation, Craigslist has been about as transparent as a lead safe in their procedures, staffing, and training requirements.

In fact, Craigslist still posts 3.5 million adult services ads each year -- most of which are illegal -- and some activists are calling it the #1 place to advertise human trafficking victims for sex. But you can tell Craigslist enough is enough, by boycotting their exploitative services and using the more ethical alternative, Kijiji.com

Kijiji.com has almost everything Craiglist does, with the notable exception of adult services and sexy classified ads. You can sell the stuff you found while cleaning out the garage, buy the stuff someone else found cleaning out their garage, meet someone to work out with, apply for a job, rent a beach house ... you get the picture. Kijiji, however, has made a conscious choice to ban the sorts of ads which traffickers use to sell women and children for sex. The result is an online marketplace which is completely free and completely safe for kids (and people who just really don't want to see an up close photo of a stranger's genitals).

I used Craigslist to find my current apartment, so I did a Kijiji search in my area to see if anything decent would come up. The result? A spiffy two bedroom only a couple blocks from where I live now for a little less than I'm paying. Darn you, lease that doesn't end for several months! I also found Lady GaGa tickets (painfully out of my price range) and a super cute lamp that I might just end up buying. But try as I might, I couldn't find a single human being for sale on Kijiji. Woohoo!

Kijiji isn't quite as large as Craigslist, but that's where you come in. Take a stand against the advertisement of human trafficking victims on Craigslist and boycott the online pimp in favor of Kijiji.com. Together, we can cut down on Craigslist's ads and traffic and show them that the ethics of an online marketplace do matter to consumers, and that we choose to spend our time and money on companies that don't harm women and children.

Photo credit: Kevin Zollman

Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic
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