Slicing Into the Sex Industry With Craig Newmark

This weekend, I went to Transparency Camp here in Washington, DC where I got the privilege of speaking with Craig Newmark, who started Craigslist.org, about the piece I wrote earlier this week titled, Is Craigslist the "Napster" of the Sex Industry?

As we chatted over slices of cheese pizza, I asked him about the "Erotic Services" section on Craigslist. He admitted that as the site works with law enforcement to track illegal operations there is still more that can be done. He noted that the site very much relies on policing by community members through a variety of mechanisms:

By using the flagging feature located at the upper right corner of each post, you can take action if you feel a posting is inappropriate, by clicking on:

miscategorized - wrong category/site, discusses another ad, otherwise misplaced
prohibited - violates craigslist Terms of Use or other posted guidelines
spam/overpost - posted too frequently, in multiple cities/categories, or is too commercial

If a post receives enough negative flags it will automatically be removed (only one flag per person per post is counted).

Posters whose postings are repeatedly flagged are subject to staff review and additional remedial measures.

In the United States, the average age a prostitute starts working is 12 or 13 and the internet is quickly becoming the biggest vehicle for these illegal transactions. In order to make sites like Craigslist safer for everyone it will require a greater resources to track the frequent criminal operations. Also, there will need to be a change in the mentality around the sex trade - apprehending those who purchase sex from trafficked victims in addition to performing sting operations. Also, as Craig pointed out in our conversation, the online community must be vigilant about flagging anything that appears to be questionable material.

I really appreciated Craig taking the time to answer the somewhat difficult questions I had for him. And with a public site like Craigslist there is certainly a lot of content to monitor - from fake apartment listings to sex trafficking - and it's nearly impossible to catch every illegal transaction.  We discussed how illegal sex transactions also occur on other sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, but the private interface makes it nearly impossible to track the problems from an external perspective. To me, this is why Craigslist can be the leader in the online space about handling this pervasive and difficult problem.

With added surveillance from the public and from site administrators, I think the internet can become a safer place for women. And then perhaps, with a greater awareness, we can work to implement more rehabilitation centers for prostitutes such as Dawns Place written about by the Philadelphia Inquirer last week:

Right now Dawn’s Place isn’t fully functional. The building is purchased and painted and permits are secured, but the board of directors is still seeking sustainable funding for its mission. But that mission is essential, because for girls like Mimi, the commercial sex industry is easy to fall into but notoriously hard to escape.

The vision is that Dawn’s Place will serve as an emergency hideout for girls on the run. Once it’s fully staffed, it’ll help women and girls like Mimi sort out the psychological, emotional and financial wreckage that are the obstacles to real recovery. Clients will commit to live for one full year at Dawn’s, which will hopefully be enough time to right the wrongs done to them. Under the direction of local expert Donna Sabella, the counseling program will be designed to dissolve the trauma that psychologically enslaves such women and girls long after they have their bodies back.

Dawn’s Place will be one of a handful of recovery programs of its kind in the country, and will bring Philadelphia to the progressive forefront of the global battle against human trafficking. The program is modeled after Dignity House in Phoenix, Az., a recovery program created by sex-industry survivor/activist Kathleen Mitchell, a mentor of Sabella’s.

While many already work hard to prevent sex predators from using the internet to commit crimes, it is time that we also take a deeper look at the dangerous sex industry facilitated by the online space and then work to create real opportunities for these women to find a better life beyond the prostitution ring.