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Posted: Wednesday, 20 May 2009 6:34PM
'Adult Services' Still A Problem On Craigslist
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CHICAGO (CBS) ― Craigslist promised to clean up its Web site in the wake of mounting pressure from law enforcement agencies to eliminate its erotic services section.
But little has changed. As CBS 2's Mai Martinez reports, while the erotic services section is in fact gone from the site, the newly created "adult services" section seems to be picking up slack.
Cook County Sheriff's police say that goes for both ads and arrests.
Commander Michael Anton spends his days browsing through the ads on Craigslist's "adult services" section. As the head of the Cook County Vice Unit, he's in charge of cracking down on prostitution, and Craigslist keeps his team busy.
Last week Craigslist announced it was phasing out the controversial section, and launching a new "adult services" section which it said would only display ads that had been reviewed by administrators.
Sheriff's police say they have notice some differences.
"Before, you had literally an x-rated picture. You had a sex act that they'd post. Now it's many of the girls… in lingerie," Anton said.
But despite the tamer language and pictures, Sheriff's police say the message is still the same: Sex for sale.
In fact, in the one week it's been in existence, their officers have busted two women who posted on the section for prostitution and a third for prostitution-related charges.
In an e-mail Wednesday, Craigslists CEO Jim Buckmaster said that there is "no nudity, illegal services, or prohibited language in these ads, at all."
But Anton said in the cases he's investigated he has not found a single legitimate massage service.
"We've never gone away from the meet that we've engaged a person in without an arrest because it's never been just a massage or a legitimate escort service all the ads we've done on the computer on Craigslist have been for prostitution."
He added, "We could put people here doing this 24 hours a day seven days a week… this is just one site, and there are many, many other sites that provide escorts for people."
A lawsuit filed against Craiglist by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is still pending in federal court. Dart says he's not completely impressed with the changes Craigslist has made so far, but he is giving them the benefit of the doubt for the time being.
Last week the sheriff said he would drop the lawsuit if Craigslist complied with the law.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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