Susan Best, a spokeswoman for Craigslist, said using the site for prostitution is unacceptable.
“As is evident from news reports around the country, Craigslist actually makes it easier for police departments to conduct sting operations against prostitution rings,’’ Best said. “If you’re a prostitute or a potential john, you’re taking a big risk putting a listing on Craigslist, because we cooperate actively with police departments.’’
Best said the Web site recently implemented new requirements for erotic services ads that make it more difficult for prostitutes to advertise. The company bans illegal activity in its terms of use, warns against illegal activity and has a community moderation system that flags inappropriate ads. People whose ads are flagged are removed and are prevented from posting future ads, she said.
“There tends to be a great focus on Craigslist ads of this sort, but, factually, phone company directories, weekly newspapers and other media not only carry such ads but charge for them, and even if we somehow could ban them altogether, they’d just start putting them on offshore Web sites, out of U.S. control altogether, making it more difficult for law enforcement officials to detect and prosecute criminals using the site,’’ Best said