Craigslist Ditches "Erotic," Hookers Move To "Adult"

By Karl Klockars in News on May 21, 2009 6:20PM

Did anyone really think that getting Craigslist to get rid of its "erotic services" link would cut down prostitution on the internet? The classified-ads-site that became ground zero for Tom Dart's anti-e-whore crusade recently switched from their controversial "erotic services" to the other side of the same coin, "adult services." And guess what - it's accomplished nearly nothing.

As it turns out, you can take the nudity and explicit language out of the site, but you just can't shake all the hookers out of there with it. On the "adult services" section of the site [NSFW, obviously], people are still offering "adult massage," "erotic massage" and "secret rendezvous" all over the city. WBBM 780 is reporting that while the ads may be different, the result is the same:

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.

If anything, the switch from "erotic" to "adult" has only made things worse. Now instead of having defined categories and distinctions between genders and sexual preference, the site is just a come-one-come-all dumpbin for handjobs and more. The code is just a little less transparent, and the photos are a little less explicit. The post count may be down, but the song remains the same.

Trying to prevent the move of the world's oldest profession to the world's newest digital shopping mall is a Sisyphean task. Craigslist and other sites have provided an outlet for women in the sex industry to get off of the street and the dangers that exist out there, and sell their wares from the comfort of their cheap hotel room on Mannheim. Now they're either learning to adapt, or hitting the corners. Is that a positive result?

If anything, the Dart lawsuit only served to remind and inform the populace that it's damned easy to find some tail on the internet. Legislators and moralists can wring their hands about the state of vice in our society and on our computer screens. But after they've tried everything else, when will they give legalization and regulation a chance?