Internet Sensation

Internet Sensation

The internet has transformed the business of human trafficking. Traffickers can now sell girls on the internet, which expand their customers growing the underground world of human trafficking

Craigslist

Internet has become very influential on the human trafficking business. The internet has created an underground black market of selling and recruiting victims. Craigslist is a network that features online advertisements. It makes money off of prostitution ads, which are illegal. Many of these advertisements are selling sex. "Last Year, the company made $36.3 million from sec ads posted on the site, the vat majority of which were for illegal activities" (Kloer). 

Craigslist has been scrutinized for their illegal ads recently. To address this scrutinty "reformed" the way these illegal advertisements are posted on the site. Although they do not make plans to get rid of them. Although, Craigslist have done nothing but re-title the section where women and children are sold primps from "erotic"to "adult" services. (Kloer)

The reason Craigslist refuses to help the problem is because "they have 26.3 million reasons to keep selling ads to pimps and traffickers. But only have 2,300 reason to stop the adds, namely, the consumers who have sent them a letter demanding a real change.."(Kloer). 

Backpage.com

"Backpage is not the only website that sells classified escort ads; there are also Eros.com, CityVibe.com, Escorts.com, and MyRedbook.com, among others. But, according to AIM Group, when Craigslist famously shut down its escort ads in 2010 due to public pressure, Backpage quickly emerged as the market leader. (Hinman)"

"Backpage accounts for about 70 percent of prostitution advertising among five Web sites that carry such ads in the United States, earning more than $22 million annually from prostitution ads, according to AIM Group, a media research and consulting company. It is now the premier Web site for human trafficking in the United States, according to the National Association of Attorneys General" (Kristof).


"And while there may be consensus that the exploitation of underage girls online is a problem, there is a white-hot debate over how to stop it. At the center of the storm is Backpage.com, which hosts an estimated 70 percent of the web's online prostitution ads. Critics say it's also a hub for the sex trafficking of minors, and have been mounting a public campaign to pressure Backpage to shut down its adult services section. (Hinman)"




Picture #1
Internet Use. Photography. Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest. Web. 25 Apr 2012.http://quest.eb.com/images/132_1301351

Hinman, Katie, and Melia Patria. "Girls Sold for Sex Online, Backpage Defends

     Decision to Keep Ads Up." ABC News. N.p., 24 Apr. 2012. Web. 25 Apr. 2012.

     <http://abcnews.go.com/US/girls-sold-sex-online-backpage-defends-decision-ads/

     story?id=16193220#.T5ftQJgZz6I>.

Kloer, Amanda. "Craigslist Makes $36 Million From Human Sex Ads." Change.org.

     Change.org Inc., 26 Apr. 2010. Web. 2 Mar. 2012. <http:/news.change.org/

                stories/craigslist-makes-36-million-from-illegal-sex-ads>.
         Kristof, Nicholas D. "Where Pimps Peddle Their Goods." The New York Times. N.p.,

                17 Mar. 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/

                opinion/sunday/kristof-where-pimps-peddle-their-goods.html>.