The Effect of Measures Taken by Craigslist to Screen Online Ads for Commercial Sex

Abstract

A 2017 U.S. Senate subcommittee report charging employees at backpage.com with editing the website's online ads for prostitution has revived debate over the willingness and ability of such websites to screen ads for unlawful commercial sex activity. This study sheds light on the controversy by revisiting the dispute surrounding similar advertising on craigslist.com. Using an observational pre-post research design, I examined unique data collected from commercial sex ads on a North Carolina Craigslist site to assess the impact of enhanced ad screening measures that Craigslist implemented to address misuse of its ad hosting services. Results indicate that Craigslist's switch to a manual review of ads led to significant decreases in illicit ad content, temporarily inhibiting online marketing of commercial sex by regional advertisers.

Negotiated Safety? Did Backpage.com Reduce Female Homicide Rates

“…However, while there are definite safety benefits in the use of online clearinghouses, Craigslist and Backpage are synonymous with prostitution and violence. There have been several notable incidents of violence toward sex workers covered by the media, along multiple lawsuits directed at them for their role in these and other incidents (Judge, 2018). While these legal claims are still disputed, research remains inconclusive on the relationship between these services and gender-based violence.…”

“…FOSTA-SESTA provides the legal ability to hold websites who knowingly facilitate sex trafficking criminally accountable (Peterson et al, 2019) by providing the U.S. Department of Justice the ability to shut down Backpage and similar websites (Feifer et al, 2019). Supporters of FOSTA- SESTA argue that it is needed, as sex trafficking is often conducted using online platforms to contact clientele and marketing women and children for the purposes of sexual exploitation (Dalton, 2012; Judge, 2018; Makatche, 2013; O’Brien, 2017; Weitzer, 2019).…”

The Marketing of Female Escorts: A Gendered Perspective of Online Companionship Advertisements

“…The techniques used by pimps to advertise underage girls are always changing, so there is no precise method to identify underage girls (Judge, 2018). 2.…”

“…Empirical studies of illegal online activity are difficult to conduct; therefore, the full extent of the Internet’s impact on sex trafficking is unknown (Leary, 2014). Backpage instituted several manual measures to review the advertisements before the ads were placed online to address the concerns of the platform being used for human trafficking (Judge, 2018). When the researchers reviewed the collected data, the potential for discovering human trafficking was ever-present.…”

“…While coding the data, the researchers were vigilant in examining potential advertisements that did not appear legitimate, that is, young-looking photos, duplicate phone numbers for different advertisements. The techniques used by pimps to advertise underage girls are always changing, so there is no precise method to identify underage girls (Judge, 2018).…”