aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Craigslist and Atlanta prostitution

Remember last year’s Bob Herbert column calling Atlanta a hub of child prostitution?

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin’s taken action, initiating a Dear John campaign and, yesterday, singling out Craigslist:

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin has called on a popular Web site to take responsibility for what she said is the company’s role in promoting child prostitution.

“Children are being marketed through craigslist,” Franklin said Tuesday during an update on the mayor’s “Dear John” campaign, a crackdown on the city’s child prostitution industry.

Craigslist, found on the Web at craigslist.org, may be best known as a bulletin board for people who want to sell a car, buy a home or meet people. But Atlanta vice officer Kelleita Thurman said Tuesday that craigslist and similar sites account for 85 percent of the sexual liaisons men arrange in Atlanta with boys and girls.

I’d like to see a parsing of that 85% figure. And if they’re going to claim that Craigslist is “promoting child prostitution” you’d think they might have some proof.

You’d be wrong. Maggie at Of Counsel:

The evidence? Photos of a woman requesting money for sex who claims to be 21. They don’t think she’s really 21.  But they don’t know who she is or how old she is.

My brief perusal didn’t turn up anything that they’re claiming to have seen. Of course, if they followed craigslist’s policy, they would have to immediately flag anything that was illegal or violated the terms of use. No mention in the article about whether they did so. [...]

I look forward to a more thorough discussion with better research data to address the issues.  Such a difficult and complex problem should be handled with more care and thought by the city.  I don’t know what this kind of announcement is supposed to accomplish.

Franklin’s savvy; I’m guessing good old pandering pol PR is her goal. Maggie suggests The Juvenile Justice Fund as a source for better information about the problem.