Unlucky Diamond?

Under pressure, Craigslist is revamping its adult services ads. But critics wonder if the change will actually stop illicit activity.

By Winston Ross | Newsweek Web Exclusive
May 14, 2009 | Updated: 3:58  p.m. ET May 14, 2009

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  • Posted By: Dolmance @ 05/17/2009 4:33:41 PM

    Well, of course we all know prostitution didn't exist before Craigslist, so I have every expectation that it will magically disappear now that they're not going to run those ads anymore.

    Fact is, if it wasn't for Craigslist, they'd never have caught that miscreant freak just starting out on his career of being a serial killer. And stopping the erotic services ads will simply drive the sex workers even more underground, and increase their susceptibility to vicious predators.

  • Posted By: very old man 0838 @ 05/16/2009 10:58:35 AM

    Everybody pay for sex. The cost of bringing another human being to our world is so great if God did not create climax with sex, nobody with the right mind will ever do it.
    Less than 1% of us ever get paid to have sex. 99% of us pay through our teeth for the rest of our life just to enjoy a few seconds of the greatest pleasure God ever granted us. Can we blame those who are jealous of the prostitutes and the johns?
    We are so unwilling to confront the true criminals, the pimps, the mentally ill murderers/abusers we will rather assert our value on ordinary people who are doing a natural thing in a way we disagree with.
    Getting paid for sex is a risky business and requires extraordinary will power to execute it successfully. This is extreme high wire walking. We are so jealous of those who practice it we will use those who tried and died to disallow anybody from doing it so nobody will say we are not able to participate in that game.
    That???s human nature.


  • Posted By: Philvon @ 05/15/2009 5:27:39 AM

    If there are so many ads on Craigslist and so many thousands of people willing to pay for these encounters, what does that say about our policies? If you take the moral and religous reasons out of the equation then what exactly is the difference between renting your back or your mind to a company for a paycheck or renting that one part of your anatomy that the moral majority has decided is wrong? Maybe it is time to realize they have the right so sell that part of their body as well and then regulate and tax the practice so we can decriminalize and make revenue from it.

    • Posted By: criticalthinker @ 05/15/2009 6:55:38 AM

      What personal service other than sex is legal to do for free but illegal to do for pay?

      Why is it legal to get paid to have sex when a movie camera is rolling, but illegal when no movie camera is rolling?

      Don't you know that the "puritans" are not happy unless they can use the rule of law to FORCE others to abide by their sense of morality?

      That is why this country will NEVER enact the sensible policy that you propose.

      • Posted By: pandahays @ 05/15/2009 10:23:37 AM

        Now I'm a fairly conservative gal. I believe in monogamous sex within a married relationship, but even I find it a little confusing that so many things are legal, that the government talks endlessly about rights (including right to do with your body what you please i.e. abortion), yet they outlaw paying for a sexual act?

        I would never condone prostitution because I find it morally reprehensible, and I think its a dangerous game. However, I do wonder if legalizing it and putting restrictions on it (regular STD testing, some kind of taxing, registering prostitutes) would make it safer and keep the underage girls at bay. I don't know, just a thought. I guess we could say the same thing about marijuana, but maybe I'm a hypocrit in that way. I just don't think the government has the right to tell us how to behave morally, unless we are forcing someone else to suffer from that immorality.

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