WASHINGTON - Craigslist has no plans to resume providing the controversial adult-services category on its advertising website, a company official on Wednesday told a U.S. House of Representatives committee.
Craigslist placed a block on the section earlier this month after law enforcement officials and human rights groups accused it of not properly monitoring and removing ads for prostitution and child trafficking.
William (Clint) Powell, director of customer service and law enforcement relations for Craigslist, made the announcement during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on minors caught up in sex trafficking.
Craigslist would have generated about $40 million from adult ads in 2010, according to estimates by the research firm Advanced Interactive Media Group. Craigslist posts 65 million ads per month on its U.S. websites, Powell said.
Deborah Richardson of the Women's Funding Network, which helps abused women, told the committee that adult-services advertisements posted on Craigslist received three times more responses than any other online service.
In the past six months, there has been a steep increase in the number of American adolescent girls who were being advertised for commercial sex on the Internet, Richardson said. Some hot spots included New York, which saw a 20.7 percent increase; Michigan, where ads rose 39.2 percent; and Minnesota, with a 64.7 percent increase.
"I have not had a girl that wasn't marketed online, and most of them were on Craigslist," said Linda Smith, a former congresswoman and now president of Shared Hope International. Shared Hope provides rescue and rehabilitation for women and children involved in sex trafficking.
At least 100,000 children in the U.S. are involved in commercial sex every year, and the average age girls enter prostitution is 13, Smith said.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who led an effort to persuade Craigslist to drop the section, said Wednesday he was pleased by the announcement but asked the company for "more effective and aggressive screening to fight prostitution ads, including swift removal of suspect ads flagged by the public."
