BACKPAGE STEPS UP SAFETY EFFORTS, CALLS FOR NATIONAL TASK FORCE
October 18th, 2010

Over the last several weeks, Backpage.com has been working closely with our Internet safety expert, Hemanshu Nigam, and his company SSP Blue, to identify areas where we can put up stronger defenses against those intent on placing illegal ads on our site. We made a lot of progress and will continue to march forward with our commitment to the safety and security of our community – both adult and minors alike.

Today we announced the suspension of some limited areas of our Personals and Adult sections while we build up our safety defenses. We also announced some significant steps we are taking to ensure that the content and images in the ads placed on our site is legal and in line with our terms of use. Finally, we also believe that we are at a stage in our industry’s growth where we can all benefit greatly from a multi-stakeholder national task force to identify key best practices to prevent illegal ads and those intent on victimizing the vulnerable. We call upon our friends in the industry, like YellowPages.com, Twitter, Yelp, YouTube, and Eros.com, and others we have listed below, to join us at the table in working with state Attorneys General, law enforcement, and child advocacy groups to take on the challenges of this new frontier. Only then can we all succeed in isolating the abusers.

We treat the development of a holistic safety and security program as a journey not a destination. We will remain committed to working diligently in providing a place to advertise that puts user safety and security first.

Here are just some of the things we are doing:
The review of all ads and images in the personals and adult sections of the site.
The implementation of key word searches to quickly identify banned advertisements and inappropriate discussions.
The significant increase in staff to quickly identify illegal ads.
The implementation of roadblocks to prevent minors from accessing mature content.
The implementation of dedicated tools on the site to educate users regarding online safety and security.
The empowerment of users to report abuse and an expeditious process to handle user complaints.

Other online classified and personals sites for national task force:
Adultfriendfinder.com, alt.com, amateurmatch.com, ashleymadison.com, bdsm.com, bestgfe.com, bigdoggie.net, citysearch.com, cityvibe.com, elclasificados.com, escorts.com, escortsite.com, fling, gay.com, gayfriendfinder.com, myproviderguide.com, myredbook.com, naughtyreviews.com, openadultdirectory.com, sexsearch.com, sipsap.com, sugardaddy.com, superpages.com.

Have you noticed that  " under review " tag on backpage ?

Hmmmm....   Another 1 bites the dust ?

But I predict, it will create a void that will be filled by servers beyond US borders.
skb

yep, exactly

Personally, I was surprised when CL did not attempt to spread light on the expanse of adult advertising.



HalfHour

I guess myspace and facebook don't have explicit chat etc.

Oh for the love of crap. God *damn* election years.
How long before they go after *review* sites, hmm?

that we are the gun fodder when it comes to them looking for the real criminals on the internet. Criminals have been using our industry to spread the ick out there and the boys in blue have caught on, so now it brings attention to the good folks of naughty lands of fun.

Its a good rule of thumb to simply keep things above board and sexy, all that other stuff is why they are investigating. We may be the gun fodder, but as soon as they send the message to the drug criminals and traffickers that they cant hide amongst the sexy people, they will leave us folks alone again and we can continue our innocent fun.