Once CL erotic services, got forced to shut down, I knew they would go after the next one, Backpage...


I personally do not advertise on there in the Bay Area. But I know it is popular in lots of other cities.

I wonder, if they are successful with Backpage, whats next... TER, other forums also that run ads?

CL and BP are/were breeding grounds for child prostitution. Virtually no screening and I would never use any of them.
Lets use ligit sights like TER.

battle. No big deal, if BackPage lost, another escort sight will appear. That's how it works. Take one away, another will appear. Blame it on the government, not the entrepreneurs.

They have been advertising adult services since at least the mid-80's, and have been fighting it the entire time. BP is not like CL in that they are prepared for the fight, have the experience of already fighting it and have yet to be stopped, where as CL was in new and foreign territory and ill prepared for the battle.

I for one seriously they will be able to take BP down, don't forget that BP is making several million a month in  income from the adult advertising, don't think they have an issue with hiring the best of the best to fight this battle, not only because they do not want to lose the revenue, but if they lose it will also significantly impact other aspects of their printing abilities. They may however continue to modify how online advertising is accepted, as Eros has, in being sent in verification information in regards to age beyond credit cards.

The problem is that if BP goes away, they'll all just move somewhere else... then we'll have to compete with all of the scammers posting 5 times a day on another site. I hope that nothing happens to BP, so they can all stay right where they are. But I suspect that the reality is that it's only a matter of time before it gets shut down, and they all move on to the next site.

Agreed. I was poking around on BP yesterday and saw a knockout there. After checking TER, I found a new review the same day I saw her post. The guy said she did not look anything like her picture and gave her low marks. BP is a nice place to window shop, but I don't trust it at all.

In other words, they have been fighting the grind of the Government nearly 60 years and are still up and running.

"human sex trafficking" story said these people use bp exclusively for that purpose. sex trafficking is not the same as escort services

I don't believe TER has any implicit link to that kind of activity.

oldest profession in the world , of course the so called government & its so called statesmen & agent have to consider themselves without sin to cast the first stone. Ugggh , then go & sin no more,,,

So , how many marriage proposals have you endured to be so sultry & @ the same time , so insightfull? Oh & I also commit my support for your campaign as the first woman president. Im not bein sarcastic , youd have to be a lawyer to qualify , & a lawyer is the purest sence of the term "whore". If u ever make it to the ovulating office , I wanna be ur intern .

I think it's naive to believe that LE is really only interested in "human sex trafficking". It's simply how they're justifying the amount of money they're spending.

i'm willing to bet most of these stings target the younger providers with "pimps" rather than professional independents.if not. we are all screwed because if they really want they can catch them too.

Look at Operation Cross Country V for example, which had a stated goal or rescuing minors who were being forced into prostitution. A three day nationwide operation involving over 8,500 local, state, and federal officers. They rescued 69 minors, and arrested 99 pimps. They also arrested 884 adult providers... The majority of which were arrested in stings in cities in which they found no minors. How much tax money was spent on this operation in which less than 10% of those arrested were the supposedly intended targets?

I'm completely in favor of rescuing minors forced into prostitution, and arresting the pimps who do so. But if that is really their goal, they shouldn't be wasting money and resources going after adult providers. Yet every time they do these operations 90+% of the arrests are adult providers.

Also notice that the FBI is no longer reporting how many adult providers are arrested in these operations.

The simple fact is that LE want to increase their budgets, so they can get raises. The easiest way to do this is to increase the number of arrests they make per year. Prostitution arrests are quick, easy, and high profile.

Just like war on drugs. Someone somewhere is making money or fame then money.

END OF MESSAGE

More like cut down the whole tree, and burn down the whole orchard.

See, this is that same free speech issue people have so much trouble getting their heads around. I hate certain forms of speech (racism, sexism, etc), but I will defend to the hilt someone's legal right to speak that way (while simultaneously berating them with my opinion of how pathetic they are and ostracizing them, or boycotting their products, or signing petitions for boycotts, or whatever- which is also my right). Because once their speech is taken away, when will it be my turn?

Funny how people are happy to throw a site they deem unworthy under the bus and imagine that somehow their own preferred sites will remain untouched. Idiotic thinking! Don't you realize that fear-mongering around child prostitution and trafficking is a ruse to end all prostitution and pornography? Yesterday Craigslist, today BP, tomorrow TER... I presume, Oxlong, that you're pretty young to remember the Meese Commission on pornography, but do a little digging on the subject and you will find all the same names behind this modern witch hunt. By researching this subject even further, you'll also find that most of the "facts" and "statistics" about child prostitution and trafficking are completely fabricated.
http://bust.com/blog/child-prostitution-statistics-found-through-bogus-research.html
And going back even further, google the "white slavery" scare of the 1800s. You'll find all the same propaganda.

Furthermore, nobody has done more to combat illicit uses of BP than BP itself. They bend over backward to help the police track down suspected traffickers and people forced into prostitution. There is no better way to address this than by letting the undesirables lay the paths to their own destruction by posting on BP. Do you really think for an instance that someone who wants to exploit someone else is going to just stop because craigslist and BP are shut down? Really??? Are you 12???

Not to mention the fact that many legit providers use BP as an inexpensive alternative to Eros, especially when Eros is unavailable in their area.

God knows you don't have to use BP, but must you wish them to disappear?

Be careful what you wish for- you might just get it.


-- Modified on 8/4/2012 9:19:22 PM

Also, the "minors" are never disaggregated by age- anyone under 18 is considered a trafficking victim no matter how much choice they have in their profession. This inflates the "trafficking" statistics in any state, for which each state gets more money. In one particular case that someone close to me was familiar with, all but one "rescued minor" was 17. Every single one of them claimed that they were there of their own accord, no pimps involved. This person was a social worker for 20-some-odd years who spent most of her time working with minors on the streets, and she knows very well when someone is there of their own accord. But you can bet that the press made that bust look like they were all 11-year-olds who were forced and beaten by brutal pimps. You really have to read between the lines.

Not to mention the fact that if you look at how many arrests are made for violent crimes in any given city compared to how many arrests are made for prostitution, the disparity is staggering. Clearly police are far more concerned with how you and I negotiate my bedroom skills than how many people have been carjacked, robbed, raped, or mugged.