difficult spot, not unlike many other intermediaries, as we call them, these service providers who aggregate content that s put up by users and allowed to be viewed by people all around the world. so it would be a very difficult task to ask craigslist to monitor every bit of content that goes through its system. and what we do know is they enjoy a fairly robust amount of immunity under federal law for the bad content that some of its users may put to the site. so craigslist has put up the word censored on the adult section of craigslist. are they essentially saying that this is the road toward a free speech an argument or legal case that s brewing? right now, craigslikregcraig motives, the way they re doing is, is unclear.
you have to give credit to our own amber lion for turning up the pressure on crayinglist about this and pushing this story forward. she investigated the practices on craigslist and confronted the founder, craig newmark, about the site s safeguards. amber s report originally aired a few weeks before the adult section shut down. let s take a look at what she found. reporter: i want to show you how easy it is for these pimps to use craigslist to sell their girls. we ll most an ad for a fictional prostitute right now. don t try this at home. it says it will cost $10 for ad, five bucks to repost. one of the big things going on with craigslist they say they re monitoring all these ads that come through to check if any of these girls are underage or young. we put some words in here. sweet, innocent, new girl. we re going to see what happens. we ll see if craigslist is going to let our ad post. we ll see what kind of calls we get.
looking for prostitutes. in fact, the adult section used to be listed as erotic services but the website changed that under pressure from authorities who conducted investigations that were finding that section offered very few legitimate services. now after been leaned on by a group of states attorneys general it s been censored a month after the suicide of the craig list killer who met his victims on the erotic services section. prostitution is not a victimless crime. human trafficking results in tragedy to children and others and craigslist voluntarily fortunately is doing the right something but we are going to continue monitoring them and other sites that also may enable prostitution. reporter: on the blog, they said they have attorneys screening each and every individual ad in the adult services section since may of 2009 and required posters to give a working phone number and pay a fee. they say their posting guidelines are more strict
welcome back, everybody. the popular website craigslist of course helps connect people so they can buy and sell various items. but in some cases, sex is also what s for sale. now a new ad campaign is calling out the website, saying they have turned a blind eye to people victimized by prostitution. david wright reports. reporter: in the adult section of the popular website craigslist, the world s oldest profession meets modern technology. but are all these women consenting adults? anti-trafficking groups have published ads in the washington post and the san francisco chronicle. an open letter to the founder of craigslist written by a young woman, a.k. i was sold for sex by the
drug use, every type of drug use could you think of. sex between the teacher and the student, they re really clearly full of adult content. so, you stumbled on this in the fall of 2008 and you refused to return the books until just a few days ago. what were you hoping to accomplish? well, my intent was never to hijack the books or hold them hostage. i was trying to have a dialog with the library system to see if i could effect some type of change. and the change was they move the books to the adult reading section. i m not sure what ultimately that will accomplish because it could perhaps make these more alluring to kids now at that they know that these are in the adult section. should there be some type of rating system at the library like movie theaters where you have to be 17 to check out a certain book. that s a matter of common