An Open Invitation to Rachel Lloyd
I vividly recall meeting with Rachel Lloyd. Thanks to her story (and others I’ve been privileged to hear) we’ve vastly improved our approach to the point where an adult service ad submitted to craigslist today relating to an underage person like “Bethany” would be rejected by our reviewers, with an immediate report submitted to law enforcement, allowing the victim to be rescued, and the perpetrator to be removed from society.
Human trafficking and child exploitation are utterly despicable and horrendous crimes, absolutely beyond the pale. While quite rare on craigslist, any ad on our site in facilitation of such an unspeakable crime is completely unacceptable, and we will continue to work tirelessly with law enforcement to ensure that any such victim receives the assistance they deserve and that anyone responsible for such a crime is imprisoned.
Craig Newmark and I have been called communists and socialists for putting community ahead of financial considerations. After 15 years of focusing on public service, 50 million now rely on craigslist each month for their everyday needs. To the eternal amazement of financial analysts we have never sought to maximize our personal gain. Not because we’re saints, but because valuing service over money is more fulfilling and enjoyable, and has always felt like the right thing to do.
If we for one moment believed our labor of love was increasing the incidence of such a heinous crime or was contributing to the suffering of its victims, we would indeed have trouble sleeping. We have been accused of many things over our 15 year history, but having no conscience is not one of them. Viewed in light of our 15 year history, is it even plausible that we would be defending the approach we have taken, in the face of the sustained demonization of our efforts that is occurring, if we did not believe we were doing the right thing?
To the contrary, we are convinced craigslist is a vital part of the solution to this age old scourge. We’ve been told as much by experts on the front lines of this fight, many of whom we have met with in person, and many of whom have shared very helpful suggestions that we have incorporated in our approach. Even politicans looking to make their careers at the expense of craigslist’s good name grudgingly admit (when pressed) that we have made huge strides.
To our knowledge, only craigslist, out of countless venues, takes ANY of the following measures, let alone ALL of them:
- educating and encouraging users to report trafficking/exploitation
- prominently featuring a directory of trafficking/exploitation resources
- providing specialized anti-trafficking tools for law enforcement
- providing support for law enforcement anti-trafficking sweeps and stings
- actively participating in NCMEC’s cybertipline program
- leading all awareness efforts for the National Trafficking Hotline
- meeting regularly with experts at nonprofits and in law enforcement
- manually reviewing every adult service ad submitted
- requiring phone verification for every adult service ad
- implementing the PICS content labeling system
What these measures mean in practice is that those foolish enough to place ads on CL relating to trafficking and exploitation are caught by law enforcement, with lots of assistance from craigslist — hence the arrests you hear about.
Last year, when we began manual screening of adult services ads, those unwilling to subject themselves to craigslist’s standards left in droves for the numerous venues which do not monitor ads. This migration is a matter of public record. You do not hear about arrests connected to the vast majority of adult services advertising because those venues do not cooperate with law enforcement, and do not urge their users to be on the lookout for and report suspected trafficking and exploitation.
For the sake of rescuing the exploited and prosecuting those responsible, is it really a good idea to eliminate the only venue for adult service ads that is highly responsive to law enforcement? The only venue that seeks out nonprofit groups and readily adopts their suggestions? Would it not be a step backward to confine adult ads to venues that don’t cooperate with law enforcement, that don’t care what advocacy groups and nonprofits have to say? Quite a few concerned parties, including front line workers in this field, have told us it would.
craigslist started charging for “erotic services” at the repeated request of law enforcement, some of whom suggested fees of $100 or more. It was our idea to pledge net revenues to charity, an unprecedented pledge that no phone company or newspaper featuring adult ads ever took, and one which subjected us to significant state by-state regulatory burdens. This pledge was met with accusations of dishonesty, and ridicule that we thought any charity would want our “tainted” money. Can anyone blame us for announcing in May 2009 we would not repeat this pledge with adult services? As was made clear a year ago, craigslist will continue to engage in charitable giving, privately, and as we see fit.
As to the quote from my earlier blog entry cited by Ms Lloyd, describing a “cynical misuse of a cause as important as human trafficking as a pretense for imposing one’s own flavor of religious morality” — how should we interpret a fundamentalist twitter campaign citing human trafficking as a reason for shutting down all of the craigslist personals categories, which together make up by far the most used personals service in the world? Surely a more constructive approach can be found than demonizing tens of millions of users of craigslist personals users, and effectively trivializing the suffering of actual trafficking victims.
In serving our users and the public as best we can, craigslist has to balance an immense amount of passionate and often conflicting feedback, and at the end of the day do what our consciences tell us is right. Certainly the adult services arena has exemplified that. And while there are no perfect solutions to difficult societal problems, craigslist is indisputably the “corporate responsibility” leader among the countless companies large and small that offer adult services ads. We will not rest on our laurels however, and are committed to doing even better.
craigslist has come a long way since I last met with Ms Lloyd by video in 2008. I invite her to come meet with me in person, as so many other experts in this field have done, to learn more about our approach, and help us make further improvements. That’s how we’ve come this far, and it is our belief that by continuing to work together we will ultimately reach the goals all people of conscience share.
May 12th, 2010 at 12:01 am
Unrelated to this blog post, there’s a story on CNN about somebody murdered for a diamond ring. Coincidence?
I’m wondering why craigslist responds to ANYTHING demonstrated in the main stream media. It’s clearly an attack against what craigslist is.
I’m nobody, and don’t have a vested interest in anything, but I suggest craigslist stop responding in the blog to every sort of major attack.
Trevor
SE Portland
May 12th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
Similarly, those who object to things against their beliefs should just go back to the suffocating mud pit they miraculously crawled out of with the help of Thy Noodly One’s al dente appendages.
May 18th, 2010 at 8:25 pm
“how should we interpret a fundamentalist twitter campaign citing human trafficking as a reason for shutting down all of the craigslist personals categories, which together make up by far the most used personals service in the world?”
So being able to boast being the most used personals service is worth risking the exploitation of a child or enslaved person? Each twitter campaign should be interpreted as people speaking up against injustice, not as “fundamentalist” but as citizens standing up for the right of the innocent.
It is the DUTY of persons who have a voice to stand up for those who cannot.
May 20th, 2010 at 4:24 am
I can understand with all the pressure you guys have been under why you would cooperate with the police in arresting prostitutes. But please bear in mind that what you’re celebrating is the arrest of mostly underprivileged, adult women who considered prostitution to be their best (or only) option. Having an arrest record makes it harder to find employment in respectable fields and fear of arrest is what makes women in the sex industry reluctant to report violent crime committed against them.
According to the 2008 UCR, 40,772 of the 58,784 prostitution arrests were women, and of these only 878 were under the age of 18. The whole sex trafficking myth has been exposed for what it is so many times- and yet emotions run so high that people just refuse to accept reality- that the vast majority of sex workers are in the business willingly- and those who are exploited and abused often are BECAUSE of the illegality of their work and migration. For some reason, hunger striking sex workers in S. Korea; protesting sex workers in the EU and US fighting for their rights; and women in Thailand escaping from their “rescuers” don’t count as much as fictitious anecdotal stories like the ones found on the State Departments TIP website.
If you have been made to feel guilty about the spate of violent crime against women who advertised sexual services on craigslist, I would like to point out how quickly those cases were solved once the crimes were reported. Compare that to the Green River Killer, the Ipswich murderer (from 2005), or even Jack Bokin- crime sprees of violence against prostitutes that continued as long as they did because prostitutes are most vulnerable when they work the streets. There are no IP logs, no cell phone records, no hotel lobby video surveillance.
I don’t blame you for wanting to wash your hands of all this, but I hope the List Foundation is being careful with their charitable donations; supporting anti-trafficking groups like GAATW vs. CATW for example. As a woman who turned tricks for six years, I can assure you that the anti-prostitution folk only harm those they claim they wish to help.
May 20th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Why do you need Adult Services at all? I have never understood that aspect of CL. GIven your philosophy I have a very difficult time believing it is about money, and rather suspect it is somehow philosophical. But it is an arena of human life so rife for exploitation that to merely offer it (adult service postings) is to invite potential exploitation. Why not keep CL clear of this unneeded service and controversy, and return to your roots as a web site offering valuable services to the community it resides in?
May 21st, 2010 at 7:35 am
Did Craigslist try to donate revenue from its Adult Services section directly to organizations that work to combat trafficking, end sexual enslavement, and help rebuild the lives of the victims? How about also donating to male-run organizations focused on teaching men and boys how to create and maintain healthy, equitable relationships with women, as an alternative to participating in a system based on exploitation and enslavement?
May 21st, 2010 at 11:24 am
I just read that CAASE turned down $50,000 from you. I say good riddance- the woman who runs them is a silver spooner who has no idea what it feels like to struggle to pay rent and living expenses. It’s easy to say prostitution is bad when you have no idea what that kind of desperation and poverty feels like.
I suggest you try the Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women. Or perhaps the Saint James Infirmary, which provides free medical care to local sex workers in need.
May 27th, 2010 at 11:13 am
While I applaud your efforts, your enthusiasm, and your words; I cannot help but observe that far, far too often, Craigslist is not utilized as a service to the community, but as a means by which members of the community can exploit each other.
Maybe that’s just my experience on my server, which happens to be located in the most conservative area in the US. But I see the same things in Portland and Seattle that I do here in Idaho, so I doubt it is isolated - maybe more frequent, but definitely not isolated.
I would like to do what I can to help. If Craigslist wants some ideas in that vein, let me know. If you already have plans in place to monitor ads and submit suspicious ads to law enforcement, great. If you already have plans to create an internal search mechanism to find spam and scam ads and delete them and IP ban the work-at-home slaves who post them, great. If you already have plans in the works for better software to ensure that computers can’t automate posting, great. If not, you’ve got my email address. Use it.
June 29th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
LOL Loving using that name.
Craig’s list is awesome and I could careless what CNN or any other media comes out with to try to slander it. More free press for you! My one and only issue is the way things are flagged. Sometimes when a person has a pet that they are trying to find a home for “somebody” ( I have a good idea who) is flagging all of the posts so that people are then forced into sending their pet to the Humane Society or something like it like Petfinder. Anyone knows that the Humane Society is not very Humane and puts down thousands of animals each other as “unadoptable”. I just wish that when someone is flagged it doesn’t immediately delete the post. Show that it has been flagged but allow it to stay as long as it is not something bad as you have posted about here. Thank you for your valuable website! Hugs & Sloppy Kisses to you!
July 7th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Why are we vilifying craigslist? If young girls walk the stroll in a major city shall we condemn the city for offering a piece of sidewalk space where the girls stroll? No, we sure would not. Solving the problem of exploitation, sexual and otherwise, involves a paradigm shift. Taking away the site where a perp finds their prey won’t take away the perps!
Go on Amy! Move to educate and love men and boys! Teach respect of ALL people! Generations (read: centuries) of “isms” and “Otherness” coupled with our current culture provide the context for exploitation, not craigslist.
July 19th, 2010 at 11:49 pm
I can’t understand why reasonable folks continue to belabor this silly point. Prostitution is an ancient ill that has resisted any form of control for quite a while,, you just can’t win this arguement. There are several factors that are obvious, to wit; prostitution has been with us and won’t be denied, controled or defeated by legislation. Beating a dead horse will not give it life. Pontificating, taking the ‘high moral ground’ and coming up with a tired strategy to end it will not help. Decriminilizing it NATIONALLY takes the crime out of it, allows us to put in place a small measure of disease prevention, halting the rate of HIV infections (condoms), possibly requiring all sex workers to attend classes on STD prevention, drug screening, taxes paid into FICA, SS, etc,, mandating money be paid into a goverment controlled retirement plan. It’s not CL’s fault that many hardliners won’t do the right thing, the whole topic is politicol suicide. CA ad NY (and it pains me to say this because I AM a conservative) has finally taken a big step by loosening the pot laws. The same type of controls can now be put into place,, hell, give it out FREE to anyone who can get a MD to claim the patient is addicted. Then require counseling and treatment,, well we are beyond 1984, we babyboomers are beyond where we thought we’d be at this phase of our life. Don’t fall for the politicol posturing of local district atty’s or AG’s, or the politicol slime that would legislate genocide if it would secure them a re-election, repeal and re-vamp the soft moral guidelines and strict moral laws that make it illegal for people to do things to their own bodies. The victimless crime is just that, victimless. Don’t go to the story that “It has perepheral crime,, folks do drugs, and they need $$ to support their habit and resort to a life of crime, prostitution, theft, robbery etc.” Deal with the REAL problem, if an inmate can complete a rehab schedule with TOUGH benchmarks set them free with a conditional work/release program. Let them pay taxes, learn how to be a success story. If we could open the prisons for non-vilolent drug offenders think of how many prisons we could close! I’ll end my rant with this: “Most drug offenders who are busted are users. Teach them a better way of life. A large percentage of the rest of the drug offenders are dealers. If they can control a business and make scads of money, sheeesh,, let them out and put them in the work force and become Forbes 500 companies C.E.O.’s, we are missing a BIG solution. GO TERM LIMITS! DON’T RE-ELECT ANYBODY. One term and out, get it right and return to the work force.
August 4th, 2010 at 6:37 am
LOL. Just another example of an in-mature society unable to face the realities of their nature. But I like your thought process Paul D., a bit cynical but it rings true to some extent.
Weather Forecast; ‘Today will be a sunny day, above the clouds’.
August 4th, 2010 at 7:13 am
hy robin,, take a look at backpage.com, its worse then craigs list.
August 4th, 2010 at 11:08 am
I just saw CNN’s piece on craigslist and underage prostitution. I thought it poor reporting and posted this comment on their site:
August 4th, 2010 1:46 pm ET
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
CNN should hang its head in shame publishing this cheap tabloid piece masquerading as investigative journalism. Where’s the hard evidence of abuse and trafficking? The lady from ‘Fair Fund’ – what are her credentials? CNN has no problem dealing with hearsay. Where are the underage prostitution rings that the cops have busted? Maybe you don’t report them BECAUSE THEY ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN! And CNN’s treatment of Craig – it was pure doorstep badgering of a self-confessed ‘nerd’ – was unconscionable. I loathe America’s puritanical shallow soccer mum culture and how CNN plays to it. Of course, CNN could rise to the challenge of a serious debate backed up by substantial research. But that’s probably too much to expect. In Europe, prostitution is generally legal but controlled. Sex workers there are protected by the police, not persecuted by them. Ireland is interesting. The authorities there hounded online sex advertising which simply moved offshore to the UK. So what would be the point in hounding Craigslist to ban adult advertising because the same thing would happen here… At the end of the day, 99.999999% of sex workers offer a valuable service that they choose to provide. They deserve our respect and safeguards. They certainly deserve more than this shallow, cheap and opportunistic journalism from CNN. And why can I speak with any authority? Why do I KNOW that CNN’s reporting is so off kilter? My wife is a sex worker who has worked in the UK, Eire, Spain and Scandinavia (amongst other places) for fifteen years. So take it from me. This tabloid piece is pure garbage… The true story is far more interesting.
August 7th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
I don’t understand why Craigslist is being targeted by these right-wing Christian NUT-JOBS who are trying to project that all adult services are HUMAN TRAFFICKING when 99.9% are men and women over 18 who are working INDEPENDENTLY - and voluntarily - without pimps.
Craigslist actually FREED thousands of men and women from pimps when they started Adult Services - because previously - adult service providers had to work for pimps a.k.a. “Escort Agencies” to get their business calls - and give half their earnings to the escort agencies as “finders fees”. When Adult Services came about on Craigslist - suddenly - thousands of people could get business easier on their own - WITHOUT having to give half their earnings to pimping Escort agencies. It was TOTALLY liberating for tens of thousands of adult entertainers and companions - who are providing legitimate and needed LEGAL services.
For years, Escort Services advertised in the Yellow Pages under “escorts” and in any major city if you Google “Escorts” - the website EROS.COM comes up first - not Craigslist and EROS has been around for eons as a major player for escort ads. The Adult Services section on Craigslist is NOTHING compared to EROS.COM - which has nudity and an actual “GFE” category and is NOTHING compared to Backpage - which will let people post ANYTHING and is totally unmonitored.
Fact: If you go to ANY urban housing project in the country - there are countless impoverished fathers and brothers who will pimp out their daughters or sisters for some dough - in a New York minute. THEY are the criminals - NOT Craigslist. Those criminals who post the scams, rob people responding to ads, carjack auto sellers posting on the internet, rape women who think they are responding to a legitimate job interview etc…(all other crimes perpetrated by criminals from internet ads) - are the ones COMMITING the CRIMES! Gangs like MS-13 and other thugs also kidnap young girls and pander them on the street - more than advertise on Craigslist - because Craigslist can lead police to TRUE CRIMINALS.
Only REALLY stupid criminals would be dumb enough to pull these crimes on Craigslist because the majority of Craigslist users who are willing to spend their hard-earned money for a sexual fantasy service are going to have their fantasy - QUICKLY SHATTERED and either call police or want their money back - if they walk into a room where a crying child is complaining about her pimp, claiming she doesn’t want to be there, and appears to be under-age.
Most adult services CLIENTS seek out Adult Services for a positive experience with a willing man or woman 18 or older - and would most likely call police or want their money back if they think they are being an accessory to a felony.
I know almost every lady who works on the D.C. craigslist and 99.9% are Independent, normal entertainers and companions who pay taxes and provide services and VOLUNTARILY there - not being pimped out by criminals. Many are single mothers who are providing for their families - and would not be able to make it - if it were not for Craigslist.
Craigslist - PLEASE STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS - you have a Prima Facie case against these right-wing Christian NUTCASES who are targeting you ALONE and not EROS.COM or Backpage or Escorts.com or Cityvibe,com or Sugardaddies.com or Millionairebabies.com, the YELLOW PAGES escort listings, and the list goes on and on.
Sue them for targeting you and persecuting you in the press. Do it for the freedom of all Americans. Thank you.
September 7th, 2010 at 4:59 pm
One of the reasons for the adult section to to advertise real adult jobs. One of my roommates worked as a stripper or topless/bikini bartender. The easiest way to find jobs was the adult section of craigslist. There are other legitimate jobs that are posted to the adult section. someone wants a topless or nude house cleaner, I don’t see anything wrong with that as long as that is all they want.
Of course I feel the easiest and best way to deal with prostitution is to legalize it. Same for Marijuana. Take the money out of the drug cartels pockets and tax the product like any other and put the money in the politicians pocket. Maybe they will take their hands a little bit out of our pockets
September 8th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
[…] of sex slaves, note that the company started charging for adult service ads in 2008 at the behest of law enforcement officials. The idea was that fees would thin the section, while requiring a […]
March 16th, 2011 at 1:48 pm
Sex trafficking is illegal and the penalties are very severe. It is very difficult to force someone to be a sex slave, they would have to have 24 hour guards posted and be watched 365 days a year, 24 hours per day. Have the threat of violence if they refused, and have no one notice and complain to the authorities or police. They would need to hide from the general public yet still manage to see customers from the general public and not have the customers turn the traffickers in to the police. They would need to provide them with medical care, food, shelter, and have all their basic needs met. They would need to have the sex slaves put on a fake front that they enjoyed what they were doing, act flirtatious and do their job well. They would have to deal with the authorities looking for the missing women, and hide any money they may make, since it comes from illegal activity. They must do all of this while constantly trying to prevent the sex slaves from escaping and reporting them to the police. They would need to prevent the general public from reporting them into the police.
This is extremely difficult to do, which makes this activity rare. These criminals would be breaking dozens of major laws not just one. Kidnapping itself is a serious crime. There are many laws against sex trafficking, sex slavery, kidnapping, sex abuse, rape, sexual harassment etc. If someone is behind it, they will be breaking many serious laws, be in big trouble, and will go to jail for many long years. And do you actually think that there is a long line of people who want to have a career as a sex slave kidnapping pimp? While there are some women who may be true victims. And it is possible for this to happen in rare situations. This is a small rare group of people and that the numbers and scale of this crime is exaggerated. The very nature of someone pulling off a kidnapping and forced sex for profit appears to be very difficult. Since it would be difficult this makes this crime rare. Not impossible, but extremely rare. And do you really think that millions of people are lining up to make a career out of being a illegal violent sex slave kidnapping pimp?
A key point is that on the sidelines the adult prostitutes themselves are not being listened to. They oppose laws against prostitution. But no one wants to listen to the prostitutes themselves. Only to the self appointed experts that make up numbers and stories many of which have never met a real forced sex slave or if they did it was only a few. The media and government never ask the prostitutes themselves what would help them in terms of laws.
Many women in the sex business are independent workers. They don’t have a pimp.
They work for themselves, advertise themselves, and keep all the money for themselves. No one forces them, because there isn’t anyone to force them. They go out and find their own customers, set their own prices, and arrange everything by themselves. Sometimes they may employ others to help them, but these are not pimps. If for example, she hires an Internet web design company to make a website for her, does that make the web design company a pimp? If she pays a phone company for a phone to do business, does this make the phone company a pimp? If she puts an ad in the paper, does this make the editor a pimp? If she puts the money she makes into a bank account does this make the bank a pimp?
A lot of anti prostitution groups would say yes. Everyone and everybody is a pimp.
These groups make up lies, and false statistics that no one bothers to check. A big reason they do this is because it provides high paying jobs for them. They get big donations, and grants from the government, charity, churches, etc. to have these groups, and pay these high salaries of the anti prostitution workers.
Sex Trafficking in Sports Events:
Super Bowl 2011:
According to the media hype There was supposed to be hundreds of thousands of under age child sex slaves kidnapped and forced to have sex with super bowl fans. At the Dallas Super Bowl 2011. WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL OF THEM????????????
It was all a big lie told by various anti-prostitution groups, Traffick911 and the Dallas Women’s Foundation, which are anti-prostitution groups that tell lies in order to get grant money from the government and charities to pay their high salaries. As proved in the link below:
Top FBI agent in Dallas (Robert Casey Jr.) sees no evidence of expected spike in child sex trafficking:
“Among those preparations was an initiative to prevent an expected rise in sex trafficking and child prostitution surrounding the Super Bowl. But Robert Casey Jr., special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas office, said he saw no evidence that the increase would happen, nor that it did.
“In my opinion, the Super Bowl does not create a spike in those crimes,” he said. “The discussion gets very vague and general. People mixed up child prostitution with the term human trafficking, which are different things, and then there is just plain old prostitution.”
http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/super-bowl/local/20110302-top-fbi-agent-in-dallas-praises-super-bowl-security-effort-sees-no-evidence-of-expected-spike-in-child-sex-trafficking.ece
This myth of thousands or millions of underage sex slaves tries to make every sports fan a sex criminal. No matter what the sport is, or in what country it is in.
Brian McCarthy isn’t happy. He’s a spokesman for the NFL. Every year he’s forced to hear why his customers are adulterers and child molesters. Brian McCarthy says the sport/super bowl sex slave story is a urban legend, with no truth at all.
== World Cup 2006 ==
Politicians, religious and aid groups, still repeat the media story that 40,000 prostitutes were trafficked into Germany for the 2006 world cup – long after leaked police documents revealed there was no truth at all in the tale. A baseless claim of 25,000 trafficking victims is still being quoted, recently, for example, by the Salvation Army in written evidence to the home affairs select committee, in which they added: “Other studies done by media have suggested much higher numbers.” Which has been proven by the German police to be completely false. Yet people still talk about these false numbers as if it were fact.
==World Cup 2010 ==
Again using the made up number of 40,000 prostitutes trafficked:
The behavior of fans in South Africa has run contrary to what was predicted prior to the start of the tournament after David Bayever told World Cup organizers in March it was feared that up to 40,000 extra prostitutes could converge in the host nation to meet the expected demand. Bayever, deputy chairperson of South Africa’s Central Drug Authority (CDA) that advises on drug abuse but also works with prostitutes, warned: “Forty-thousand new prostitutes. As if we do not have enough people of our own, we have to import them to ensure our visitors are entertained.”
But the tournament in 2010, if anything, has seen the modern-day soccer fan attracted to art galleries and museums over brothels. A trend that has seen a drop in revenue across the board for the prostitution industry, which is illegal in South Africa. “Zobwa,” the chairperson of Sisonke — an action group representing around 70 street prostitutes in Johannesburg — said business had been down over the last month. “The World Cup has been devastating. We thought it was going to be a cash cow but it’s chased a lot of the business away. It’s been the worst month in my company’s history,” the owner and founder of one of Johannesburg’s most exclusive escort companies told CNN.
The Vancouver Olympics 2010:
Again anti-prostitution groups lied and used the same figure of 40,000 or more sex slaves for the Vancouver Olympics. Again they were proved wrong. There were no sex slaves at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.
In recent years, every time there has been a major international sporting event, a group of government officials, campaigning feminists, pliant journalists and NGOs have claimed that the movement of thousands of men to strange foreign countries where there will be lots of alcohol and horniness will result in the enslavement of women for the purposes of sexual pleasure. Obviously. And every time they have simply doubled the made-up scare figures from the last international sporting event, to make it look like this problem of sport/sex/slavery gets worse year on year. Yet each year it is proved false.
This myth tries to make every sports fan a sex criminal. No matter what the sport is, or in what country it is in. These anti-prostitution groups need to in invent a victim that does not exist in order to get press attention.
I do not like the idea of people getting the wrong information and believing lies, no matter what the topic is. The Sex trafficking, slavery issue is one of the biggest lies being told today. It is amazing to me how people will believe such lies so easily. The media is to blame for this. I wonder why they feel such a need to report wrong stats, numbers and information about this topic without doing proper research.
While this may happen in very rare limited situations, the media will say that millions of people are sex slaves without doing any real research on the topic. Only taking the word of special interest anti-prostitution groups which need to generate money in the form of huge government grants from taxpayers, and charities. These “non profit” group’s employees make huge salaries, therefore they need to lobby the government, and inflate and invent victims in order to get more money into their organizations. If you look into how many real kidnapped forced against their will sex slaves there are, and not just take the anti-prostitution groups word for it. You will be very surprised.
Where are all the forced sex slaves? I would like to meet the millions of sex slaves and see for myself if they were in fact kidnapped, and forced against their will.
These anti-prostitution groups lobby the government in a big way, getting Politicians to truly believe their lies.
This is an attempt to over inflate an issue in order to get more government money to these organizations. As a tax payer, voter, and resident I don’t want the government to mislead me.
I would like to see a news organization do a full report on the lies, myths and exaggerated numbers being told about sex trafficking slaves. The articles about the super bowl sex slaves, has been proved wrong many times, but news organizations still report about it, as if it were fact.
Sex Trafficking in Sports Events links:
http://www.dallasobserver.com/2011-01-27/news/the-super-bowl-prostitute-myth-100-000-hookers-won-t-be-showing-up-in-dallas/
http://www.dallasobserver.com/2011-03-03/news/super-bowl-prostitution-100-000-hookers-didn-t-show-but-america-s-latest-political-scam-did/
http://www.dallasobserver.com/2011-03-03/news/sex-traffick911-press-release/
The Sex Trafficking/Slavery idea is used to outlaw all adult consensual prostitution, and label all men as sex offenders and wipe out all consensual prostitution.
This hurts any real victims because it labels all sex workers as victims. Everything I heard about this problem was Americans complaining about it, but I never heard from the so-called victims themselves complaining about it. Why is that? Many of the self appointed experts complaining about this have never even met or seen a real forced against their will victim.
There is a lot of controversy over the numbers of adult woman who are forced sex slaves. The real factual answer is that no one knows. There is hard evidence that the sex slavery/sex trafficking issue continues to report false information and is greatly exaggerated by politicians, the media, and aid groups, feminist and religious organizations that receive funds from the government, The estimate of adult women who become new sex slaves ranges anywhere from 40 million a year to 5,000 per year all of which appear to be much too high. They have no evidence to back up these numbers, and no one questions them about it. Their sources have no sources, and are made up numbers. In fact if some of these numbers are to believed which have either not changed or have been increased each year for the past twenty years, all woman on earth would currently be sex slaves. Yet, very few real forced against their will sex slaves have been found.
Here is some more information about this:
http://sextraffickingtruths.blogspot.com/
http://bebopper76.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/sex-trafficking-lies-myths/