The Tennessee attorney general, along with 16 other state attorneys, called Wednesday for craigslist.org to remove its adult services section.
A letter to craigslist.org CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark states that the website hasn’t done enough to fight online prostitution ads, and if it can’t screen the ads better then it should just shut down the adult services ads.
Attorney General Bob Cooper was quoted in a release as saying, “The increasingly sharp public criticism of craigslist’s adult services section reflects growing allegations that ads for prostitution — including ads trafficking children — are rampant on it. The company should take immediate action to help end exploitation of the women and children victimized as a result of these ads.”
The letter goes on to state that the company’s own “manual review” of the adult services ads did not appear to reduce the traffic of solicitations on the website.
According to the Associated Press, the other 16 states include: Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.