Hawaii and 44 other states question website's adult ads

By Star-Advertiser staff and news services

POSTED: 09:00 a.m. HST, Aug 31, 2011
LAST UPDATED: 01:10 p.m. HST, Aug 31, 2011

Attorneys general in 45 states, including Hawaii, are asking a classified ads website to explain how it handles postings for adult services.

The officials said in a letter to Backpage.com on Wednesday that hundreds of ads on the site are for prostitution, and the site attracts people seeking to exploit minors.

They want Backpage.com to prove it is monitoring the site to prevent illegal activity and to willingly provide information in lieu of a subpoena.

The attorneys general ask that Backpage.com describe in detail how many advertisements in its adult section and subsections have been submitted since Sept. 1, 2010, how many of those ads were individually screened, how many were rejected and how many were removed after being discovered to be for illegal services.

In one case, teenage girls say they were threatened and extorted by two adults who marketed them on Backpage.com. One of the adults rented a hotel room and forced the girls to have sex with men who responded to the online ads, according to a news release from the Illinois attorney general's office. Backpage.com charges $1 and up for such ads.

Carl Ferrer, a spokesman for Backpage owner Village Voice Media, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Craigslist closed its adult services section last year after attorneys general and others raised concerns it could not effectively screen out illegal ads.

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droid wrote:

This is an absurd waste of taxpayer dollars. Rather than going after the owner of a classified website, why don’t the attorneys general let police use the website as way to find and shut down these places? This guy has nothing to do with the businesses that advertise. He’s just providing a service. Adult ads are a tiny section of his site. The U.S. government’s need to control the Internet is astounding.

on August 31,2011 | 11:52AM

Steve96785 wrote:

Welcome to the land of the free, where we require complete separation of church and state, but only in theory, while in reality, we punish those outliers who prefer to live free of total government intervention and control over our lives. Hard to believe that we can't find a better use of taxpayer dollars.

on August 31,2011 | 01:27PM

Steve96785 wrote:

Next the thought police will ask the SA to take down or monitor all activity in the Korean bars and massage parlors that advertise regularly and openly.

on August 31,2011 | 01:29PM

Anonymous wrote:

What next? Shut down Craigslist? If you look at that site prostitution is alive and well. As someone has added, what about shutting down massage parlors as they are just veiled fronts for prostitution? What next? Government regulation of internet use by the people. This country is no longer the land of the free. It is now the land of the oppressed.

on August 31,2011 | 02:45PM

nodaddynotthebelt wrote:

The biggest contradiction is the porn industry. Women cannot sell themselves for sex but if they do it behind a camera it is legal. What is wrong with this picture? The porn industry by the way is one of the biggest industries in the US. If prostitution is illegal, whiy isn't it illegal to perform sex acts behind a camera? In both cases, the women are performing sex acts for money. The only difference is that one is doing it behind a camera. They should illegalize pornography or legalize prostitution. They could then regulate and tax it. I believe that women should be given the right to do what they wish with their bodies. Putting them behind bars for simply trying to make money is simply not the answer. Prostitution is an age old profession that government cannot put out. But government can regulate it. As long as there is a demand for it it will never go away. As for these men who force women and girls to perform sexual acts to bring them money, they should put these creeps behind bars for life. That's what we have law enforcement officers for.

on August 31,2011 | 02:55PM