Child Prostitution on Craigslist

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You probably know Craigslist.org as a place to buy concert tickets or a used sofa. But did you know that until recently, you could also buy sex with a child forced into prostitution?

Last week, after receiving pressure from human rights groups, 17 state attorneys general, and 10,000 Change.org members, Craigslist removed its "adult services" section, where child and adult sex trafficking victims were advertised to millions.

Sex trafficking remains one of the most pervasive, abusive and unacknowledged crimes in America. There are more than 100,000 children sold for sex in the United States each year, the majority of whom are 11 to 14 years old.

Until last week, Craigslist was the largest and most accessible marketplace for buyers and sellers of sex trafficking victims in the world. It not only made sex trafficking relatively easy, but because of its welcoming brand and 50 million users, Craigslist helped normalize the practice and gave it a safe space on the web. Those wanting to purchase underage sex didn't have to hide - they could browse Craigslist at work and make arrangements to rape girls after hours and on weekends. And many did.

The company has defended its adult services ads as an issue of free speech and claimed that few of the ads were for trafficking victims. But that's been a difficult position for the company to maintain in the face of public letters from girls formerly sold on Craigslist, including one from a trafficking survivor whose pimp forced her to advertise for her own statutory rape on Craigslist at age 11.

Without the platform afforded by Craigslist, buyers and sellers of trafficking victims in the United States will now have a more difficult time finding each other. But the fight against human trafficking is far from over. Here are three things you can do today to help:

1. First, although Craigslist removed its "adult services" section in the U.S., it still allows buyers and sellers of sex trafficking victims on its more than 250 international sites through "erotic services" sections. Sign the petition demanding that Craigslist fight human trafficking on all of its sites.

2. Second, activists are now mobilizing to ensure that other sites follow Craigslist's lead and remove human trafficking ads. The second largest classified site profiting from ads for human trafficking victims is Backpage.com, owned by Village Voice Media. You can take action by telling Village Voice Media it's time to stop profiting from child sex trafficking now.

3. Third, we need to strengthen the movement of people dedicated to fighting human trafficking wherever it appears in the future. To join more than 170,000 people standing against human trafficking on Change.org, go to http://humantrafficking.change.org.