Craigslist is teaming up with Canadian law enforcement to try to stop the sale of sex with children that one expert says has turned the popular online classified service into a modern-day "kiddie-stroll."
Over the past two months, Craigslist has been consulting with the RCMP's national human-trafficking centre, the North Vancouver division of the RCMP, and the Peel Regional Police outside Toronto, in an effort to stop the "blatant, in-your-face" advertising for sex on the site.
"Craigslist is the new kiddie-stroll for men who are seeking to pay for sex with children," said Prof. Benjamin Perrin, a law professor from the University of British Columbia. "It's free and anonymous and well-known."
Perrin has studied the problem across Canada and the U.S., and he has been instrumental in trying to get measures in place to try to stop the Craigslist sex-trafficking trade.
Last fall, Craigslist brought in preventive measures in the U.S. to identify missing children, with stricter filters to verify users' identification. Attorneys general from about 40 states signed on to last year's agreement, said Perrin.
"At the time, they said they didn't add the same measures in Canada, because law enforcement wasn't interested in working with Craigslist," said Perrin, who was involved in the process.
"Now, what we see in Canada is a growing number on Craigslist using it to advertise minors and . . . what we're told is the numbers in most Canadian cities are spiking."
Perrin said the number of ads in the U.S. has dropped dramatically since the new security measures were enacted by Craigslist last year.
Cpl. Nilu Singh, with the RCMP Human Trafficking National Co-ordination Centre, said the Internet has become a way for underage sex-traffickers to reach from coast to coast.
"Investigations have been made into advertisements across the country," she said. "The Internet can be used anywhere, any time, by anyone."
Craigslist has 47 individual sites for cities across the country, and advertises things as harmless as old clothes and used cars, to the more risque, such as popular and sexually explicit personal ads.
"You can't say stuff in the old newspaper ads that you can say online," said Det. Mike Viozzi of the Peel Regional Police vice squad. "People say exactly what they want, in pretty graphic detail."
Viozzi said his division uses Craigslist frequently to investigate advertisements they find suspicious, setting up stings where they often find girls as young as 15 or 16 being controlled by much older pimps.
Last month, North Vancouver RCMP warned parents and other members of the public that a small group of individuals within the community were pressuring women as young as 16 to prostitute themselves online, often using Craigslist. The problem came to the unit's attention in November, when staff at a North Vancouver school heard that former students — young men now in their early 20s — were pimping current class members.
Singh said the discussions with Craigslist are still in the preliminary stages, but she said the company has been very forthcoming and co-operative in trying to stop the illegal trade on its site. She said the company is looking to law enforcement to provide suggestions as to what it needs to do.
In the U.S., Craigslist has added features such as phone verification and credit-card verification to make it easier for police to track users of the site.
Singh said the RCMP is also reaching out to police forces across the country about joining the Craigslist discussions.
On Thursday, the Winnipeg Police Service said it was willing to join in the Craigslist consultation, said Perrin.
Winnipeg is a major centre of sex-trafficking in Canada, said Perrin, a keynote speaker this week at a forum on the sexual exploitation of aboriginal women and children hosted by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.
"In Winnipeg, there were more than 300 ads (for children and women) in the last week alone," he said Thursday.
Looking forward, Perrin said he is optimistic about the partnership with Craigslist.
"It is important in helping to stop online sex-trafficking, as law enforcement deal with 21st-century technologies," he said.
With files from Carol Sanders, Winnipeg Free Press
source:http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Craigslist+police+partner+stop+trafficking/1779594/story.html
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