Happy Girl, Happy Time Massage. Full-body massage with a hot busty blond.
These are just a couple of tawdry listings under the section titled ‘therapeutic massage’ on Craigslist.
Two years after the popular buy-and-sell website bowed under pressure and removed its escort section, some wonder whether those selling sex have simply migrated to another spot on the site.
“You’re always going to have the potential for individuals to continue to violate the rules that Craigslist has set for this,” said UBC law professor Benjamin Perrin, an expert on human trafficking. “It doesn’t mean people aren’t being sold for sex exploitation; they still are.”
Craigslist, he said, isn’t the one-stop shop it used to be for sex but it’s still a place where women are exploited.
According to Perrin, author of Invisible Chains: Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking, Craigslist used to be “the Walmart of sex trafficking.” Because the website is so commonly used for purchasing services like cleaning and such items as sporting goods and cars, many users visited the site to seek out sexual services.
“It’s a good reminder that there’s a need for continued vigilance. No one step will address this issue,” Perrin said.
Early this month, Edmonton resident Norman Washington Walters, 25, was sentenced to jail time for sexual assault with a weapon, unlawful confinement, robbery and theft after attacking three escorts he met through Craigslist in 2009.
Walters’ sentence came just after federal politicians met in late January to discuss legislation that would crack down on pornography and online exploitation of vulnerable persons.
