Legal Experts: CraigsLust is a Venue NOT the Vice Squad

[mandy]

In the wake of an FBI raid on the home of a Sacramento photographer for allegedly posting photos of underage prostitutes on craigslist, experts said the huge online classified site has no responsibility for policing such behavior.

In fact, federal law specifically exempts online services from such liability, said Lauren Gelman, associate director of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University Law School.

Gelman said the federal Communications Decency Act, passed in 1996, exempts online services such as craigslist, America Online and Yahoo from liability for the content that their users post...

full article: http://www.sacbee.com/103/story/142551.html

related article:

An eight-month investigation of underage prostitution advertised on Craigslist, a popular Internet classified ad site, led FBI agents to raid the home and photo studio of a man, court documents say...

The case is the latest to focus legal scrutiny on Craigslist and prostitution ads on the highly popular Internet site. Craigslist has been linked in news accounts to prostitution stings from New York City suburbs to Chicago to Seattle...

full article: http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couri...S1.article

[amy]

experts said the huge online classified site has no responsibility for policing such behavior.

It's not liable for its users actions but its users actions do affect its reputation.  It could implement a simple solution like word filters in the adult category to reduce the problem.

[Kristijntje]

A related article:

The eight women visited Long Island this summer along with vacationing families and other business travelers, staying in hotels and motels in commercial strips in middle-class suburbs like East Garden City, Hicksville and Woodbury. Their ages ranged from 20 to 32...

All eight were arrested on prostitution charges here, snared in a new sting operation by the Nassau County police that focuses on Craigslist.org, the ubiquitous Web site best known for its employment and for-sale advertisements but which law enforcement officials say is increasingly also used to trade sex for money.

Nassau County has made more than 70 arrests since it began focusing on Craigslist last year, one of numerous crackdowns by vice squads from Hawaii to New Hampshire that have lately been monitoring the Web site closely...

full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/05/nyregi....html?_r=1&oref=slogin