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British Columbia's child-welfare services have identified five women between the ages of 15 and 17 who used Craigslist to work as prostitutes. "There's an argument that [Craigslist is] really sort of pimping," says University of British Columbia Associate Law Professor Janine Benedet. While prostitution is quasi-legal in Canada, "communicating for the purposes of prostitution" is flatly illegal, as is underage prostitution. So Craigslist ought to face penalties, say the Canadian cops and social workers, for providing a venue where teenagers can post photos, rates, and collect customers — or where pimps can do it for them.

The flipside of their argument: Craigslist is how an Oakland teenager forced to work as a prostitute was discovered — when her uncle saw her ad in Erotic Services. Not for Sale, an anti-trafficking organization based in San Francisco, prefers to have Craigslist around, and doesn't believe much would be gained from shuttering Erotic Services — or, as their co-founder says, "The illusion that shutting craigslist down would even put a dent in (the problem) is really a false illusion." For them, Craigslist is just another tool to monitor the sex trade.