prostitution

This is dedicated to all those of youthful vigor and adventurous spirit.

I wish to warn you of amusements that will, apparently, exist in 2050. For, by then, all prostitutes will be robots.

I know there will be some who have craved this notion since the first time they failed to charm a girl at high school. However, this prediction -- made by scientists at New Zealand's Victoria University -- offers that one of the greatest benefits of a prostibot is, well, cleanliness. … Read more

We live in a world of free expression. It's just that sometimes we pay a large price for it.

I give you--for she is now free to express herself however she wants--Melissa Petro.

Petro was an elementary school teacher in the Bronx. She taught art. And it just so happened she used to be paid for performance art. Yes, Petro used to be a stripper and a prostitute.

You can imagine that, when her school found out, it wasn't overcome with pleasure. Indeed, it suspended her, which, according to CBS New York, drove her to a resigned state. … Read more

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

Kyocera sees double

Facebook is replacing Craigslist for prostitute recruitment and matchmaking

Fixed Sandy Bridge chipsets will ship in mid-February

Win $10,000 in this Internet video safety contest

White House proposes new copying rules

Facebook firing case will settle

When Craigslist withdrew from the adult services business last year, some wondered whether the prostitution business would be driven to less obvious and, perhaps, more dangerous places.

However, a Columbia University professor is suggesting that the business might have gravitated to somewhere even more obvious: Facebook.

Sociology professor Sudhir Venkatesh published the results of his work among New York prostitutes on Wired. And it makes for a stimulating insight into how technology is influencing the prostitution business.

Technology seems to have made men's behavior suddenly sophisticated.

"No self-respecting cosmopolitan man looking for an evening of companionship is going … Read more

Facing concerns that it's facilitating child prostitution, a representative of personals listing site Craigslist confirmed in remarks prepared for a congressional hearing Wednesday that it will not be reopening the "adult services" section that it shut down earlier this month after pressure from lawmakers.

William Clint Powell, Craigslist's director of customer service and law enforcement relations, said in the hearing, held by the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, that going after Craigslist would do little good and that "those who formerly posted adult services ads on Craigslist will now … Read more

A hundred organizations fighting sex trafficking have joined the chorus of voices asking Craigslist to remove its erotic services section worldwide as the company has in the U.S.

In a letter sent Tuesday (PDF) to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark, human rights groups throughout the world thanked the company for bringing down its adult and erotic ads in the U.S. But the groups said that these services, where trafficked children and women are sold for sex, remain open in 250 cities worldwide. And in not making the same improvements globally, the groups told Craigslist that … Read more

The strangest massage I ever had consisted of the spa masseuse waving her hands all over my body, supposedly sending positive energy its way, without ever touching it.

Some are speculating that Craigslist, having removed its Adult Services section without explanation, is performing a similar sort of energy transfer.

Craigslist has remained entirely tight-lipped about the insertion of the word "CENSORED" where its Adult Services used to be. Yet some wonder whether Craigslist might be trying to prove that closing the section will merely encourage those who place ads for prostitution to use another of Craigslist's sections- … Read more

Some who are at a loose end will find it odd to wake up to a Labor Day weekend and discover that the Adult Section on Craigslist has been removed and that the link to it on the site's home page has been replaced with a black bar reading "censored."

Craigslist has long been the whipping boy for attorneys general seeking to control prostitution within their purview and perhaps also seeking to win the favor of certain members of their constituencies.

However, why the section should suddenly have been removed in such a dramatic way (the censorship … Read more

Craigslist's adult services section is under fire once again.

Attorneys general from 17 states sent a joint letter (PDF) on Tuesday that asks the site to immediately remove the section because it promotes prostitution and child trafficking.

In the letter to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark, the attorneys general state that ads for both adult and child prostitutes are "rampant" on the site. And because Craigslist cannot or will not adequately screen these ads, the attorneys general said, the section should be taken down.

Asserting that women and children are being exploited by the … Read more