YNOT – A new classified ads wesbsite specializing in adult services has launched, hoping to attract those set adrift when the federal government and state attorneys general strong-armed popular shopping destination Craigslist.com into removing the category from its listings.
CraigsErotica.com describes itself as “a new international internet ad space for those offering professional companionship, premium websites and other adult entertainment-related services.”
Like its progenitor, CraigsErotica offers a bare-bones listing service for personal classified ads and adult business opportunities. Categories include legal services, premium websites and gentlemen’s clubs, along with an abundance of sub-categorized listing areas for escorts, models, photographers, employment and investment opportunities, and adult travel and tourism. Ads are aimed at both consumers and industry insiders.
Lucky Lieberman, who founded the site, makes no attempt to sound less than defiant when explaining his product’s rationale. He said CraigsErotica arose from a concern about what might happen should government be successful in censoring all adult entertainment advertising on the internet under the guise of cracking down on human trafficking.
When faced with accusations of human trafficking — particularly of minors — Craigslist voluntarily pulled all adult services ads in 2010. More recently, two high-profile legal cases filed last year in Washington State targeted Craigslist replacement Backpage.com with underage sex-trafficking claims. Since 2010, more than 20 U.S. states have called for Backpage and other classified advertising sites to remove all adult services ads or face legislation of age-verification and recordkeeping practices.
The federal government and federal courts have yet to weigh in on the issues in any substantial way.
“It is the goal of CraigsErotica.com to have the cooperation of the congressional[ly] mandated National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in order to stamp out all online exploitation of children in the adult companionship industry,” Lieberman said. “However, there is an adult companionship profession that exists because of the need for their services, and their demand is at an all-time high in America. I am calling for the federal government to do its duty by protecting all the constitutional rights of all consenting adults in America, according to our great Constitution.”
Lieberman said he will not allow CraigsErotica to be blackmailed by threats of reactionary legislation, because governments should not — and in the U.S., constitutionally cannot — mandate what sexual activities consenting adults embrace in private.
“With the cases [against] Craigslist and Backpage.com, some states have chosen the requests of religious groups and conservative factions in government over [the interests] of the general public in America,” Lieberman said. “It is no longer acceptable to most Americans to have religious organizations and political conservatives telling us how to live our private lives. CraigsErotica is intended to provide a forum to support the laws that give us all the freedoms to do as we see fit in finding personal enjoyment provided by like-minded adult Americans.”
