A Few Questions for Belle de Jour, Call Girl and Scientist

November 20, 2009, 1:30 pm
By RYAN HAGEN
In 2003, a young American woman in London studying for her PhD. ran into money trouble. To support herself while writing her thesis, she joined an escort service. Under the assumed name Belle de Jour, she started to blog her experiences. That blog led to a series of successful, [...]

Internet fuels virtual subculture for sex trade, study finds

Published: Oct. 21, 2009 E-mail Editor
EAST LANSING, Mich. — The Internet has spawned a virtual subculture of “johns” who share information electronically about prostitution, potentially making them harder to catch, according to a new study co-authored by a Michigan State University criminologist.
The research by MSU’s Thomas Holt and Kristie Blevins of the University of North [...]

Chicago: Cook County Sheriff Loses Craigslist “Erotic Services” Ads Case

October 21st, 2009
Legal Analysis by Matt Zimmerman
Yesterday, a federal court tossed a lawsuit against craigslist over erotic advertisements. In March, Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart alleged that craigslist was liable for the illegal ads posted by its users in its “erotic services” (now “adult services”) category. As craigslist argued in their motion for judgment on [...]

Older Stories: Sex, Lies, and Craigslist

by Ginny Mies on June 29, 2006
After a few days of correspondence via email, Abigail* determined that it was safe to go out on a date with Phil, a businessman who described himself on his Craigslist ad as having “worldly tastes and gentlemanly manners,” as a man who was looking for a woman to spoil [...]

Adult Entertainment Industry Aims To End Sex Records Law

Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009
The $13 billion adult entertainment industry, photographers, artists and others plan to sue the U.S. government today challenging what they argue are unconstitutional and overly broad revisions to federal record-keeping law that were implemented just before the Bush administration left office.
The final age-verification rules stem from changes Congress made to federal child [...]

UK: Press Release from Punternet

Press Release – 2nd October
——————————————————————————–
I have had a large number of queries from various news agencies over the past day, too many to write each one a personal reply, so I am posting this instead.
Regarding claims that PunterNet “degrades” and “exploits” women:
Most definitely not! As it says on the home page, “This web site [...]

Would closing down sites like Punter Net really make the sex industry safer?

Posted by Jerome Taylor
Wednesday, 30 September 2009 at 03:24 pm
Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman called on California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today to close down a website where people who visit prostitutes in the UK can rate their experiences.
Other than the slightly crass nature of the headline grabbing soundbytes that she used (“Surely it [...]

An open letter to Harriet Harman (Punternet’s response)

Dear Mrs. Harman,
I have a few points to make regarding your recent remarks regarding my website and your fantastic demand that the Governor of California close it down.
Firstly, PunterNet is not violating any laws. If it were, then surely the many websites catering to the US prostitution scene (where sex for pay is almost completely [...]

UK & CA: Harman call over prostitute website

Wednesday, 30 September 2009
pa.press.net
Labour Deputy Leader Harriet Harman has urged movie star-turned-politician Arnold Schwarzenneger to “terminate” a website which allows people to rate prostitutes.
She told the Labour Party Conference that PunterNet was based in California, where Schwarzenegger is governor, but contained “pages and pages of women for sale in London”.
The “sinister” website [...]

Does policing Craigslist actually threaten safety?

September 28, 2009 1:30 PM
Editors’ Note: Guest bloggers Andrea Ritchie and Jarad Ringer are two of New York City’s foremost experts on violence against sex workers. Ms. Ritchie is the Director of the Sex Workers Project at Urban Justice Center. Mr. Ringer is the Coordinator of the Hate Violence and Police Relations Program at the [...]