Early this month, the social networking Web site itspimpin For years, Mr. Surrell, 34, had profited by taking a portion of the earnings of his roster of women prostitutes. Then, like many Internet entrepreneurs, Mr. Surrell decided to capitalize on an expanding online community. On his Web site, which referred visitors to Mr. They will have to go somewhere else now, because Mr. But it appears that there are more places than ever for them to go. The online sex trade is flourishing despite nationwide campaigns and pressure from government leaders.
Two years after public and legal pressure prompted Craigslist. Law enforcement officials in the Bay Area said other Web sites had emerged with suspected sex-for-pay advertisements. The sites display ads for sex services, and they also serve as online communities where customers, pimps and prostitutes can arrange business deals, share police sightings and swap tips. Law enforcement officials said the online trade has, in some ways, made sex trafficking and solicitation easier, while giving the police new insight into a historically hidden, underground culture.
Law enforcement officials said the most popular sites for listing sex-related services in the Bay Area include the social media and review Web site myredbook. Other sites offer additional features, from lovings. On myredbook. The good thing about that is we have a place to look. We just provide a forum. Earlier this month, the San Francisco Police Department received a report that a suspected pimp had kidnapped a young woman at 10th Street and Mission.
With a description and photograph in hand, investigators with the special victims unit searched on myredbook. After finding her profile, a detective contacted the listed cellphone number and arranged to meet with her at a nearby motel, where officers took her into custody. Late last year, the police in South San Francisco arrested a couple after finding them and two year-old girls, including one runaway, in their motel room.
Mahendar Singh, 40, told the authorities that the girls were his stepdaughters, but the police found their profiles on myredbook. In January, Mr. Singh pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiring to commit sex trafficking. Challenging the sites legally has proven difficult. Legal experts said the Web sites are protected by the Communications Decency Act of , which states that Web site owners are exempt from responsibility for the content of their users.
