Will Craigslist's 'Adult Services' Section Remain Closed?

CANVAS STAFF REPORTS - Craigslist - the popular online bulletin board - has apparently closed the adult services section on its website after pressure from law enforcement officials who claimed that the site had become a market for prostitution and sex trafficking rings.

CNN reported the link to the adult services ads on Craigslist was replaced this weekend with a black bar marked  ’censored’.

The move by Craigslist came after 17 state attorneys general sent a letter to the company last month urging the website to shut down the section because it could not block illegal ads promoting prostitution and child trafficking.

They accused the site of profiting from the "suffering of the women and children who continue to be victimized by Craigslist".

The sex ads are big business for Craigslist, which pulled in $45 million revenue from its sex ads last year, accounting for a third of its total profits, according to the web advertising monitors AIM group .

So far Craigslist is mum on whether the change is permanent.

The website’s chief executive, Jim Buckmaster, recently wrote on his blog that the website "is committed to being socially responsible, and when it comes to adult services ads, that includes aggressively combating violent crime and human rights violations.’

CNN said the controversial section has exposed Craigslist to several damaging scandals , most notoriously the slaying last year of Julissa Brisman, a 25-year-old New York masseuse from New York who had been lured to a Boston hotel and murdered.

Her alleged killer - medical student Philip Markoff ’  had arranged to meet her after responding to an ad she had posted on the website.

The Boston Globe said Markoff ’ dubbed in the media as the "Craigslist killer" ’ committed suicide  in his Boston jail cell last month while awaiting trial.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has applauded the move, but warned that she is unsure whether it means the website has shutdown the section for good.

’What today’s action means, I think, remains to be seen,’ Coakley told the Boston Globe .