Monday, April 20, 2009

Craigslist

So we had the class about Professor Peterson here on campus. His case may have been related to Craigslist. It is interesting that the story could have been connected to the website. In the last week or so I have heard two stories involving Craigslist. The most recent was the case of a 22-year-old pre-med student who solicited sex on Craigslist and killed the girl, a model, that he contacted. The ethics here is whether Craigslist is responsible? The site is designed to sell things or barter items. It has turned into a place to solicited sex, drugs and possibly illegal things. The site has begun to receive negative feed back. I don't think Craigslist is responsible, but I think they should revise their policy and website to avoid being associated with not so bright acts.

6 comments:

  1. I was watching this story on the Today show this morning and a criminal teacher at a Boston College said back before the interent people would do this same thing, just with the classified ads in the newspaper. Now, because of the internet, it is "a new playground" for these types of people and a lot easier to access.
    I agree with Adam that CraigsList shouldn't be to blame for this sick man who did these things, but at the same time I think they should review their policies and know what exactly is being sold on their website.
    This story is heartbreaking because it seems like this kid had a lot of potential, and his poor family and fiance!
    I think this is a good lesson to all of us of how careful we have to be when it comes to the internet. You can't ever be too careful.

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  2. I have thought about this for a long time, but never really thought about it as such a bad thing. Until I read about what Adam wrote about the med student killing the girl, but at the same time we are in 2009 and if a girl chooses to go hook up with a guy based off a craigslist post, then she should be ready for what consequences may come her way. Thats dumb on her part to do something like that anayway! Any internet hook up is bound for trouble, lets get real, are we going to stop all internet dating services as well? Also another point on craigslist is they also solicit prostitution as well, it may not come right out and say it, but many prostitutes use craigslist to get clients. The new age,year 2009 PIMP.....Craigslist! There is no stopping the internet these days, you can do anything.

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  3. Any communication tool can be used for ill -- the tool is not the problem, it's the users. Governance -- how to regulate user behavior -- is the real problem, whether you're talking about CraigsList, e-Bay, Wikipedia or any other popular public site.

    Akahele is one site attempting to deal with this. I've added this link to our Class Resources sidebar: http://akahele.org/2009/02/akahele_your_watchdog.

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  4. Like most everything else, now Craigslist too, needs a permission slip and a disclaimer. I don't think that Craigslist should be held responsible, where is the human accountability here? And I think if we start to govern sites like Craigslist or Facebook, it really interferes with the notion of the web as an open forum. It's tragic this had to happen, but COME ON PEOPLE get real! Craigslist for sex, probably not the brightest idea.

    P.S. Maybe this is just natural selection in process?

    P.S.S. TOTALLY KIDDING!

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  5. Lonely 22-year male seeking male companionship. Oh, wait, this isn't Craig's List...

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  6. I echo with many of the comments that Craigslist is not responsible. Some unfortunate things have happened there, but how is it their fault? It is basically impossible to require any regulations for it. Craiglist is a network for online communities, no one is in control of that. The communities will use it how the like, that is not always positive.

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