from www.thehill.com – Lawmakers blasted Craigslist at a hearing Wednesday on domestic sex trafficking, arguing that the site, and more generally the Internet, have exacerbated the problem of child prostitution.

“Websites escape liability when an ad on their site results in [a child’s] rape, prostitution and even death,” said Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif., pictured), a witness at the House Judiciary Crime Subcommittee hearing.

Lawmakers are poised to question William Clinton Power, Craigslist’s customer service and law enforcement relations director, in the second portion of the hearing, marking the first time Craigslist has spoken out since choosing to remove its adult services section this month. Craigslist labeled the decision the result of “censorship” at the time.

Speier has been a vocal critic of Craigslist for failing to banish illegal ads from its site. She noted that she has spoken to Craigslist’s chief executive on the issue, and said the company is a proper target for criticism because it receives so much more traffic than other ad boards, making it the “gorilla” of the debate.

“Thinly disguised ads for sex on Craigslist receive three times” the clicks as ads on other sites, she said, citing estimates that “on Craigslist alone there are more than 3.2 billion posts on the adult services section a year.”

Before Craigslist, people seeking child prostitution faced public stigma and “had to come out of their homes” to accomplish the crime, according to Speier.

“Now perpetrators have a child at their doorstep at the click of a button,” she said, noting that a person trafficking four children could make $600,000 on the crime.

Another witness, Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas), raised the issue of online child pornography, saying it increases the demand for child prostitution. He said technological measures could help limit the material, pointing to digital tagging and community flagging.

“The Internet has opened up a whole new front in the war on trafficking,” he said.

Craigslist had come under pressure from attorneys general and lawmakers to get rid of its adult services section.

The company caused a stir this month when it complied, but set off a wave of questions from public officials and human rights advocates in how it chose to do so: Craigslist posted the word “censored” over the adult services section and refused to explain whether it had made a permanent policy shift. The “censored” label is now removed.

Human-rights advocates welcomed the change but said Craigslist should do the same for its international ad boards.

“I hope we will hear from Craigslist that they will be shutting down the erotic pages [overseas],” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), another Craigslist critic and hearing witness.

Craigslist defenders say there is little the site can do to completely banish illegal ads. They say those ads will migrate to other sections of Craigslist or the Internet at large.

Penalizing Craigslist fails to take into account the nature of free speech online and the difficulty websites would have with adequately policing content on their sites, these critics argue. Craigslist has said it is eager to work with law enforcement to limit crime on its site.

Speier dismissed that argument at the hearing. “Let the company not forget they control the ads on their site,” she said.

Speier and Maloney also panned domestic efforts at to help victims, and touted Maloney’s bill to provide more funding.

“Many believe sex trafficking is only a problem in foreign countries,” said Maloney, who cited experts as estimating that a minimum of 100,000 children in the U.S. are trafficked each year.

She said reports have found the U.S. spends more on sex trafficking overseas than domestically.