Websites like Craigslist have been vilified in recent weeks for their perceived role in promoting the commission of certain sex crimes, particularly prostitution. The Craigslist site has agreed to remove its 'erotic services' category, which was primarily used for call girls to advertise their services and drum up business. After several high-profile attacks on women who met men through the site, however, Craigslist has come under fire.
In addition to the selling of sexual services, which is an illegal criminal act in its various permutations under Chapter 796 of the Florida Statutes, Craigslist, various forums, and chat rooms sometimes serve as places for potential child sex offenders or sexual predators to meet underage victims. For example, an adult man may befriend a lonely teenager, eventually pushing the relationship to the sexual level and seeking in-person meetings. Earlier this month, a Georgia man was arrested for attempting to have sexual relations with a 14-year-old girl he met on a social media website, where emails and text messages could be exchanged through their cell phones.
Pinellas County law enforcement officials say that Manuel Willis, who is 43, drove to the area to meet the unidentified 14-year-old for sex on two occasions earlier this year. He was apprehended when he arrived again to have sex with her. Deputies were waiting to take Willis into custody. The girl's father had tipped of deputies after discovering the out-of-state charges on her cell phone bill and investigators had assumed the girl's online identity. Willis is being held in lieu of a $190,000 bail in the Pinellas County jail. He has been charged with multiple counts of traveling to meet a minor for sexual purposes (Florida Statute 847.0135(4)), lewd and lascivious battery on a minor (Florida Statute 800.04(4)), lewd and lascivious molestation (Florida Statute 800.04(5)), and prohibited use of a computer (Florida Statute 847.0135(3)). Ignorance of the age of the child, who must be under the age of 16, is not a defense to either lewd and lascivious battery on a minor, nor to lewd and lascivious molestation.
