A federal lawsuit was filed against Craigslist today. Cooks County (Illinois) Sheriff Tom Dart is claiming that the hugely popular online classifieds site promotes and facilitates prostitution on a massive scale.

He is looking to get the site to eliminate it’s “erotic services” section, claiming that the sections ads are blatant solicitations for prostitution.

“Missing children, runaways, abused women and women trafficked in from foreign countries are routinely forced to have sex with strangers because they’re being pimped on Craigslist,” Dart said.”

The San Francisco based company did not return e-mail and telephone messages seeking comment.

The company allows users to post classified ad’s and generally does not check erotic postings or remove them until somebody complains. Federal law offers grant immunity to service providers for the content that is posted by users, as long as the company responds to specific complaints.

The lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Chicago follows repeated requests for Craigslist to shut down their “Erotic Services” section.

The “Erotic Services” section of Craigslist has made nationwide news resulting from numerous prostitution arrests in the past few months.

“Federal prosecutors charged a New York man in November with being a violent pimp who forced young girls and women into prostitution, alleging he advertised the services of women between the ages of 15 and 20. And in January, two Wisconsin women were charged with misdemeanor prostitution after allegedly offering sex for money in Craigslist ads.”

Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist’s CEO, said at the time that the agreement would allow legitimate escort services to continue advertising, while discouraging illegal activity by requiring anyone posting “erotic services” ads to provide a working phone number and pay a fee with a valid credit card.

Craigslist also agreed to provide that information to law enforcement if subpoenaed.

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