A new study released by the Urban Institute investigating the underground commercial sex industry in eight major U.S. cities, cites MySpace as an increasingly popular social website used to solicit sex. MySpace has gained popularity with pimps, prostitutes, and johns partly due to the ease of masking illegal activities. And for pimps, geographic expansion is a real bonus. That’s even sadder than MySpace Tom’s Facebook page. The NY Daily News reports:
The study, using interviews from pimps, traffickers, sex workers, child pornographers, and law enforcement, focuses on the cities of Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, Miami, Seattle, San Diego, and Washington, D.C.
But the scenarios described by those involved aren’t entirely confined by these geographical borders. On Myspace, for instance, it’s described as a whole different playing field, with one pimp once allegedly starting a kind of turf war between the others.
“Once he was on the Internet, Myspace was big, maybe 20-30 guys [other pimps] he was talking to … He’d make someone think they’re friends, then he’d try and get their girls. [He was a] mass manipulator,” the pimp said.
According to the sex workers interviewed, Myspace — once the most visited social networking site in the world — today joins the ranks of Craigslist, Backpage.com, Adam4Ada.com, Eros.com, AdultSearch.com, TheEroticReview.com, and Cityvibe.com for soliciting clients.
There is almost nothing is funnier to me than the idea of pimps involved in MySpace turf wars. All I can picture is flamboyantly dressed pimps wearing boas, velvet coats, oversized sunglasses and hats with feathers in them furiously rearranging their Top 8 and leaving passive aggressive, glittery GIF comments.