Overwhelming student loans and escalating medical bills have sent a 21-year-old Calgary student to the underground Internet sex trade to make ends meet.
But she is not alone.
With simple S-E-X keystrokes, men can access hundreds of Calgary women selling various sexual indulgences through Craigslist’s “erotic services” category, but “Eve” insists she doesn’t sell intercourse.
“I provide pictures and videos at their request in exchange for money. What I’m doing is no different than being in a Playboy, just with fewer viewers,” she insists. But perhaps more alarming is why she is doing it in the first place.
Eve said she was diagnosed with cancer last year and began taking unapproved medication, pushing her to a $50,000 debt.
“In reality, I need more than that to break even. That’s my reason for doing this,” she said, adding she also works full time for $13 an hour and attends school full time.
Another young woman, “Jane,” 19, posts online “sugar daddy” Craigslist ads to overcome her $40,000 debt, but she admits to meeting the usually married men in person.
Craigslist has been under scrutiny for its erotic ads, and the highly publicized “Craigslist killer” case, in which a man is accused of murdering a New York masseuse and attacking two other escorts who posted ads on the site.
Editor’s note: Names of the women have been changed.
