Ashton Kutcher is well known for using his Twitter to do good. Donating $100K to fight malaria and using his millions of followers to raise awareness for the cause, Kutcher earned a nomination from us for a Do Something Award. Now Kutcher has made us proud again by speaking out against sex trafficking and publicly demanding (via Twitter, of course) that Craigslist do much more to prevent underage girls from being sold on their site.

Yesterday afternoon, Ashton Kutcher tweeted at Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist.

• Kutcher suggested Newmark require people who used the adult services section of the site to enter credit card info. That way, Craiglist and the police would have access to some of their personal information. He suggested that user's names be made public. He said that if what users are doing is legal, they can do it publicly.
• Next, he suggested that if Craiglist put its profit toward a tech solution to solve the problem of child trafficking, the problem could be solved.
• Kutcher invited Newmark to the next DNA Foundation Trafficking Tech Task Force Meeting.
• And our favorite Tweet: "u may not have picked this issue but this issue picked u, now u have to be responsible 4 the actions of those using ur tool"

Kutcher also responded to other tweets at him from people who got in on the conversation. For example, "craigslist is not horrible the way people are using it is horrible."

Newmark thanked Kutcher for the suggestions. He Retweeted several comments that had the theme that stopping sex trafficking on Craiglist was only possible with the support of Craigslist users. For example:

• "you did not post those ads, the community did. responsibility of community to report, not yours! this story is lame!"
• "Just so you know, those of us in the web industry understand that user-generated content always relies on user to police"

Newmark expressed faith in his tech team to keep coming up with ways to stop trafficking but wouldn't discuss specific tactics so as not to tip off the "bad guys."

Finally:
Newmark Retweet: "Blaming @craignewmark for craigslist sex trafficking is like blaming Henry Ford for drunk driving fatalities. Dumb."
Kutcher response: "its like the auto industry and seat belts or the alcohol companies and drunk driving."

What can you do?

Learn more about Craigslist and sex trafficking.

• Take action against sex trafficking, especially of children. Work with the Minga Group for teens against sexual exploitation. We especially recommend their Action of the Month.
• The Polaris Project is great, too. They have lots of national and local projects to get involved with.
• And now that you know about this, make sure everyone in your community will know and help, too.