Hasta La Gadget!

With all of this crackdown on Craigslist’s erotic services, what’s a poor sex worker to do when it comes to plying their trade? Why Facebook, of course. The popular social network has apparently surpassed the jobs board, when it comes to soliciting prostitution online.

According to a new study of New York hookers, some 83 percent of prostitutes have a Facebook page. Something around 25 percent of their clientele now comes through that site, versus three percent through Craiglist. In 2003, prostitutes weren’t really using the nascent Facebook. Nine percent were using Craigslist, however.

Says sociology professor Sudhir Venkatesh,

Even before the crackdown on [Craigslist’s] adult-services section, sex workers were turning to Facebook: 83 per cent have a Facebook page, and I estimate that by the end of 2011, Facebook will be the leading on-line recruitment space.

Also of interest–70 percent of prostitutes who own a smartphone carry a BlackBerry. Only 11 percent have an iPhone.Steve Jobs is no doubt smiling at those numbers.