Jim Buckmaster, CEO of Craigslist, calls the sheriff's charges "baseless" and says that the company works hard to for prostitution.

"The Erotic Services category was added at the request of our users who were seeing ads for escort services and massage parlors and they wanted them placed under a single category under a warning screen," Buckmaster told Computerworld. "It's intended only for legal businesses to post and anything illegal is not wanted there and is removed by staff."

He added that Craigslist has no plans to remove the Erotic Services category from the Web site.

While some of the ads in that category include nude photos and list hourly rates, Buckmaster said they are not necessarily advertising illegal services. "There's nothing illegal about charging by the hour," he said. "I would encourage you to do some research on what constitutes an ad soliciting sex in exchange for money."

Assistant said there's a very good chance that Craigslist is under some pressure right now to better police or even get rid of its Erotic Services category.