Perhaps the recent use of its site to crackdown on the sex trade should be an eye-opener for CraigsList that flagging and education alone aren’t enough to maintain the “very highest moral high ground.”

That’s how CEO Jim Buckmaster described his Web site in response to a lawsuit that said racist postings for roommates and apartments are routinely allowed. He praised its system for reporting bad posts as the answer to the problem:

Discriminatory postings are exceedingly uncommon, and those few that do reach the site are typically removed quickly by our users through the flagging system that accompanies each ad.

But something in that flagging system isn’t working perfectly if Seattle police can post ads that catch prostitutes and ensnare Johns.

And I don’t think the problem will be solved if CraigsList just creates another “education” page, this one explaining to users that prostitution is wrong.

eBay has an entire staff dedicated to tracking down corruption. Wikipedia has volunteers fixing errors. I just think CraigsList should be trying harder instead of using the law as an excuse to rest on its laurels and do nothing more.