The popular online classified service Craigslist is a clearing house for all kinds of products from tools to tickets. Now, youth workers and police are sounding the alarm about something else that's for sale there -- teenagers selling their bodies online.

There has never been any shortage of sex for sale in Vancouver. But increasingly, it is the internet and often Craigslist where the pitch is made

Within in minutes of making a call to an ad on Craigslist, CTV was provided with an address.

While many of the ads claim the seller is of age, police say the reality is that many are minors.

The North Vancouver RCMP says it's investigating a sudden increase in school aged children selling sex on Craigslist.

Using public computers

"We do have some doing it on their own, in some cases we've been told about maybe a relationship that's been considered a boyfriend, girlfriend. Then it turns into now you are working for me, [and] you owe me money,'' said North Vancouver RCMP Const. Shannon Kitchen.

According to police, one girl has been using the public computers at the Parkgate Community Centre to sell sex.

She asks customers to pick up her at the Parkgate Community facility for quickies in cars.

The ad claims she is 18. The Mounties say the girl is actually 16.

Her last ad was posted on Friday.

Educate parents

Merlyn Horton of the Safe Online Outreach Society works to educate parents and kids about the internet.

"I think the North Vancouver case is coming to light now because it's so concentrated. They're seeing so many young people come from North Vancouver and trafficked by the same individuals on Craigslist,'' she said.

Craigslist in the United States has modified its practices in that they've dropped erotic services directly. It now offers "adult" service classified ads. To list those ads, you'll need a visa card number which would offer identification, and a ten dollar deposit.

But in B.C., it's easy to pretend you are an adult on Craigslist.

"A youth that wouldn't initially be standing on a kiddie stroll or in a trick pad, but they may end up connecting with someone on a social network because they don't think of it the same way as working in the sex trade," said youth advocate Diane Snowden.

Youth workers and police say that's why it's so critical that parents monitor not only who their children they are spending time with, but what they are doing online.

With a report by CTV British Columbia's Lisa Rossington