Coupang, Auction hit for selling Pornhub-printed apparel

An auction for a hoodie with “Pornhub” printed on it / Screencapture from Auction

By Kim Jae-heun

Local e-commerce firms such as Coupang, Gmarket and Auction are embroiled in controversy for selling clothing items with the names of pornographic websites printed on them. Customers can also purchase other goods with logos on them such as “Pornhub” and “XVideos,” regardless of their age.

Coupang has deleted its pornographic website-related items as of Monday, but “Pornhub Hoodie” and “Pornhub T-shirt” still bring results if users search for Pornhub.

Such items were available at Interpark and WeMakePrice until Monday after they too deleted them.

Despite the controversy, none of the market players are taking any serious action. E-commerce firms say ex-ante control would limit the freedom of their open market platforms.

“We cannot monitor and put restrictions on all the items that dealers sell on our platform. It is hard to do with such a limited number of workers,” a Coupang official said.

Currently, e-commerce firms are posting notifications on products with signs reading “this item contains sensational content that may harm the mental and physical health of children and adolescents.”

However, they do not take any sort of responsibility following the sales of such items as current laws only punish dealers for selling them.

Coupang, Auction, Gmarket, Interpark and WeMakePrice are taking measures through follow-up monitoring rather than prior screening. When they find items they believe to be inappropriate, they erase them from customers' screens and issue warnings to sellers habitually selling improper items.

However, this is not enough considering that 11Street and Ticket Monster are managing to screen out such offers in the early stages.

“We register automatic keywords for harmful terms and the screening team regularly monitors them. There can be differences between the results that individual companies show depending on how much energy they spend on eliminating false advertising and harmful posts,” an industry source said.

There is ambiguity regarding legal punishments, too.

Under the Special Act on Children and Youths, it does not apply to a case in which a child or a teenager is directly subjected to sexual exploitation.

“Tobacco, liquor, harmful products and harmful websites are clearly illegal according to the comprehensive notice of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, but other measures need to be determined by the Korea Communications Standards Commission. Selling items with the logos or names of pornographic websites is not under our control even if it is illegal,” a ministry official said.

The KCSC agrees that this is a problem but the case is too minor for it to take legal action against it.