By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Police have arrested a group of men who had sex with male adolescent prostitutes. The Incheon Yeonsu Police Station said Wednesday that it had detained four males in their 40s through 60s for buying sex from teenage male students.
Police also summoned the five prostitutes involved to question them over the money-for-sex deals.
The accused met the teenagers through Internet chat rooms, police said. Among the five were an 18-year-old high school student and a 19-year-old university theological student. According to police, one of the accused paid 60,000 won ($ 60) for sex.
``The number of young male prostitutes is on the increase,'' Lee Yung-hyeock, an assistant professor of criminal justice studies at Korea National Police University, told The Korea Times. ``The disclosed number of those with sexual preferences toward the same-sex is the tip of iceberg. The majority of those are still hidden.''
Lee stressed that pornography showing homosexual love could affect a teenager's sexual identity. ``Teenagers exposed to such a film constantly could face changes in their sexual preferences,'' the psychologist said. He said psychological treatment and medicinal therapy should be used to normalize their abnormal sexual appetite.
A UN report issued in March predicted the number of AIDS-infected Asians would reach eight million by 2020 through homosexual contact. Currently, there are approximately five million AIDS patients in Asia.