By Lee Hyo-sik

More than a dozen male high school and university students have been caught by police for operating multiple online community sites brokering sexual encounters between younger men and older women.

The Seoul Gangdong Police Station said Tuesday a 17-year-old high school student in Busan, indentified by his surname Oh, and 13 other males were booked without physical detention on charges of violating the law banning prostitution and sex trafficking. Of the 14, seven were high school students and the rest of them were university students and salaried workers in their early 30s.

Police also shut down 120 community cafes on Daum, Naver and other local web portals, which introduced teenage boys to older women seeking to have sex with minors.

According to police, Oh and other individuals had opened online community sites since March and recruited members among adult women. They then brokered sexual encounters between adult females in their 20s, 30s and 40s and young men, mostly high-school and university students. Also, salaried workers in their 20s were among those looking to earn money by sleeping with older women.

Oh and others were found to have gotten an idea from a recent cable TV program in which an older woman paid a young man to live together with her. The woman treated him like a pet, making him take care of household chores and her “needs.”

Among community cafes they operated, one site had a membership of 550 adult females. About 844 messages were posted on its bulletin board by either women seeking to have sex with younger men or younger men looking to find mature women.

A police officer said normally, older men seek to have sexual relations with teenage girls in cyberspace. “But these cafes cater to the sexual desires of older women. Adolescents also wanted to make easy money by sleeping with mature women. They contacted one another by leaving notes at cafes or by email. Some of the young men even received offers from gays,” the officer said.

He said the police immediately shut down all the sex service-brokering sites. “We will request a search warrant from the court to find out the identities of cafe members and check whether any sex took place.”



학생들, 온라인에서 성매매하다 덜미

복수의 온라인 커뮤니티 사이트를 운영하면서 남자 미성년자와 성인 여성간의 상관계를 알선해오던 고등학생과 대학생 10 여명이 경찰에 덜미가 잡혔다.

강동경찰서는 화요일 부산에 살고 있는 오모 (17) 고교생 등 총 14명이 불법 매춘과 성매매 혐의로 불구속 입건했다고 밝혔다. 이들 중 7명은 고등학생이였으며 나머지는 대학생과 30대 초반의 직장인이었다.

경찰은 남자 미성년자와 성인 여성을 연결해 주는 다음, 네이버 등 포탈에 있는 120개의 카페를 폐쇄시켰다. 경찰에 따르면 오군 등은 지난 3월부터 사이트를 운영해 왔으며 성인여성 멤버들을 모집해 왔다. 이들이 연결해준 사람들은 대부분이 남고생이거나 대학생과 20대, 30대, 40대 성인여성이다. 또한 돈을 목적으로 한 20대 직장인들로 들어 있다.