By Lee Hyo-sik
Men used to go to brothels in red-light districts to pay for sex. But this is not the case anymore. Massage parlors, “kiss bang,” and other “hybrid” sex shops are everywhere, providing a wide range of differentiated sex services.
Business is flourishing, replacing decades-old brothels that have faced harsher government crackdowns over the past few years.
According to the data submitted by the National Police Agency to Rep. Yoo Jeong-bok of the Grand National Party (GNP), Wednesday, the police exposed a total of 382 “non-traditional” prostitution businesses in the first eight months of the year, up sharply from 30 in 2010. The number of sex workers caught jumped to 637 from 103.
Of the 382, “Kiss bang” where male customers pay money to kiss female workers and receive “other services” came to 296, followed by “room cafes” where mostly adolescents go to drink and have sex in a confined space at 32 sites.
From January to August, police also cracked down on 30 host bars where male workers serve female customers and 24 “glass bang” where men watch women make suggestive poses behind a glass door.
Rep. Yoo also said the number of Internet sites brokering prostitution online have increased over the years.
The police were informed of 3,149 such websites from January to July this year, compared with 3,411 in 2010 and 1,827 in 2009.
For instance, dozens of the so-called “sponsor cafes,” in which women search for men to support them financially in exchange for sex, have been exposed in recent months.
In contrast, the number of brothels in red-light districts across the country declined to 760 in 2010 from 845 in 2009 and 935 in 2008.
The number of prostitutes also dropped to 1,669 in 2010 from 1,867 in 2009 and 2,282 in 2008.
“Brothels have been facing harsh government crackdowns since the Anti-Prostitution Law went into effect in 2004. So, sex businesses went underground, providing a range of different services to attract sex buyers,” the GNP lawmaker said.
Rep. Yoo also said the Internet has become a hotbed for prostitution. “It is harder for the police to clamp down on prostitution online than offline. Law enforcement authorities should come out with a fresh set of measures to counter the rapidly evolving illegal sex trade.”