By Kim Rahn
Ashley Madison, a dating website for married people, is open to minors and cab be used to support sex trade, a lawmaker claims.
Rep. Bae Duk-kwang of the ruling Saenuri Party said Thursday that the Korean version of the Canada-based dating service allowed minors to register.
“As the service aims to arrange extramarital affairs, minors should be denied,” Bae said during the parliamentary audit.“But the site does not have a process to prove the member’s age. This is in violation of the law on youth protection.”
The website also did not have any warning that it could be harmful to young people, even though the site contained photos of genitals, he noted.
“Ashley Madison is based in Canada, so the Korean government cannot designate the website as ‘content harmful to youth.’ This is a problem,” Bae said.
Female members often demand money for dating, meaning the sex trade was involved, according to the lawmaker.
Bae earlier submitted a revision bill of the law on info-communications to block websites that encouraged the sex trade.
Ashley Madison began its service in Korea last year, but the Korea Communications Commission blocked the website, saying it encouraged adultery. But the website reopened in March after the nation’s anti-adultery law was abolished in February.
About 190,000 Koreans are believed to be members.