Mobile apps lure underage girls into prostitution
Runaway female minors in search of money and housing may end up in brothels and prostitution establishments.
By Isaac Kim
Brothels offer prostitution work to minors on their mobile applications (apps) regardless of their age, reported Donga Ilbo on Aug. 5. Underage girls can apply for these jobs by uploading brief resumes. However, there are no measures to verify the applicant’s age.
These apps lure runaway girls by offering lucrative pay and entrap them in prostitution establishments. Out of 24 apps available on the Android Market, nine had no age verification systems.
The brothels exploit the runaway girls’ desperation for money and housing to employ the minors in prostitution. They advertise promising offers such as “free housing, inexperienced newcomers welcome,” “guaranteed seven million won just by showing up for work”, and many other enticing propositions.
Some brothels blatantly neglect age all together, saying, “minors are welcome (for employment).”
“Having sexual affairs with a client in a hotel will get you 200,000 won,” one Gangnam brothel said. “You don’t need identification, so come by for an interview.”
Another brothel in Daejeon said, “Minors can’t work during day hours, but they can work during night shifts.”
There are some that offer jobs abroad, saying the standards for legal age are different from Korea.
“Employing an 18-year-old is impossible in Korea, but the prostitution age in Japan is 18,” a certain room salon in Gangnam lied. “You can stay there on a travel visa for three months and earn at least 20 million won a month.”
The legal adult age in Japan is actually 20. Even if abroad, Korean law would still apply to the Korean citizens.
Advertising prostitution jobs online to adults is punishable by three years in jail or a 30 million won penalty. Advertising to minors fetches seven-year imprisonments.