By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Nearly 4 percent of teenagers have had sexual experiences and about 15 percent of them have made their partner pregnant or have become pregnant, a ministry report said Monday.
According to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, 544 out of 14,716 middle and high school students nationwide, or 3.7 percent, have had sexual intercourse. About 15 percent of them were involved in pregnancy, showing that sex education or campaigns aren't as effective as they should be.
About 8.6 percent of respondents said they had no problem with selling sex to adults.
Internet chatting rooms were turning into brothels. About 5.3 percent said they were offered opportunities to participate in the sex trade, mainly in online chat rooms, and brokers were sometimes involved. Teenagers also sometimes made lewd calls to illegal ``talking clubs'' but the Internet was the main attraction, the ministry said.
Experts have been criticizing the government for not making sufficient efforts to prevent such sexual activity.
An elementary school teacher in southern Seoul said even elementary school students know about sexual intercourse from various media outlets and elsewhere. ``It's just adults who want to believe that the young know nothing,'' she said.
The ministry has set up a series of measures to deal with teenage sex and related crimes. It has made sex education video material according to students' ages to be provided to all schools within a year.
Those who seek teenagers online for prostitution will be severely punished, while ``rehabilitation'' programs consisting of medical treatment, psychological therapy and education regarding prostitution and designing future plans will be prepared for the victims of the trade.