Last May, there was a crack down on the largest online prostitution site in the country, ‘Night War’ with 700,000 subscribers and prostitution ads soliciting for 2,600 brothels. Although the so-called ‘e-prostitution brothels’ or online prostitution sites are growing, it is difficult to properly report or regulate online pimping with measures to close down websites mostly focusing on ‘obscene materials’ as pointed out during the last parliamentary inspection of state administration.
According to the data received from the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) by Song Hee-kyung, member of the Science, ICT, Broadcasting, and Communications Committee of the National Assembly, the total number of correction requests for information on prostitution came to 20,901 cases in total from 2017 through August 2019; of which 1,577 cases were requests made in 2017 and 11,500 cases in 2018, indicating an increase of 7.3 times over just one year. During the same time period, the total number of cases of blocked access were 6,922, with ▲ 973 cases in 2017, ▲ 3,469 cases in 2018, and ▲ 2,480 cases in 2019 (as of the end of August).
Table. Requests for correction of online prostitution information in the last 3 years (original source: KCSC)
Classification | 2017 | 2018 | August 2019 | Total |
Total number of correction requests | 1,577 | 11,500 | 7,824 | 20,901 |
Blocked access | 973 | 3,469 | 2,480 | 6,922 |
Terminated service | 351 | 2,001 | 1,900 | 4,252 |
Deleted | 229 | 5,986 | 3,415 | 9,630 |
Miscellaneous | 24 | 44 | 29 | 97 |
Domestic server based websites can be terminated and deleted but websites with overseas servers can only be blocked for access, not permanently deleted. Song Hee-kyung emphasized the need for “the government to actively find ways to strengthen monitoring of online prostitution sites, as well as to block access, delete and close down information on online prostitution and thus find a way to eradicate prostitution once and for all.”
Sources
Park, Hee-youn. Song Hee-kyung requests correction for “online prostitution sites increasing by 7.3 fold in one year.” Sisa Magazine (Oct. 4, 2019)
Kim, Moon-ki. [State Administration Inspection 2019] Online prostitution sites requests for correction increase 7.3 fold. inews24 (Oct. 4, 2019)
* The article which is written in Korean is attached in this post as a PDF file
** Translation by Yonjoo Hong.
