Seoul Internet Citizen Monitoring Group 10 Years... Caught 500,000 Prostitution Advertisements.

9087 Citizens Voluntarily Participated, Monitoring a Total of 507,876 Harmful Information Cases
333 Administrative Actions, 202 Criminal Actions, Fines and Confiscations Amounting to 1.71838 Billion KRW

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The ‘Seoul Internet Citizen Monitoring Group,’ launched in 2011 to eradicate illegal sex industries, has seen the voluntary participation of 9,087 citizens over the past decade, who have detected 507,876 cases of illegal and harmful information such as prostitution advertisements on the internet, SNS, and smartphone applications (Apps).

According to Seoul City on the 4th, the monitoring group reported 422,299 cases of illegal and harmful information detected over 10 years to regulatory agencies, resulting in 360,000 cases being deleted, blocked from access, or terminated.

In particular, with increased online usage by citizens due to COVID-19 last year, the number of monitored cases reached 68,711. Among these, 61,892 cases were reported to regulatory agencies and online operators, leading to 40,295 cases being deleted, blocked from access, or terminated. This figure excludes 3,086 cases still being processed.

Seoul City utilized the monitored data to collect additional evidence and conduct on-site verification, reporting and prosecuting those involved in illegal sex industries. Over the past 10 years, this has resulted in 333 administrative actions and 202 criminal prosecutions. The fines and confiscations estimated from prosecutions amount to 1,718,380,000 KRW.

Last year, a significant outcome was achieved by punishing the operator of the largest prostitution recruitment advertisement site, the A-Alba site. The A-Alba site was prosecuted in 2017, and through seven trials over four years and a Supreme Court ruling, one operator was fined 5 million KRW. Another operator received a 10-month prison sentence with a 2-year probation, probation supervision, 120 hours of community service, and a confiscation of 1,266,000 KRW.

Based on these achievements, Seoul City is recruiting 1,000 citizens on a first-come, first-served basis by the 20th to participate as the 11th Internet Citizen Monitoring Group this year. Anyone aged 19 or older who resides in Seoul or attends a university or works in Seoul can participate. After completing online preliminary training, participants will engage in full-scale monitoring activities from March to December for 10 months.

This year, Seoul City plans to activate the fully revamped online ‘Anti-Prostitution Citizen Participation Platform’ launched last year, encouraging anyone to easily monitor and report prostitution inducement information in daily life. In particular, the reporting activities and operational model of the Internet Citizen Monitoring Group will be disseminated to various civic organizations to create opportunities for citizen groups themselves to practice and spread prostitution prevention activities in everyday life.

Song Da-young, Director of the Seoul City Women and Family Policy Office, said, “Thanks to the voluntary participation of citizens over the past 10 years, we have been able to quickly respond to the ever-evolving prostitution advertisement intermediations,” adding, “This year, we will actively promote the foundation, education, and publicity to enable more citizens to participate.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.