Women’s groups yesterday said an increasing number of advertisements are appearing online to lure young women into the sex industry by promising them lucrative salaries.
With the arrival of the summer vacation, many online ads have begun to appear that are seeking to lure young women into prostitution by promising them high salaries and easy work with several days off.
Some of the ads say that workers will receive payment on the day of the transaction, which may be appealing to those who are in a hurry to earn money.
“Search results related to the sex industry have doubled from 10 million to 20 million from 2008 to 2009,” said Lee Li-fen (李麗芬), Taiwan’s secretary-general of the International Campaign to End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism, adding that most appeared in online chat rooms that have become vital tool in the recruitment of new workers to the sex industry.
Lee said this showed that there is a lack of regulations protecting young women from falling victim to unscrupulous prostitution rings.
Garden of Hope Foundation executive director Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容) said that every year about 200 young women enter the sex industry in Taiwan, with more than 100,000 girls between the ages of 15 and 18 having to find employment because of financial pressure.
Despite the fact that many women fall into traps set in online chat rooms, the government has not made any efforts to curb such practices, activists say.
The online chat rooms do not place limits on age or membership status, which means that brothel operators and pimps can target anyone who visits the chat rooms, Chi said.
The women’s groups called on the government to curb the practice by implementing online certification systems that require the user to enter his or her real name and age.
In the event that young women are tricked into becoming sex workers, it would then be possible to track down the person behind the crime, they said.
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
Taiwan is to extend its visa-waiver program for Philippine passport holders for another year, starting on Aug. 1, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said on Friday. Lin made the announcement during a reception in Taipei marking the 127th anniversary of Philippine independence and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The decision reflected Taiwan’s commitment to deepening exchanges with the Philippines, the statement cited Lin as saying, adding that it was a key partner under the New Southbound Policy launched in 2016. Lin also expressed hope
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Temperatures in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) climbed past 37°C yesterday, as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued heat alerts for 16 municipalities, warning the public of intense heat expected across Taiwan. The hottest location in Taiwan was in Sindian, where the mercury reached 37.5°C at about 2pm, according to CWA data. Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) recorded a temperature of 37.4°C at noon, Taitung County’s Jinfeng Township (金峰) at 12:50 pm logged a temperature of 37.4°C and Miaoli County’s Toufen Township (頭份) reached 36.7°C at 11:40am, the CWA said. The weather agency yesterday issued a yellow level information notice for Taipei, New
RSS