Police have arrested a teenage boy for the first time during the ongoing crackdown on compensated dating.

In total, 26 persons were arrested in a series of raid. Eight were underage teenagers aged 14 to 17.

Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, Superintendent Brian Anthony Lowcock said the police had carried out the third phase of "Operation Whalediver" on July 19, a crackdown on crime relating to compensated dating. They arrested 19 males and 7 females aged between 14 and 47.

One woman and two men, among the arrested, were charged with "control over persons for purposes of unlawful sexual intercourse or prostitution", "living on the earnings of prostitution of others" and criminal intimidation.

"We discovered that some underage people were engaged in compensated dating activities. Therefore, we have referred these cases to the Social Welfare Department (SWD) for follow up," said Lowcock.

A SWD spokeswoman said under the Protection of Children and Juveniles Ordinance, the SWD is given the authority to take custody of underage people with behavioral problems, including those involved in compensated dating.

The SWD will supervise these children or juveniles through periodic visits and counseling to ensure they are well taken care of in terms of study, employment, social life, personal development and so on, the spokeswoman said.

Lowcock admitted that investigators mainly snared the purveyors as well as "cyber pimps" via websites or online forums before arresting them.

Lowcock added that even though a couple of people had jointly managed some young people to work for them, there is no evidence proving the trade is harnessed by syndicates.

"These middlemen had beguiled a huge amount of commission by duping the young people into prostitution," Chief Inspector Wong Chung-chun said.

Project Officer Bowie Lam from Teen's Key, an organization providing assistance to young sex workers, explained some underage workers would prefer working for "agents" because they would be protected if they got into trouble.

"However, if these agents exploited or intimidated the sex workers, they violated the law," Lam said.

Chief Inspector Wong said: "The offenders had cloaked the job by saying it is lucrative and safe, in order to entice young people to get involved in compensated dating."

He added some teenagers were forced to take nude photos and reveal their personal information before taking part in sexual services.

Wong warned summer job seekers that they must use caution when offered highly paid jobs.

For the first time in their operation, the police found an underage boy engaging in compensated dating, Wong said.

A spokesman for Mid-night Blue, a male sex worker support group, said boys as young as 13 engaged in sex work are nothing new but they will not turn to police if they have problems.

"Police have misled the public to believe getting involved in prostitution individually is an offense and posted vague warnings on dating websites. Therefore, sex workers will certainly not seek help from them for fear they will be arrested instead of protected," the spokesman said.

mingyeung@chinadailyhk.com

China Daily

(HK Edition 07/29/2011 page1)