Underage sex offenders given light punishments

Sex offenders involving minors were given rather light punishments, showed a report released by the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs yesterday.

According to the analysis of 17,408 sex crimes involving minors during 2000-2007, only one of those who lured minors under age 13 into prostitution was given a jail term and nearly 80 percent were released after being fined.

The number of victims under age 13 has been continuously increasing since 2002, ministry officials said.

Children between ages 7-13 were the most vulnerable group of victims for indecent assaults, with the percentage of related crimes surging from 42.4 percent in 2002 to 56.4 percent in 2007, officials said.

Most of the victims were more prone to sex crimes through the internet, said the officials, emphasizing the need for more thorough monitoring of underage people.

In a bid to protect youths from experiencing any further sex-related crimes, the ministry is looking into introducing a system that could punish those who lure children into sex-related activities. It is also pushing to launch a system that would enable citizens to read the information of sex offenders online and make the information available for 10 years, extending the limitation from the current five years.

By Cho Ji-hyun



(sharon@heraldm.com)