Protect our young by cracking down on ‘compensated dating’
Euphemisms such as ‘part-time girlfriend’ are dulling the senses of the younger generations to the dangers of what is, in reality, nothing more than prostitution
Euphemistically known as “part-time girlfriend and boyfriend services” or “compensated dating”, they are in reality prostitution as sex is involved in return for cash or gifts. As challenging as the task is, though, authorities have to strengthen their efforts to protect Hong Kong’s younger generations from taking so damaging a path.
Young people driven by the lure of easy money have for a number of years been turning to the thriving industry’s internet forums and apps like WeChat and Instagram.
Society’s consumerism increases peer pressure for luxury products such as handbags, jewellery and watches among impressionable minds; the prospect, particularly for students, that a much-desired item can be had by a no-strings-attached, one-night fling is appealing to a certain demographic.
Our conservative society does not see it that way and there are a number of laws that can be used to deter, among them soliciting for an immoral purpose in a public place to living on the earnings of prostitution. The laws are also meant as protections against people putting themselves in dangerous situations that can lead to sexually transmitted diseases, teenage pregnancy, assault, rape and worse.