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Stella Lee

KARAOKE bars found selling sexual services are losing their liquor licences.

  The Urban Council yesterday rejected applications by two bars after police said they had a record of selling alcohol illegally and employing underage girls to provide sexual service for customers.

  Police found 181 underage girls working in the two bars in Mongkok between March and mid-September as ''public relations'' staff.

   One customer has been prosecuted for molesting a girl.

  Chairman of the Liquor Licensing Board Stephen Wong Hon-ching said: ''The employment of young girls in such establishments is viewed very seriously.''   Police Licensing Office Chief Staff Inspector Chris Chu Fun-wing said rejecting vice karaoke bars' applications for a liquor licence would act as a deterrent.

  A Social Welfare Department survey of 120 underage karaoke girls held at Ma Tau Wei Girls' Home during the summer holiday found all had volunteered for the job because of a desire for quick money.

  ''The fact that many underage girls are attracted to working in such establishments, notwithstanding the negative connotations and possible vice-related activities, demonstrates their desire to make quick money.

  ''And we have to admit that because all 120 girls surveyed said they volunteered for the job, there is no ready solution,'' chairman of the Commission on Youth Eric Li Ka-cheung said.

  But he said the commission had reservations about a government proposal to ban people under 16 from entering karaoke bars, even as customers.

       ''We would certainly support measures to step up the control of karaoke establishments. However, we fear the current situation is a manifestation of changing social values which cannot be addressed by controlling the operations of the premises alone.

  ''These establishments are only one of the channels for young girls to make easy money,'' he said.



Karaoke bars employing young girls lose licences