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SCMP Reporter

A brand-name strap for her mobile phone was the only thing on a 14-year-old girl's mind when she agreed for the first time to provide sexual services for reward.
Two years later the girl, now 16, was among  about 100 girls interviewed by Chief Inspector Chung Chi-ming,  who has led police operations against 'compensated dating' in the past 12 months.
Chung, of Kowloon West regional crime unit, said he felt very sorry to see young girls in Hong Kong engaging in  enjo kosai - a practice originating in Japan where men give money and luxury gifts to young girls for their companionship and, often, sexual favours. 
Satisfaction of materialistic desires was one of the major reasons girls participated in the de facto prostitution practice, he said.
Some girls also came from broken families.
Chung said one girl had run away from home because of family disharmony and was lured into prostitution by criminals who suggested to her that  a group of girls  should live together like a family. 
Police raided two such syndicates  last year and found 10 girls, of  whom the youngest was  only 14.
The girls had to follow the rules set by syndicates and could be beaten  if they did not conform. 
'The girl told us it was like living in a prison and she could not escape,'  Chung said.
Police had also found pimps operating  individually on the internet to arrange clients for girls.  One, they found, was an 18-year-old student about to enter university.
'He told us it was like doing business on eBay,' Chung said. 'It is really a pity to see a young man, who did not have any criminal record, go to jail for his lack of morality.'
Police over the  past year have arrested 22 people, including syndicate members and online pimps, in relation to compensated-dating offences, and at least 13 girls have been referred to the Social Welfare Department. But Chung said police were only dealing with the tip of the iceberg and the solution lay in education and prevention.
Chief Inspector Sandra Chiu Yui-luen  of the Kowloon West crime prevention office said police would write to primary and secondary schools in the district, and conduct seminars for school principals to alert them to juvenile crime.
'The girls might earn money pretty easily for a brand-name handbag, but once they start, it is a road of no return, and they will soon find their losses are much greater than their gains,' she said.



Police saddened as young girls lured into 'compensated dating'