'Bad adults' who purchased alcohol and cigarettes for teenagers in exchange for a fee have been caught by the Gyeongnam Provincial Special Judicial Police.
The Special Judicial Police announced on the 6th that they focused on cracking down on violations such as proxy purchases of cigarettes for teenagers via social networking services and electronic cigarette retailers from July 15 to August 31, during the summer vacation period, and detected five cases.
According to the Special Judicial Police, those caught received a certain amount of money from teenagers in exchange for buying them cigarettes or alcohol.
Conversation content from the social networking service (SNS) of the proxy buyer. [Provided by Gyeongnam Provincial Government]
Among them, Mr. A demanded that a middle school girl spit on his body parts as a reward for repeatedly purchasing cigarettes for her through the social networking service X (formerly Twitter).
The Special Judicial Police pointed out that teenagers who use proxy purchasing services are indiscriminately exposed to the risk of sex crimes by adults with distorted sexual awareness.
Under current law, those who purchase or provide harmful substances such as alcohol and cigarettes to teenagers by proxy face up to two years in prison or a fine of up to 20 million won.
Cheon Seongbong, head of the Provincial Safety Headquarters, stated, "Adults, who should guide the proper growth of teenagers, encouraging their delinquency and deviant behavior is a crime that must be eradicated, and we will investigate strictly with a zero-tolerance policy," adding, "We will continue to expand crackdowns and investigations on harmful businesses and activities targeting teenagers in the future."
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