Legal Issues
Prostitution in Hong Kong is legal, but subject to various restrictions, mainly intended to keep it away from the public eye. These restrictions are manifested in the form of prohibiting a whole host of activities surrounding prostitution, including soliciting and advertising for sex, working as pimps, running brothels and organised prostitution. For instance, by the Hong Kong legal code Chapter 200 Section 147, any person who "solicits for any immoral purpose" in a public place may receive a maximum penalty of HK$ 10,000 and six months' imprisonment. In practice, a woman on the street in certain areas well known for streetwalkers such as Sham Shui Po might well be arrested even if seen smiling at a male passerby. Advertisement of sex services, including signboards, illuminated signs and posters, is also prohibited, and an offence may result in imprisonment for 12 months. In a test case in 2005 involving sex141.com – an internet site created by two programmers who tailored on-line advertisements for prostitutes, its two principals were convicted of one count each of "conspiring to live off the earnings of prostitution arising from the ads that appeared on their website". They were each fined $100,000 and given a suspended sentence of eight months in prison. TimeOut records it as the 36th most popular website in Hong Kong. As of November 2011, the site is active and ranks 47th most frequented site in Hong Kong.
Organized prostitution, in the form of directing "over another person for the purpose of... that person's prostitution", is forbidden by Section 130, and an offence may result in 14 years of imprisonment. Sections 131 and 137, which are aimed at pimps, stipulate a jail sentence of seven years as the maximum penalty for "procuring another person to become a prostitute" and "living on earnings of prostitution of others". Under Hong Kong law, it is also illegal to organise arrangement of sex deals for more than one woman; violators are subject to a HK$20,000 fine and seven years' imprisonment. Therefore, if two women are found serving customers in the same apartment, it is an illegal brothel. This gives rise to the so-called "one-woman brothel" where one woman receives customers in her apartment, which is restricted by Section 141, which prohibits young persons to engage in prostitution. This is the most common form of legal prostitution in Hong Kong.
Read more about this topic: Prostitution In Hong Kong
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