The government plans to get tough on Web sites that promote sex in Svay Pak, Phnom Penh’s infamous brothel village that specializes in child prostitution, a senior Ministry of Tourism official said Tuesday.
“We will control it,” said Thong Khon, secretary of state at the ministry and also head of the Child Safety Tourism Commission. “Web sites are press freedom, but they need limits and borders.”
The ministry soon plans toissue a regulation to control the Web sites, which promote Cambodia across the globe as a haven for sex tourists. It also plans a nationwide sex tourism education campaign.
Plenty of Web sites with information on Svay Pak—the village itself seems beyond the will of authorities to close permanently—and other brothel locations notorious for child prostitutes were available in a Web search Tuesday.
One site, www.mensasia.com, cautioned its readers who visit Svay Pak for sex with young girls.
“Stick to ladies that appear over 18…they are starting to crack down,” the site said.
Oum Yeoun, Svay Pak commune chief, welcomed the ministry’s initiative on Tuesday.
“This sex area never benefits my commune but only brings us a bad image,” he said.
He claimed his officials don’t make money off the brothels and blamed police officials. “The young girls who are arrested are able to come back if they pay the money to the police,” he said.
Thong Khon warned Tuesday that hotels, guest houses, airlines, travel agents or tour guides will be closed if police find they are cooperating with sex tourists and pedophiles. “Tourists should know before they come, if they violate the law, we will put them in jail,” he said.
(Additional reporting by Daniel Ten Kate)
