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All stories are culled with consent from Korea JoongAng Daily’s website and edited by Groove Korea for length and clarity. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Groove Korea. — Ed. N A T i o N A l N E w swith March 2014 / www.koreajoongangdaily.com ProsTiTuTioN APPs circumvENT KorEAN lAws T he sex industry is taking advantage of smartphone technology, and there are now dozens of applications that help its users find the services of the world’s oldest profes- sion. Inevitably, critics are blaming application stores for being too lax, saying the term “smartphone” should be replaced with “Sex- Mart Phone.” When JoongAng Ilbo reporters downloaded an application that introduces users to a Ko- rean adult entertainment business, hundreds of women in underwear popped up on the screen. More detailed profiles were provided when they tapped on the half-naked photos, with even more information available from a call center. The reporters were not asked to verify if they were adults when downloading the ap- plication, which means minors could use it easily. The Jungbu Police Precinct recently arrested a smartphone application developer identi- fied by the surname Kim and an advertising agency owner surnamed Jeong for designing and operating a mobile application that fea- tures adult entertainment advertisements. To run an ad in the application, business owners paid from 50,000 won ($47) to 100,000 won per ad to Kim and Jeong, which added up to 50 million won from 228 adult entertainment businesses. The smartphone application was downloaded 38,125 times in six months. Under current regulations, people who ad- vertise prostitution can be jailed for up to three years or slapped with a fine of 30 million won. But authorities hesitate to crack down on them because there is such a large number of applications, a loophole that sex businesses take advantage of, and some of the apps might be even less innocent than they admit to be. “Users must be ca utious, as some of the ad- vertisements have hidden malicious code that might be stealing their personal data,” said Lim Jong-in, dean of the Korea University Graduate School of Information Security. Aside from smartphone applications used by the sex industry, chat applications, which are popular among teenagers, are also being misused as a means of enticing teenage girls into prostitution. “A guy said he would pay me money if I met him, so I met him out of curiosity,” a 14-year- old girl said in an article in an online commu- nity. “When a middle-age man showed up, I realized what he really wanted and ran away.” When a pair of reporters changed the stats on a chat application and pretended to be a 19-year-old girl, dozens of men in their 20s to 40s, including some who identified them- selves as cram school lecturers or employees of large corporations, chatted them up. ADoPTED KorEAN iDENTicAl TwiNs rEuNiTED viA FAcEbooK F or 25 years, identical twins Samantha Futer- man and Anais Bordier lived separate lives, growing up in different countries and speaking different languages. Only by chance did the two 26-year-old sisters find out about the existence of the other, connecting through social media. Their first encounter was in February 2013, when Bordier sent a message via Facebook to Futerman. Bordier, who at the time was en- rolled in a fashion course at Central Saint Mar- tins College of Arts and Design in London, had been told on a few occasions that she resembled Futerman, an American actress who is perhaps best known for her appearance in the film “Memoirs of a Geisha” (2005). “One day, I received a message from a woman living in London,” Futerman said in a television interview. “I was really surprised to see her pro- file because she looked just like me.” The two suspected they could be twins after they began to correspond more and more. Both were born on Nov. 19, 1987, in Busan, where they were also both given up for adoption three months later. “The birth record (Samantha) sent me didn’t state that she was a twin, but everything started to come together when I looked at her photos from when she was little,” Bordier said. “It felt like I was having a heart attack, but it was also the happiest moment — a new world was open- ing.” They were even more astonished when they shared stories through video chat. Other than their physical similarities, they were also huge fans of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series and had many of the same habits and routines. Futerman and Bordier finally met for the first time in May 2013, about three months after they first contacted each other. “I felt like I was paralyzed because it was like I was standing in front of myself,” Bordier said, describing the moment when Futerman came in to meet her. “We just kept looking at each other.” The twins’ adopted parents were just as sur- prised. “You look just the same!” Bordier’s mother ex- claimed when she fi rst met Futerman. And Bor- dier’s father just burst into tears. And in true twin style, the two even played a bit of a prank when they first met Futerman’s parents, with Bordier switching places with Fu- terman, and Futerman coming in later. Her mother and father were shocked at their likeness, and wondered aloud if they could truly be sisters. DNA tests conducted in February confirmed that the two were, in fact, identical twins, ac- cording to British media, and perhaps validated what Bordier and Futerman had instinctively felt all along. “I did feel like I missed something (when I was a child), and I even had an imaginary friend,” Bordier acknowledged in an interview. “I need- ed that comfort, I guess.” So far, the sisters have met up in London, California and their native homeland, Korea. They’re currently working toward funding a documentary film that tells their story. www.groovekorea.com / March 2014 28