'Send me a DM for 5 bottles of soju' — it was sex trafficking all along: a predator's playbook reaches a city councilman

Posts on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday morning hinting at sex trafficking through proxy-purchase schemes. [X]

Five bottles of soju, two cans of cocktail drink, two packs of cigarettes.

That was the payment two minors received from adult men after being sexually exploited. The sexual abuse of young people is being traded for pocket change — and it starts on social media. Predators approach minors through social media, offering to buy age-restricted items on their behalf and then demanding sexual favors in return. The pattern shows no sign of stopping. Former Cheongju city councilman Choi Young-jung was recently detained after allegedly sexually exploiting a middle school girl in exchange for cigarettes and other items. Choi had also made contact with the victim through social media.

'I'll buy it for you' — luring minors into sex with a pack of cigarettes

On Friday, posts and comments on X soliciting sexual acts in exchange for cigarettes, alcohol and other goods continued to circulate. The scheme — commonly known as a "proxy purchase" arrangement — involves an adult buying age-restricted items a minor cannot legally purchase, delivering them, and then collecting a sexual favor in return. Posts using slang terms for such acts, embedded as hashtags, were being shared actively.

Among the posts, content with hashtags such as "#tribute" and "#highschoolgirl" carrying sexual overtones was easy to find. Posts tagged with "#tribute" in particular drew a stream of comments urging private contact — "Please DM me" and "Check your DMs" — signaling attempts to move conversations off the public feed.

Former Cheongju city councilman Choi Young-jung, facing charges of child sex trafficking, leaves the Cheongju Cheongwon Police Station in the early hours of Monday after being summoned and questioned as a suspect. [Yonhap]

Choi, the former city councilman detained Thursday on charges of statutory rape, is believed to have approached his victim using a similar method. He reportedly met a middle school girl through a chat app in October 2024 and maintained contact with her by supplying cigarettes, cash and other items.

Over the following year, Choi allegedly had sexual intercourse with the girl on three occasions — in his vehicle and at motels.

He also faces charges of demanding that she send him nude photographs, offering to pay more if she brought a friend or an older sister, sending her videos of himself having sex with other women, and exchanging sexually explicit messages that appeared to suggest group sex involving a woman of a different nationality.

The proxy-purchase scheme is also used by predators as a calculated method to identify whether a target is a minor. A man identified only as A, arrested last September on charges of paying a 15-year-old girl for sex, had approached her on social media by offering to buy her alcohol and cigarettes — a tactic that allowed him to confirm she was a child or adolescent. He then lured her to a motel and paid for sex.

In another case, a man identified as B was arrested in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, in March last year after performing a sexual act on a middle school girl in exchange for a single pack of cigarettes. B had also approached the victim through a social media proxy-purchase offer, promising to supply her with "unlimited cigarettes" before committing the crime.

Predators are exploiting the blind spots of social media to target children and adolescents. According to the "2025 Sex Trafficking Survey" released this month by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family — based on a study of 4,203 middle and high school students nationwide — a total of 273 cases of online sexual solicitation were confirmed among 201 minors who reported experiencing such approaches.

A staged image illustrating child and adolescent sex trafficking. [Yonhap]

Social media was identified as the primary channel for online sexual solicitation. Some 51.9 percent of all online sexual solicitation cases were concentrated on social media and feed-based platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok.

Among victims who experienced sexual solicitation on social media, about 15 percent complied with the solicitor's demands. Most responded passively — 43.9 percent of all reported cases involved victims simply ignoring the solicitor and giving no response.

Fewer than 20 percent of victims blocked the person (11.5 percent) or asked them to stop (8.3 percent).

Lee Ho-yeon, an activist specializing in the protection of children and adolescents from sexual exploitation, said predators approach victims not only through posts with clear sexual intent on platforms like X, but also through seemingly ordinary lifestyle content on Instagram. She added that certain apps — referred to by names such as "Jeul-○" and "Ang-○" — are also used as access points.

20ki@heraldcorp.com