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The country¡¯s "big three" mobile operators earned W113 billion (US$113 million) last year from selling adult content, a lawmaker said. The number of people who bought adult content through their mobile phones accounted for almost half of all mobile phone subscribers.
Citing a report submitted by the Information and Communication Ministry, Grand National Party lawmaker Chin Young said that out of the total revenues of W2.4 trillion earned by mobile operators from providing wireless internet service, some W113 billion came from selling adult materials. By company, SK Telecom made a fortune of W86 billion, KTF W20 billion, and LG Telecom W7 billion.
Given that the service charges W2,000 per use, there were as many as 18.7 million uses of the service, Chin said. Assuming that each mobile phone subscriber used the service once, almost one in two subscribers bought obscene materials using their cell phones. As of December 2004, the total number of mobile phone subscribers was 36.5 million.
Despite the growing use of adult content through mobile phones, the government has not come up with any measures to protect minors from pornography, Chin said, adding that a regulation was needed to itemize adult content separately on the phone bill.
(Hwang Seong-hye, coby0729@chosun.com )
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