A concerned reader wrote to the citizen journalism website STOMP yesterday in response to an earlier post about a girl prostituting herself online in order to support her family. The STOMPer said that online soliciting is increasingly common in Singapore, and that this is a disgrace to society.

There have been several notable incidents regarding Singaporean women 'advertising' their services on various online avenues in the recent years. Singaporean websites with sexually explicit content were also brought into the media spotlight in recent months. Cases include explicit posts on an air stewardess' blog to a political party's online forum being spammed with porn links.

Earlier this year, a young woman who claimed to be a schoolgirl promised to fulfil fetishes by posing in her panties and selling the photos as well as the used panties. She also posted a list of other services she offers on her blog, including a sex hotline, cyber sex services and sexual videos of her wearing costumes that buyers decide.

Another teenage girl offered sexual services on her blog, stating that she charges "$200/1 shot/45 minutes" in order to earn money to help her family out with their problems. Several racy photos, presumably to entice potential 'customers' were also posted on the site.

National carrier SIA was also dragged into the furore when a blogger who claimed to be a stewardess with the airline wrote about her sexual exploits and her affair with a pilot on her blog. The airline has since commented that while its staff are free to keep blogs, they are not allowed to write about their job or post any related pictures.

The youth wing of local political party Young PAP had its online forum spammed with porn links earlier last month. The forum's archives show that the discussions boards were not moderated for a long time, and have been spammed with such links from as far back as a year ago. In its reply to STOMP, the Young PAP said that it allows some "noise" in its forums and takes a "light-touch approach" to moderation. The offensive posts have since been removed.

In the latest incident, a reader wrote in to the online citizen journalism site STOMP about several Singaporean forums and websites he found online offering call girl services. The websites are open to members only, and even offer discounts to those who sign up. Pictures of the girls available were even put in a 'catalogue' on a photo sharing site as a preview.

Although visiting websites with sexually explicit content would not land one in jail here, those who distribute such material in Singapore will be prosecuted.

The Media Development Authority states on its website that, "The MDA does not monitor or track users' access to any sites on the Internet and does not interfere with what individuals access in the privacy of their homes. We are primarily concerned with the purveyors and distributors of pornography. Unless you engage in such activities, the mere act of visiting such sites is not an offence."

However, as long as these websites are online, they are open for the world to see, including countries where sexually explicit sites are legal.

Will an increasing number of such sites online be, as the STOMPer said, a disgrace to Singapore?