Causes[ edit ] In Indonesia, one of the main reasons for a prostitute to enter the business is the appeal of earning money quickly. Those entering prostitution for money come from both middle-class and poor families. Young women are offered employment opportunities in major cities, then raped and forced to prostitute themselves while paying money to their pimps. The International Labour Organization ILO reports that roughly 70 percent of Indonesian child prostitutes are brought into the trade by their family or friends.
Bali, for example, is known for its "Kuta Cowboys", male sex workers who solicit foreign tourists. The most common is heterosexual female prostitution, though transvestite and male homosexual prostitution also exist to a lesser extent. Child prostitution also exists in certain tourism resort islands, such as Batam and Bali. It is estimated that 40, to 70, Indonesian children engage in prostitution within the country.
The last large red-light district containing many brothels was Gang Dolly in Surabaya , one of the largest in Southeast Asia, [10] which closed in They can also be booked via telephone. In Internet forums , prostitutes and pornography are offered to registered members of good standing, as measured by their activity on the forum. A senior member of the forum posts a "free report" offering a description of the member's experience with a prostitute; contact information is provided upon request by private message.
Prostitution rings on Facebook have also been reported. The Tang dynasty Ch'iu-T'ang shu and Hsin T'ang shu historical records, which originated circa CE, reported that in the country of Ho-ling in Java, there were a number of "poisonous women". Those who had sex with these harlots would suffer festering wounds and die afterwards. This was the earliest record of prostitution and its connection with sexually-transmitted disease in ancient Java.
Following the spread of Islam in Indonesia , prostitution is thought to have increased due to Islam's disapproval of contractual weddings. The manuscript describes various sexual positions and techniques mastered by prostitutes in Java in order to satisfy their clients. Serat Centhini also says that there was once a thriving brothel near the royal tomb of Imogiri. Because interracial marriage was discouraged or outright forbidden, this arrangement was accepted by Dutch leaders. These did not curb the growth of prostitution, which increased dramatically during a period of extensive construction in the late s.
