Supreme Court: Room cafes with concealed interiors must bar teenagers

A room cafe does not need to advertise sexual services to fall under South Korea’s restrictions on teenage access, the Supreme Court has ruled. A business can qualify if its rooms are set up so that sexual or similar acts may occur out of public view.

The court’s First Division overturned an acquittal for a former operator in Suwon and sent the case back to the Suwon District Court. Prosecutors accused the operator of admitting eight teenagers, aged 14 to 17, between March 2022 and February 2023 without checking their ages. The operator also faced a charge of failing to display a sign stating that teenagers could not enter or work there.

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The business provided a rest area equipped with a television and mats on which people could lie down, creating a risk of physical contact, including kissing, between users.

The case turned on whether the room cafe fell within the Youth Protection Act’s definition of a prohibited business. The law covers establishments that provide services where sexual acts between unspecified people, or similar conduct, may take place.

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The business form specified by the Youth Protection Act cannot be interpreted as limited to physical contact between entertainment workers and unspecified customers, or between unspecified customers who do not know one another.

A lower court had convicted the operator and imposed a 2 million won fine. It pointed to rooms equipped with televisions and mats large enough for people to lie down, as well as the possibility of kissing and other physical contact. Investigators found groups of two 16-year-olds using four separate rooms. Most rooms became difficult to see into once their doors closed, giving them a structure similar to private booths.

An appeals court later acquitted the operator, interpreting the law’s reference to sexual conduct between unspecified people as covering contact involving entertainment workers and customers, or customers who did not know one another. The Supreme Court rejected that narrow reading. It said the law could not be limited to those situations and found that the cafe’s layout created a substantial possibility that sexual or similar acts could occur inside the rooms.

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The room cafe can reasonably be seen as a business form in which sexual or similar acts may occur inside because it is difficult to check the interior from outside the rooms.