Schoolgirls in Japan are using dating websites to run lucrative prostitution rackets and sleaze sites.

According to the Mainichi Daily News even junior high school pupils are selling themselves.

A recent survey from the Metropolitan Police Department of 2,115 junior-high and high-school girls found that as many as one tenth said they had met somebody through an online personals site.

But it is clear that they are not just using the dating websites to meet boys. The newspaper interviewed two girls who have used the web to sell themselves.

"Now's the only time we can do this," a schoolgirl prostitute in Shibuya told reporter Shukan Taishu. "You only sell while you're a high-school girl. Join university and the bottom falls out of the market."

Other kids are setting up sites to sell soiled underwear, and are promising to meet certain men to hand the items over for 5,000 yen (£27) provided a series of conditions have been met, according to the newspaper.

There are many stories detailing arrests by Japanese authorities related to schoolgirl prostitution. The number of arrests or cases reported to prosecutors for child prostitution has rocketed from just five in 2000 to 117 in 2001.