My homepage and forum were the subject of a scathing article in the New Paper on 3 Sep 2000. Read the uncensored full text of the interview plus the contents of the email exchanges which lead to the article being published.

Has TNP's level of gutter journalism reached new depths or do you believe the Tabloid still offers value for money? Cast your votes here!

It is actually unethical to publish the contents of private email exchanges for the whole world to see. However, since the New Paper did not extend this courtesy to me, I see no reason why I should withhold any information.

Enjoy the saga...;-)

The Email exchanges which lead up to the New Paper Article on 3 Sep 2000

Hi Samuel

I have been following ur Sammyboy webpage for a couple of weeks now and is very impressed with what's been done.

Anyway, I'm Jason Tan, a New Paper journalist, and I recently read your interview with BigO.

I would like to meet you. Have a cup of coffee and talk shop.

Let me know ok. I understand you may be a bit apprehensive.

But look at it this way. The authorithies probably knew about your business long ago. If they wanna get you, they would have done so long ago, right.

So don't worry, I'm not some spy sent by them.

Cheers jason

Hi there Jason,

I'm afraid a face to face interview is not on the cards at the moment. There would be too much at stake.

As you are probably aware, a Singaporean adult site webmaster is now behind bars in Changi Prison because of his activities on the net.

I have no desire to be his cellmate at the moment.

However, I will be happy to answer any questions you may have via email.

Cheers and have a great weekend.

sam

Sure Samuel,

I completely understand where you're coming from.

Let me discuss with my boss.

Anyway, I'm unaware of the other webmaster's case.

Care to enlighten.

Regards Jason

Hi Samuel

This is Jason from The New Paper, once again.

I've spoken to my boss, and he's okay with an email interview.

Tks a lot for agreeing to the interview in my earlier email to you.

I really hope you can answer my long list of questions below.

1) Tell me a bit about yourself first, name, age, sex, race, nationality, marital status.

2) What inspired you to set up Sammyboy.com? What was your aim? How different was it going to be from the other adult sites? When and how exactly did it begin?

3) Why did you start the commercial sex guide in the first place? And how did you get it going in the beginning? Personal experience? Help from friends etc?

4) Do you get a lof of hate mail for what you do? How do you respond to them?

5) Fan mail?

6) Do you make money out of Sammyboy.com or your Delphi Sex Forum? How? How much?

7) Why do you moderate messages posted on Dephi Sex Forum? I see that phone numbers and email posted there are deleted. Why?

8) Why do you call it the Asian Conservative Values Forum? Couldn't it be furthest from the truth?

9) How many of the supposedly real-experience messages are real? I mean, maybe these guys are just fantasing?

10) When and why did you set up the Coffee Shop Forum? The response? Any rules?

11) You handle so much sexual content every day. Don't you get sick of it?

12) Do you ever give yourself a holiday?

13) How do you avoid being prosecuted? Do you think what you do is illegal? How afraid are you of being caught?

14) Do you aspire to make Singapore famous via sex? Why?

15) Do your family and parents know what you're doing? What do they say?

16) Don't you think what you do glorifies commercial sex, and its related ills like spread of Aids, exploitation of women etc? How do you feel if a 14-year-old stumbles onto your site, gets curious, and go out to screw a prostitute in Geylang?

17) You do showcase some pronographic images and video footages on your site. Doesn't this violate the law here? Doesn't this go against your so-called principle of providing a "purely democratic forum and nothing else"?

18) Some members of the forum periodically post nude images too. So why didn't you removed these?

19) How many registered users do you have now? What's the sign-up rate? How do you advertise your sites? (I heard that if you type sex and Singapore on any search engine, your site invariably pops up, true?)

20) If you're not doing this, what will you be doing? What are your hobbies?

Regards JASON TAN The New Paper

Hi Jason.

Thanks for mailing me.

However, I am actually very reluctant to have my site publicised in the mainstream high circulation newspapers as I feel it will inevitably result in the govt taking the necessary action to ban or shut down my site. This happened to other Singapore sites which were featured in TNP (remember the JC girls site.)

Can't we just leave things as they are. The site is receiving good publicity by word of mouth and I would hate to see 3 years of work going down the drain.

I hope you appreciate my position. Thanks a million.

Cheers.

Sam.

Hi Sam

I regret to hear that you have changed your mind about the interview.

We're of course disappointed that you don't talk to talk to us, but we're hoping you'll change your mind.

In any case, my bosses have decided to go ahead and run the story even with or without your comments. And personally, I think it's better for you to speak up.

Regards Jason

by the way, my all-time fav film is The Clockwork Orange too.

i like Lolita too and Dr Strangelove.

cheers jason

Hi Jason.

Here are the answers to your long list. Answers to the questions like "why did you start the site?" and why did decide to feature Geylang?" etc are taken from my archives as I have answered these questions so many times before I have run out of ideas regarding how to add a fresh perspective to these standard questions. BigO magazine used these stock answers word for word so you might want to do a bit of editing.

I have but one request from you. PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE THE SITE URLS IN YOUR REPORT. I DON'T NEED THE SORT OF TRAFFIC THAT THIS WOULD GENERATE! I DON'T WANT PARENTS RUSHING TO THE SITE AND THEN COMPLAINING TO THEIR MP ABOUT THE CONTENTS!

If you are a true supporter of my efforts, then I'm sure you will do what you can to avoid having the site shut down or blocked. I appreciate whatever help you can give towards preserving the site and its contents.

sam.

(This email also contained answers to all the questions that Jason of TNP asked. The full text is reproduced below.....)

Original Text of TNP interview with reporter Jason Tan - (This is the email- word for word - that I sent to him)

Jason:

I really hope you can answer my long list of questions below.

1) Tell me a bit about yourself first, name, age, sex, race, nationality, marital status.

Sam :

YK Leong, 38, Male, Singaporean of Asian descent, Single.

Jason:

2) What inspired you to set up Sammyboy.com? What was your aim? How different was it going to be from the other adult sites? When and how exactly did it begin?

Sam :

I first started meddling around with the internet and web page design way back in 1995. I was driven by nothing more than the excitement of exploring this powerful new medium of expression. My first web site was pathetic to put it mildly. It consisted of a few stock images plus my bookmark links and that was it. The idea of publishing a guide to commercial sex in Singapore was conceptualised in the middle of 1997.

Since then, the site has gone through numerous revisions and what I would consider to be one resurrection. The site actually went offline for almost a month in 1998 because the server I was using at the time could not cope with the ever increasing traffic. I was forced to take the site down till I could find a server which could meet my needs. I spent that month revising the graphics and organising the contents

I put the articles together with the help of numerous inputs from friends, colleagues and from strangers via email. Up-to-date information is now posted on a very regular basis in my sex forum. The beauty of using an on-line forum for regular sex updates is that it keeps the whole process transparent. Someone can post a report on his last trip to Geylang and wax lyrical about a particular broad that just sent him to heaven and back. However, if his claims are exaggerated or false, there will soon be a string of rebuttals to refute his wild claims. On the other hand, If an accurate report is published, follow ups which confirm the validity of the contents will usually appear.

For more information regarding the history of the forum, go to Forum FAQ at http://www.asiangirlsnextdoor.com/forumfaq.html.

Jason:

3) Why did you start the commercial sex guide in the first place? And how did you get it going in the beginning? Personal experience? Help from friends etc?

Sam :

I used to work in Sales and Marketing and as we all know, sales means customers and customers need to be entertained.

80% of the customers we dealt with were men and 99.9% of the male species think about sex at least 50% of the time.

It does not take a genius to work out the sort of entertainment tops the list in the popularity stakes. However, if we wanted to secure contracts, we couldn't just leave things to chance. We had to make sure that if we brought a customer to a commercial sex joint, he would be well and truly satisfied at the end of the session. To ensure success, it was very important that the customer ended up with the right lady who not only looked delicious but who was able to provide that all important factor called "customer service".

Every sex joint has its superstars and its duds. However, Singapore being what it is, finding out who's hot and whose hot at your friendly nearby brothel is extremely difficult. No regular reviews are published in the print media. The numerous mags and newspapers published in Singapore contain reviews and write ups about almost every aspect of Singapore life except the commercial sex scene. We live in a very competitive society and almost everything under the sun that can be ranked is constantly assessed by some sort of authoritative body. Eg..the most hygienic hawker centre, the cleanest HDB precinct, the best neighborhood school etc etc. We also have regular food columnists who help us find the best Fried Kuay Teow, Fried Rice, Yong Tau Hu and so on. Companies earn ISO 9000 certification as some sort of guarantee of the quality of their services. However, when Singaporeans wanted to know who gave the best oral sex in Geylang, there was absolutely no source of reliable information anywhere. Our sales team was forced to rely on two basic sources of information.. (1) Personal Experience. (2) Hearsay. Neither of these sources was very reliable. The turnover in the sex industry is rapid and any information more than a month old was usually out of date. What Singapore needed was an on-line / real time database of commercial sex information. Suddenly, the internet had come of age!

Jason:

4) Do you get a lof of hate mail for what you do? How do you respond to them?

5) Fan mail?

Sam:

I have my fans and my detractors. Both are entitled to their opinions. I respond to fan mail by replying with a note of thanks. I do not bother to respond to hate mail.

Jason:

6) Do you make money out of Sammyboy.com or your Delphi Sex Forum? How? How much?

Sam:

I make enough to cover my overheads but that's about it.

Jason:

7) Why do you moderate messages posted on Dephi Sex Forum? I see that phone numbers and email posted there are deleted. Why?

Sam:

Ref to the FAQ.

Jason:

8) Why do you call it the Asian Conservative Values Forum? Couldn't it be furthest from the truth?

Sam:

Ref to the FAQ.

Jason:

9) How many of the supposedly real-experience messages are real? I mean, maybe these guys are just fantasing?

Sam:

Your guess is as good as mine. However, if you bother to read the messages thoroughly, you will normally be able to separate fact from fiction. If the story is to good to be true, it normally isn't.

Jason:

10) When and why did you set up the Coffee Shop Forum? The response? Any rules?

Sam:

The Coffee shop was set up a few months after I started the sex forum. It was created to cater for the spillover of non sex related discussions which were polluting the sex forum. There are no rules at the moment. People can discuss whatever they please.

Jason:

11) You handle so much sexual content every day. Don't you get sick of it?

Sam:

I am immune to it. I made a commitment to myself that i would see this project through and I would be letting myself down if I gave up at this stage. However, I will probably hand the site over to "New Management" within the next year as my freelance design workload is getting heavier as the economy continues to improve in the region.

Jason:

12) Do you ever give yourself a holiday?

Sam:

Running the site is a full time job. No matter where I am in the world, as long as I can connect to the net, I can manage the site.

Jason:

13) How do you avoid being prosecuted? Do you think what you do is illegal? How afraid are you of being caught?

Sam:

I take great pains not to break any Singapore laws. I abide by all laws which cover cyberspace and all my adult material is placed behind adult verification systems so that minors cannot access the contents.

Jason:

14) Do you aspire to make Singapore famous via sex? Why?

Sam:

I do not aspire to make Singapore famous. What I am doing is bringing sex out of the closet into the public arena where it belongs. We are in the 21st century for goodness sake. The Victorian attitudes towards sex are long gone. People need info about sex just as they need information about food. Both are basic needs which can affect their lives in profound ways.

Jason:

15) Do your family and parents know what you're doing? What do they say?

Sam:

They are, in fact, extremely supportive. Freedom of information on any subject has to be good for society in the long run even though the subject of sex does seem to ruffle some feathers. Statistics from countries such as Sweden have shown that a liberal attitude towards sex has been extremely beneficial.

Ignorance, on the other hand, has resulted in the rampant spread of STDs in countries which suppress all means of sexual expression. Just look at the situation in the African Continent where sex is taboo and society is in a state of denial as far as HIV is concerned.

Jason:

Sam:

14 year olds have been curious about sex long before the internet ever existed. As a matter of fact, my first visit to a brothel was when I was 15 and I did NOT have the benefit of the world wide web in those days. If the internet disappeared from the face of the earth tomorrow, horny teenagers would simply revert to traditional sources of information eg friends at school, smuggled or underground magazines, pimps at street corners and so on. To accuse my site of being the cause of irresponsible sexual behaviour is like the proverbial shooting of the messenger (of bad news).

In my view, the internet has made commercial sex a lot safer as youngsters can find out all the info they need about the risk. In fact, I have published an excellent summary of all the risks at http://www.sammyboy.com/stdsummary.html.

Jason:

Sam:

I have never claimed that the site is just a purely democratic forum. My aim is to provide a total sexual experience for the Singaporean male.

Jason:

18) Some members of the forum periodically post nude images too. So why didn't you removed these?

Sam:

All messages containing porn are removed from the forum as soon as they are detected.

Jason:

Sam:

My site is registered with the major search engines.

Jason:

20) If you're not doing this, what will you be doing? What are your hobbies?

Sam:

I spend a lot of time cycling. I have 3 mountain bikes and a couple of road bikes. Life is short.. Play Hard.

- End -

......and this is the resulting Article that the New Paper Published. So much for Journalistic Excellence.. ;-)

Mr Cyber smut

Who do you regard as an authority on sex? A parent or older sibling? Or our Puberty Column on page 45? These are familiar Sources. But watch out for sex shysters appearing on the scene. JASON TAN e-mails a Singaporean who is running a sex forum on the Internet. And MELVIN SINGH talks to a businessman - turned author who styles himself as a sex guru

MR Samuel Leong Y K's sex website is so lurid, The New Paper contacted all the ISP to check if access to the site has been blocked.

Why are we concerned?

For example, Mr Leong thinks he is providing a service by hosting information on the best prostitutes in Singapore.

There are sexual fantasies about teachers. Pantyhose fetishes.

And even an entry from a man who dreams about having sex with his maid. At the last count, 39 equally lewd replies had been posted.

This is Mr Leong's idea of a sex forum.

He is 38, male, Singaporean and single.

"All messages containing pornography are removed from the forum as soon as they are detected," he said. Is that so?

Then what about the nude images all sitting there as plain as daylight. And there's no doubting the rules aimed at curbing porno sites.

"Content providers who post pornographic images are bleaching our guidelines on Internet use," said Ms Cecillia Yip, assistant director (public relations), Singapore Broadcasting Authority (SBA).

Mr Leong thinks he can get around this. He said: "As a final measure to ensure that no Singapore laws are broken, I take great pains to ensure that the actual act of publishing the website does not take place within Singapore."

But Ms Yip from SBA said: "It does not matter if he hosts it on a foreign server. As long as he's in Singapore, he's under our jurisdiction."

That's probably why Mr Leong was so elusive at first.

Two weeks ago, The New Paper on Sunday e-mailed Mr Leong and asked for a face-to-face interview. At first he declined, saying he had no desire to be "behind bars in Changi Prison".

Then he agreed to answer via e-email, and later changed his mind again.

But last Friday, he made another U-turn and agreed once again.

According to Mr Leong, his website, started in 1997, gets an average of 1,500 visitors and 50 new members each day. But he could not produce any evidence to support his claim.

Nor could he establish any credential to show that he is qualified to run a sex forum.

Yet he calls himself a "purveyor of truth".

"I wanted constant up-to-date information in a sex forum," said Mr Leong. But what kind of information?

"Someone can post a report on his last trip to Geylang. However, if his claims are exaggerated or false, there will soon be a string of rebuttals."

Doesn't that make him a promoter of pimps and prostitutes?

He claimed he doesn't get a cut from the earnings of the prostitutes whose names appear on the site."

And what about the video footage of Singapore Annabel Chong having unprotected sex? Isn't Mr Leong concerned about young people being exposed to such porn?

Mr Leong said: "Children should be protected from the distortions portrayed in pornography." But he didn't say how they should be protected from his work.

Mr Leong said that his own experience in sales led him to putting his site together.

He said he now does website and graphic design commercially: "As we all know, sales means customers and customers need to be entertained.

"Every sex joints has its superstar and its duds. However, finding out who's hot and who's not is extremely difficult. "What Singapore needed was an online database of commercial sex information."

There it was: "Commercial". How much does he earn from what he does?

"I make enough to cover my overheads (US$300 or S$510), but that's about it."

He has enough porno on sale to rival backstreet sex peddlers.

So is this the kind of character that you'd want young people to turn to for some honest-to-goodness sex advice?

BLOCKING OUT SMUT

How can offensive content be blocked out?

The SBA will first have to monitor a website before acting.

We checked with the three ISPs.

Sorry, they echoed. Banning a site goes beyond their jurisdiction.

But they do block objectionable sites based on a list provided by the SBA.

There are mote than 500,000 banned sites of which 90% per cent are pornographic.

Said the SBA: The Samuel Leong website is but one of countless number of pornographic sites on the Internet. "Given the borderless nature of the Internet and the vast number of undesirable sites on the Net, there is a limit of what legislation can do."

The SBA licence does not allow jurisdiction over people in foreign countries, only people in Singapore. It said worried parents can subscribe to the ISP's Family Access Network which filter out a large number of pornographic sites.

Or call the Parent Advisory Group for the Internet or visit parent.org.sg for more information.

- End -