Deepfake Porn To Spy Cams: Police Investigates Over 500 Sex Crimes In South Korea

The anger was palpable for the hypocrisy that occurred.  For the second time in just a few years, South Korean women took to the streets of Seoul to protest to demand an end to sexual abuse. When the country spearheaded Asia’s #MeToo movement, the culprit was Molka – spy cams used to record women without their knowledge. Now their fury was directed at an epidemic of deepfake pornography. 

South Korea holds the unenviable title of the country most targeted by deepfake pornography. Its female singers and actors constitute 53% of the individuals featured in deepfakes worldwide, according to a 2023 report by Security Hero, a US startup focused on identity theft protection.

Survivor Cries Depict Deep Harsh Realities

Meanwhile, for Juhee Jin, 26, a Seoul resident who advocates for women’s rights, the emergence of this new menace, in which women and girls are again the targets, was depressingly predictable. “This should have been addressed a long time ago,” says Jin, a translator. “I hope that authorities take precautions and provide proper education so that people can prevent these crimes from happening". she added.

The victims are predominantly young women and girls, including students, teachers, and soldiers. Last year almost two-thirds were in their teens. Local media reports say the perpetrators are also often minors. According to Yonhap, teenagers accounted for 79% of those detained in the first nine months of this year.

The scale of the problem has stunned many South Koreans. One Telegram chatroom known for creating and distributing deep fake pornography reportedly had 220,000 members, and another more than 400,000 users. Some rooms encouraged members to humiliate or degrade women through deepfakes.

Several years after South Korea made international headlines with its Molka problem, the government is again under pressure to stamp out this wave of online sex crimes. A large protest is scheduled to be held in Seoul on 21 September.

Corresponding to this, the country’s media regulator plans to talk with the messaging app’s representatives to discuss a joint response to the problem. The education ministry has launched a task force to investigate incidents at schools, teach children how to protect their images and support victims.

Telegram, whose founder was arrested last month as part of a French investigation into child sexual abuse, apologised “if there had been an element of misunderstanding”. It said it had taken down dozens of videos, some at the request of the country’s media watchdog. South Korea’s government said it would push for tougher laws to make buying or viewing sexually exploitative deep fakes a crime.

“Online gender-based violence is an increasing problem globally but is especially widespread in South Korea,” said Heather Barr, an associate director at Human Rights Watch.

‘The world I knew completely collapsed’

While politicians and authorities scramble to find solutions, there is palpable anger online, prompting petitions on the national assembly website calling for stricter laws. The crisis has affected online behaviour, with reports suggesting many children are removing photos from social media or deactivating their accounts.

One adult victim said it had been a “huge trauma” to bring her assailant to justice after she received a barrage of Telegram messages in 2021 containing deepfake images showing her being sexually assaulted. Her attacker was a fellow student at the prestigious Seoul National University with whom she had seldom interacted but had thought of as gentle. “It was hard to accept,” the woman, who requested anonymity, told Agence France-Presse.

“The world I thought I knew completely collapsed,” she said in a letter she plans to submit to a court later this month. “No one should be treated as an object or used as a means to compensate for the inferiority complexes of individuals like the defendant, simply because they are women.”

More than 80 women’s rights groups have criticised the official response to deepfakes, framing the crisis as evidence of deeply rooted gender discrimination in one of Asia’s biggest economic and cultural powerhouses.

The large number of teenagers among the perpetrators and victims means the repercussions of deepfakes are being felt in South Korean schools. According to the Korean Federation of Teachers union, even students and teachers who have not been directly affected "are experiencing extreme fear and anxiety about potentially being used for sex crimes or distributed online without their knowledge."