With AI advancing at a rapid pace, South Korea has recently continued to gain a reputation as a global leading country in digital technology. However, with such advances, the country continues to confront cases of digital sex crimes. With a recent surge in the digital sex crime epidemic, widespread anger has erupted across the nation, inciting South Korean President Yoon to criticize the misuse of technology for exploitation.
Deepfake porn refers to pornographic content that has been manipulated by Artificial Intelligence, allowing for the creation of sexually explicit media: video, audio, and photos. Oftentimes, deepfakes combine the face of a real individual with the body of someone else and can synthesize such content within seconds of following a simple prompt of instructions.
National Public Radio’s Anthony Kuhn shared a report with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol as the media reports of deepfake pornography have come to light. It was revealed that the predominant majority of victims were women, and more specifically, minors. Meanwhile, the perpetrators were mainly teenagers.
Media reports have also disclosed that the AI-generated pornographic images have been hosted and shared amongst illegal Telegram chatrooms, with many being based at universities and schools. With each of these channels and chatrooms consisting of up to tens of thousands of members, reports say perpetrators obtained photos of victims––female soldiers, university, high school, and middle school students––through various social media platforms, which were then used to be converted into sexually explicit images. According to South Korea's police agency, within the first seven months of the year, 297 new cases of deepfake crimes of a sexual nature were reported–a significant increase from 180 cases last year, and nearly double the number in 2021, when data first began to be collected.
The Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU), a labor union representing teachers and other education-related workers in South Korea, conducted a survey among teachers and staff at K-12 schools in Korea and found that over 20% of respondents had felt as if they were directly or indirectly affected by deepfake sex crimes in schools nationwide. They urged government authorities to recognize the situation as a “national disaster” and to “take action to erase all illegal content online, and enforce severe disciplinary action.”
According to the results of KTU’s recent investigation on illegal compound (deepfake) sex crimes in schools, a total of 29 out of 2,492 victims––including 16 teachers and 13 students–– personally identified deepfake composites that combined their faces with pornographic content. Additionally, a total of 488 victims, including 188 teachers, 291 students, and 9 faculty members, reported that they indirectly discovered deepfake composites that had been synthesized and distributed through acquaintances. With more than 500 schools registered on the “damaged school map”, it was revealed that a consequential number of incidents involved threats and blackmail regarding the distribution of deepfakes. These cases often involved perpetrators demanding additional photos, personal information, and financial payments.
Unfortunately, these current situations have been circulating as a result of lenient punishments for sex crimes and inadequate investigations from the government that have, in turn, failed to recognize the extremities of sexual violence. Indeed, the KTU emphasizes that it is crucial to instate policies and legislation that criminalize the possession and viewing of such explicit content and intensify the penalties for those who produce them. Such policies will provide assurance that the situation can be mitigated immediately before it proliferates even more.
It is clear that the alarming rise of deepfake porn in South Korea highlights the susceptibility of millions online across the nation. Urgent action must be taken to protect these victims and hold perpetrators accountable. Without such measures, the cycle of digital exploitation will only continue to grow and persist.
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