"The State Found Nothing"... Ruling and Opposition Parties Criticize Government Over 'n번방' Case

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] On the 25th, both ruling and opposition parties jointly criticized the government's belated response to the Telegram 'Nth Room' case involving the distribution of sexual exploitation materials.

The National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee (STIBC) held a full meeting that morning for an emergency inquiry regarding the Telegram Nth Room issue. Attending the meeting were Minister of Science and ICT Choi Ki-young, Chairman of the Korea Communications Commission Han Sang-hyuk, and Chairman of the Korea Communications Standards Commission Kang Sang-hyun, among others.

In particular, Chairman Han reported to the National Assembly a plan to raise fines up to 50 million KRW if webhard operators fail to implement measures to prevent the distribution of illegal obscene information such as sexual crime materials, and to strengthen measures against platform operators violating deletion orders.

Regarding these measures, Park Dae-chul, a member of the United Future Party, criticized, "This is a rehash of the digital sex crime prevention measures jointly announced by the government in September 2017," adding, "It is an extremely makeshift remedy, and I am skeptical whether it can prevent second or third Nth Room incidents."

Song Hee-kyung, also from the same party, raised her voice, saying, "Are you only going to prepare countermeasures after young adolescents have suffered such harm?"

Criticism from the ruling party also followed. Lee Won-wook of the Democratic Party of Korea said about the Nth Room case, "This was an incident exposed to the public by university students who infiltrated it," and added, "This issue has been publicized since early last year, but there is public anger because the state failed to detect anything."

Son Geum-joo, also from the same party, criticized, "The Telegram Doctor's Room and other Nth Room problems have existed since 2017 and 2018," and said, "The government's measures have not achieved substantial results."

Chairman Han said in this regard, "Policy authorities also bear responsibility for the Nth Room case," adding, "There should have been efforts to closely examine and prevent it. There were shortcomings." He continued, "Ultimately, I acknowledge that the measures were insufficient as such incidents occurred, and I apologize to the public."

Regarding concerns about 'secondary damage' where searching 'Nth Room' on overseas internet sites exposes search results that allow inference of victims' names or occupations, Chairman Han said, "We requested the relevant internet sites to delete related search terms that remind users of victims, and received a response today (the 25th) that deletion has been completed," adding, "Google has also pledged to strengthen active monitoring."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.