Digital Prison and Scarlet Letter Controversy, The Monster We Raised

Digital Prison "Lenient Punishment with Personal Information Disclosure"
Public Exposure to Punish Scarlet Letter Sex Offenders

May Constitute Defamation, but
"Sex Offender Punishments Are Too Weak" Support Voices
"Must Raise Gender Sensitivity and Introduce Jury System to Prevent Emergence"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] The 'Digital Prison' publicly discloses personal information of sex offenders, violent criminals, and even those suspected of crimes. This site resembles the 'Scarlet Letter' that emerged during the Telegram 'Nth Room' case. This movement, which started from the perception that investigations and punishments for sex offenders are weak, aims for citizens to establish their own 'punishment system.' The debate over this has become intense.

As of the 9th, the Digital Prison has posted over 80 pieces of personal information. This includes Son Jung-woo (24), who operated the child sexual exploitation site 'Welcome to Video,' as well as perpetrators related to child and adolescent sexual exploitation chat rooms on Telegram. The site, launched last month, discloses information based on tips received.

The operator of Digital Prison explained the purpose of the site, saying, "We feel limited by the lenient punishments for serious criminals in South Korea and want to directly disclose their personal information to subject them to social judgment." This intention is similar to the Scarlet Letter, which appeared on Telegram last July and has been exposing personal information of men who produce or view sexually exploitative obscene materials. The Scarlet Letter also voluntarily imposes self-punishments such as writing reflection letters on sex offenders who have not been caught. The underlying sentiment is anger over the persistent sex crimes.

Of course, the actions of Digital Prison and the Scarlet Letter may constitute defamation under the Information and Communications Network Act. For this reason, on the 8th, the National Police Agency announced that it had ordered the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency to conduct an internal investigation into Digital Prison. The Busan Police are also investigating the Scarlet Letter.

However, there are voices supporting this movement, citing lenient treatment of sex offenders as the cause. According to the Ministry of Justice's '2020 Sex Crime White Paper,' among 74,956 sex crime-related trials from 2008 to 2018, only 26.1% resulted in imprisonment. In contrast, fines and suspended sentences accounted for 71.6%. Reflecting these light punishments, sex crimes have been increasing. According to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's '2019 Crime Analysis,' the number of sexual violence crimes rose from 17,377 cases in 2009 to 32,104 cases in 2018.

Experts explain that strict punishment of sex offenders can prevent the emergence of sites with illegal elements such as defamation, like Digital Prison or the Scarlet Letter. Professor Lee Geon-su of the Department of Police Science at Baekseok University said, "If the judiciary increases gender sensitivity and introduces systems such as juries to impose punishments consistent with general legal norms, it could prevent the creation of sites with illegal elements."

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