Digital Prison Blocks Personal Information of 17 Individuals Only... Site Remains Accessible

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] The Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) has decided not to block the entire site of Digital Prison, which has sparked controversy over "private punishment" by arbitrarily disclosing the personal information of sex offenders. However, it has decided to block only 7 pages suspected of defamation and 10 pages containing personal information of sex offenders.

On the 14th, the KCSC's Communications Review Subcommittee held an emergency meeting and announced this decision. The commissioners judged that the negative effects of Digital Prison were considerable.

However, there was an opinion that shutting down the entire specific internet site would be "excessive regulation," so only 17 detailed pages were blocked instead of the entire site. The detailed pages refer to those that appear when clicking on individuals whose personal information has been disclosed, showing detailed information about the person. In other words, only the personal information of 17 individuals will be blocked. Among these, 7 pages are related to defamation, and 10 pages contain personal information of sex offenders. The 17 pages decided to be blocked will be completely inaccessible from within Korea. The remaining personal information, except for these 17 pages, will remain publicly available.

A KCSC official said, "Regarding the opinion on excessive regulation, it was resolved not to shut down the entire site but to block only information with a high risk of defamation and information related to sex offenders."

Digital Prison, which was launched in July, gained attention by arbitrarily disclosing personal information of criminals involved in serious crimes such as sex offenses and child abuse. The site stated its purpose as "feeling the limits of lenient punishment for heinous criminals and directly disclosing their personal information to subject them to social judgment." However, criticism followed after a university student accused as a perpetrator committed suicide claiming innocence, and an innocent university professor’s personal information was exposed as a perpetrator.

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