Victims of Digital Sex Crimes Including Illegal Filming Double Compared to Last Year

Digital Sex Crime Support Center Received 4,973 Victims
Male Victims 18.6%, Up 6.4% from Last Year
Illegal Filming Most Common, Also Distribution and Threats
Deletion Support Mainly for Social Media, Adult Sites, and Portals

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] The number of victims of digital sex crimes, such as illegal filming and distribution, more than doubled compared to last year. Male victims accounted for 18% of the total.

According to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on the 16th, the total number of victims reported to the Digital Sex Crime Victim Support Center in 2020 was 4,973, an increase of 138.28% compared to the previous year (2,087). Women accounted for 81.4% (4,047), while men accounted for 18.6% (926), showing an increase in the proportion of male victims compared to the previous year (12.2%).

The most common type of digital sex crime was illegal filming, with 2,239 cases (32.1%). This was followed by distribution with 1,586 cases (22.7%), distribution anxiety with 1,050 cases (15.0%), and distribution threats with 967 cases (13.8%). Victims were exposed to multiple types of harm, such as distribution threats or anxiety after illegal filming, with an average of 1.4 overlapping cases per person.

The number of digital sex crime victims was higher among younger age groups, with teenagers and people in their 20s being the most affected. Among women, the distribution was ▲teens 24.9% ▲20s 21.3% ▲30s 6.6% ▲40s 1.9% ▲50s and older 0.9%. Among men, it was ▲teens 21.3% ▲20s 20.4% ▲30s 7.0% ▲40s 6.2% ▲50s and older 5.5%. Victims who did not disclose their age accounted for 43.5%.

The Support Center deleted approximately 160,000 posts last year. The largest number of deletions was on social media, with 65,894 posts (41.5%). Other deletions included adult sites with 38,332 posts (24.1%), search engines with 25,383 posts (16.0%), and other platforms such as communities and archives with 23,954 posts (15.1%).

The total number of deleted posts was 158,760, a 67% increase from the previous year (95,083). Since April last year, following measures to eradicate digital sex crimes, the deletion support system has been operating with pre-monitoring of child and adolescent sexual exploitation materials and automatic detection of illegal filming materials, which significantly increased the number of deletions.

While deletion requests on social media increased significantly compared to the previous year, P2P sharing (4.6%) decreased. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family explained, "By expanding pre-monitoring and establishing dedicated deletion channels on major social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, cooperation with platform operators has been strengthened, increasing the proportion of social media deletion support. Meanwhile, as peer-to-peer sharing sites have been shut down and the platform environment has changed, deletion support for personal sharing sites has decreased."

In addition to deletions, the Support Center provided counseling support (11,452 cases), investigation and legal support linkage (445 cases), and medical support linkage (40 cases).

From July, the scope of deletion support requests will be expanded to include representatives. Legal grounds have also been established to stably support the deletion of false videos and child and adolescent sexual exploitation materials. The Sexual Violence Prevention Act, which includes these provisions, will be enforced starting in July.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family plans to enhance the functionality of the deletion support system to proactively respond to digital sex crimes and provide rapid deletion support for illegal filming materials.

Minister Jeong Young-ae of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family stated, "We will further strengthen the functions of the Digital Sex Crime Victim Support Center and expand professional personnel to do our best to support victims so that they can heal emotionally and enjoy a safe daily life."

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