96% of Youth Perpetrators in Digital Sex Crimes "Did Not Think It Was a Crime"

Seoul City Conducts First Case Analysis of Child and Adolescent Digital Sex Crime Offender Counseling... 63% of Offending Students Are Middle Schoolers

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] #Kim-gun (13) spread a nude photo synthesized onto the face of a female classmate he liked after she rejected him in a group chat. Kim-gun said that photo synthesis is common online, so he tried it once as a joke but ended up becoming a perpetrator.

It has been revealed that the majority of youth perpetrators of digital sex crimes do not perceive digital sex crimes as serious offenses.

On the 26th, Seoul City announced the analysis of the first counseling cases as part of its support for counseling and education to prevent recidivism among child and adolescent digital sex crime perpetrators. The ‘Digital Sexual Violence Perpetrator Counseling Project’ targeting elementary and middle school students was first launched by Seoul City in September 2019 to raise awareness of the seriousness of child and adolescent digital sex crime perpetration and to support prevention of recurrence.

The perpetrator counseling project targeted children and adolescents enrolled in school who were disciplined by the school violence review committee for digital sex crimes or were referred by teachers or parents. From September 2019 to December 2020, professional counselors at the municipal ‘Aha!’ Youth Sexual Culture Center conducted more than 10 counseling sessions per individual.

According to the counseling results, a total of 91 youths were referred for counseling as digital sex crime perpetrators, of which 63% were middle school students (ages 14-16). The motives for committing sex crimes were ▲not considering it a serious matter 21% ▲fun or prank 19% ▲curiosity 19% ▲impulsiveness 16% ▲wanting to imitate others because “everyone else is doing it” 10% ▲believing it was consensual 4% (multiple answers allowed). By type of offense, ▲‘use of communication media’ such as posting and sharing illegal recordings accounted for 43% ▲‘use of cameras for illegal filming’ 19% ▲‘possession of illegal recordings’ 11% ▲‘distribution of false videos’ 6%.

In counseling cases, Park-gun (15) accidentally saw illegal bathroom recordings on SNS in elementary school and out of curiosity kept watching the videos. Upon entering middle school, he began attempting illegal filming himself. He was caught after repeatedly filming female students illegally in academy bathrooms and on buses and was referred for counseling, expressing difficulty in self-control. There were also cases where those who requested ‘photo synthesis’ became victims. Kang-gun (17) saw an advertisement for ‘photo synthesis’ on SNS and asked to synthesize photos of his favorite girl group with pornography. The company instead forced Kang-gun to film humiliating videos and threatened to distribute them, extorting money.

Digital sex crimes mainly occurred through SNS, games, and messengers frequently used by children and adolescents. In fact, digital sex crimes were distributed in the order of SNS (41%), websites (19%), and messengers (16%). Especially last year, according to Seoul City’s ‘Visiting Support Companion’ victim support records, children and adolescents accounted for 19% (31 people), and online grooming victims reached 22% (423 cases). Most victim cases involved peers met through games or group chats becoming perpetrators and victims.

Seoul City announced a comprehensive digital sexual violence support policy specialized for children and adolescents and is providing all-around support from prevention to victim assistance, including the ‘Visiting Support Companion.’ Going forward, Seoul City plans to recruit 1,000 members for the ‘Digital Sex Crime Citizen Watchdog’ to create a safer internet environment, considering that digital sex crimes mainly occur on internet platforms used by children and adolescents. The ‘Digital Sex Crime Citizen Watchdog’ will report illegal recordings found on portals and SNS commonly used by citizens to the respective companies and check whether the reporting system is properly established by monitoring how quickly the content is deleted.

Seoul City plans to publicly disclose the status of company-specific reporting systems, reporting methods, and results compiled through the citizen watchdog to encourage voluntary improvements by companies. Additionally, Seoul City will promote the establishment of the ‘Seoul Digital Sex Crime Integrated Response Center’ in 2022 to comprehensively respond to child and adolescent digital sex crimes. The integrated response center will coordinate ongoing projects in Seoul City to provide comprehensive support from prevention to victim assistance for digital sex crimes.

Kim Ki-hyun, Acting Director of the Seoul City Women and Family Policy Office, said, “Children and adolescents tend to perceive digital sex crimes not as ‘crimes’ but as a ‘play culture’ that happens routinely. Especially with increased internet usage due to COVID-19 and school closures, the increase in both victimization and perpetration among children and adolescents is concerning. Seoul City will comprehensively promote concrete and practical support from prevention to victim assistance.”

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