Assemblywoman Shin Hyun-young, Chief Sponsor of the 'Four Laws to Combat Digital Sex Crimes'

"Need for Thorough Crime Response System and Victim Protection"

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] On the 15th, Shin Hyun-young, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, announced that she has taken the lead in proposing four bills to respond to digital sex crimes. These bills reflect the 5th, 9th, and 10th recommendations, which were inadequately addressed in terms of system establishment, among the 11 recommendations made by the Ministry of Justice’s Digital Sex Crime Response Task Force and Expert Committee (TF team leader former prosecutor Seo Ji-hyun, hereinafter referred to as the Expert Committee).

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to Shin’s office, the proposed amendments include four bills: an amendment to the Information and Communications Network Act to respond to crimes infringing on sexual personality rights in digital spaces; amendments to the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment, etc. of Sexual Violence Crimes and the Criminal Procedure Act to supplement the seizure, search, confiscation, and recovery system for digital sex crimes; and an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act to improve the victim notification system.

The Expert Committee pointed out in the 5th recommendation that there are limitations in sanctioning various sexual offenses occurring on online platforms such as games and metaverse under current laws like defamation and insult. They emphasized the need for legal grounds to penalize sexual insults against game characters and continuous sexual remarks. Accordingly, an amendment to the Information and Communications Network Act was proposed to include acts infringing on sexual personality rights as information prohibited from distribution on the network and to require platform operators to manage such content.

Additionally, the Expert Committee raised concerns in the 9th recommendation about the insufficient confiscation of digital sex crime victim videos, storage media, and criminal proceeds. Although victim videos are subject to confiscation and destruction under criminal law, storage media such as mobile phones were handled inconsistently by investigative agencies?either returned after video deletion or confiscated and destroyed. Returning storage media poses risks of video restoration and redistribution, necessitating improvement. The recovery of criminal proceeds also depends on judicial discretion, highlighting the need for thorough confiscation measures. Therefore, an amendment to the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment, etc. of Sexual Violence Crimes was proposed to mandate the confiscation of storage media and criminal proceeds, including victim videos.

Furthermore, the Expert Committee recommended in the 9th recommendation establishing provisions for prompt seizure and search without a separate warrant issuance procedure when additional victim videos are discovered on storage media during digital sex crime investigations to prevent further victimization. Since this is an exception to the warrant principle, the amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act was proposed to allow emergency seizure and search only under strict conditions, such as when illegal filming is evident.

Lastly, the 10th recommendation raised the need to improve the current victim notification system, which only allows crime victims, including those of sexual crimes, to be informed of criminal procedure progress upon application. It was pointed out that victims find it difficult to know the progress during the investigation stage, making it hard to testify or respond to the facts of the crime. Accordingly, an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act was proposed to provide comprehensive information from the investigation stage through the trial and sentencing stages regardless of application.

Representative Shin Hyun-young stated, "New forms of sexual offenses occurring in online spaces mainly victimize teenagers who use the internet heavily, and the crime types are becoming very diverse, even developing into stalking. Since the damage from digital sex crimes can be severe even from a single distribution, a thorough crime response system must be established to strongly protect victims."

She added, "Former prosecutor Seo Ji-hyun, together with dozens of digital sex crime experts, held over 40 meetings for in-depth discussions and meticulously prepared recommendations. We must realize these recommendations through legislation in the National Assembly to effectively respond to digital sex crimes and unite our efforts so that victims can return to their daily lives as soon as possible."

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