Assemblyman Byeon Jae-il: "KCSC's Blocking of Illegal Site Access Ineffective... Improvement Needed"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-seon] It has been pointed out that operators of illegal and harmful information web pages are evading the Korea Communications Standards Commission's (KCSC) access blocking measures simply by changing the internet address (URL), indicating a need for improvement.

According to data received by Rep. Byun Jae-il of the Democratic Party from the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee from the KCSC, the number of access blocks increased from 161,569 cases in 2020 to 118,735 cases in 2021, and 128,310 cases as of August this year. Even in 2021, when the number of reviews decreased due to delays in the commission's formation, the figure was still at 73% compared to 2020. As of August this year, the number of blocks has already surpassed the previous year's level.

The KCSC reviews and blocks illegal and harmful information web pages such as gambling, prostitution, and copyright infringement under Article 21 of the "Act on the Establishment and Operation of the Korea Communications Commission" and Article 8 of its Enforcement Decree to foster a healthy internet culture.

The problem is that even when the KCSC decides to block access, operators of illegal and harmful information web pages continue to operate by changing the URL address pattern. This so-called "industry rule known to everyone" effectively nullifies the commission's blocking efforts.

From August 2021 to August this year, among the gambling, obscene prostitution, and copyright infringement sites blocked by the KCSC, there were 20,222 cases where access was blocked two or more times by changing only the numbers in the same URL. Breaking it down by category, gambling accounted for the highest number with 14,456 cases, followed by copyright infringement with 3,383 cases, and obscene/prostitution with 2,383 cases. Among these, cases blocked more than 41 times due to URL changes were 577 for gambling, 52 for obscene/prostitution, and 1,637 for copyright infringement. The highest number of URL changes per violation was 64 times for gambling, 52 times for obscene/prostitution, and 89 times for copyright infringement.

Rep. Byun Jae-il stated, "Reviewing web pages that only change simple numbers in the same URL one by one could lead to a waste of administrative resources," and added, "To shorten the review period, electronic review methods applied to digital sex crimes should be expanded to cover all areas, and internal regulations should be established to allow immediate blocking without review for the same issues."

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