[Non-face-to-face Sexual Crimes] ① 'Calling Unknown Women to Sexually Harass'... Communication Sexual Crimes Increased 8 Times in 4 Years

Over 10,000 Cases of Telecommunications Obscenity Last Year
Prosecution Rate Barely 26%... Difficult to Prove Crime Under Current Law

Last January, Mr. A, a man in his 20s living in Jeonju, Jeonbuk, randomly selected stores with female employees, such as cosmetic shops, and started making phone calls. When a woman answered the phone, he immediately engaged in obscene and vulgar speech. He made dozens of calls over two months. The victims reported Mr. A for the charge of using communication media for obscene acts (telecommunication obscenity), and the police sent him to the prosecution for detention. Although the crime had no clear target or reason, the police judged that it fell under the charge of telecommunication obscenity.

Incidents of telecommunication obscenity are increasing explosively. On the other hand, under current law, even if acts corresponding to telecommunication obscenity are committed, investigative agencies face difficulties in proving the establishment of a crime. Accordingly, experts point out the need to revise regulations so that those who commit telecommunication obscenity crimes are inevitably subject to substantial punishment.

According to the National Police Agency on the 4th, the total number of telecommunication obscenity cases last year was 10,563, an eightfold increase from 1,365 cases in 2018. During this period, the numbers steadily increased with 1,437 cases in 2019, 2,047 in 2020, and 5,068 in 2021, with a particularly sharp rise last year.

The proportion of telecommunication obscenity cases is also growing within overall sexual violence cases. While telecommunication obscenity cases accounted for only 4% of all cases in 2018, they rose to 26% last year. The number of other sexual crimes such as rape and sexual assault, filming using cameras, and public intrusion for sexual purposes has not shown significant annual fluctuations.

The exponential increase in telecommunication obscenity reports is partly due to a Supreme Court ruling. In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that acts corresponding to telecommunication obscenity include not only those "directly aimed at sexual acts or intercourse" but also "those that satisfy sexual desire by sexually degrading or mocking the other party." This means that even sexual jokes or insults without explicit sexual acts fall under telecommunication obscenity. The application of telecommunication obscenity is possible even without "specificity" targeting someone or "publicity" involving multiple people.

The charge of telecommunication obscenity applies when sexual shame or disgust is caused through telephone, mail, computer, or other communication media. It is punishable under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes, with penalties of imprisonment for up to two years or fines up to 20 million won. Since telecommunication obscenity is a sexual crime, i.e., a violent crime, a guilty verdict can lead to disadvantages such as employment restrictions and disclosure of personal information.

However, the rate of actual punishment is relatively low. According to the prosecution, the indictment rate for telecommunication obscenity crimes was 27% as of 2021. This is lower compared to the average indictment rate of 44.3% for violent crimes. This is because it is not easy to determine whether the act was committed to satisfy sexual desire. Experts explain that the core element of the crime is whether the act pursued sexual desire rather than causing sexual shame to the other party.

In fact, last November, the Uijeongbu District Court Criminal Division 1 acquitted a man in his 40s on appeal who had been fined in the first trial for telecommunication obscenity for making sexual remarks, including genital insults and descriptions of sexual acts, to a fellow gamer. The court explained, "It seems that the act was more an expression of his anger than involvement of sexual desire," and "The purpose appeared to be to feel exhilaration and satisfaction by provoking the victim's sense of insult and anger."

Professor Kim Do-woo of the Department of Police Science at Gyeongnam University said, "Applying telecommunication obscenity leads to strong punishments such as disclosure of personal information and employment restrictions, so it is burdensome to punish someone just for using sexual expressions mixed with insults in games," adding, "There are overlapping laws such as defamation that coincide with telecommunication obscenity, but these should be unified into one law to ensure appropriate punishment."

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