"South Korea Faces Emergency"... BBC Highlights 'Deepfake Crisis'

"South Korea, Now Fighting Against Deepfake"

As crimes involving 'deepfake' images?created by synthesizing photos of acquaintances or social network service (SNS) users?are rapidly increasing, foreign media have also pointed out that "South Korea is facing a state of emergency."

Korean Deepfake News Featured on the Main Page of BBC News ASIA Section
[Photo by BBC Homepage]

On the 28th (local time), the British BBC reported, "Recently, numerous chat groups producing and sharing sexually explicit deepfake images, including those involving minors, have been discovered," adding, "President Yoon Suk-yeol has ordered a thorough investigation and resolution to eradicate digital sex crimes."

[Photo by BBC website capture]

BBC noted, "South Korea has a dark history regarding digital sex crimes." As an example, it mentioned Cho Ju-bin, who operated the Telegram 'Baksa Bang' (Doctor's Room) and was sentenced to prison for producing and distributing sexual exploitation materials. From May 2019 to February 2020, Cho Ju-bin threatened dozens of female victims, including children and adolescents, to produce sexual exploitation materials, which he sold and distributed through 'Baksa Bang.' The Supreme Court confirmed a 42-year prison sentence, and he is currently serving his term.

BBC also pointed out, "Only 5.8% of executive positions in South Korean listed companies are held by women, and the average wage for Korean women is about one-third less than that of men," adding, "the rapid growth of the technology industry combined with a pervasive culture of sexual harassment has led to an explosive increase in digital sex crimes." It further mentioned, "In the past, there were incidents where women were secretly filmed by miniature cameras while using restrooms or undressing in changing rooms."

The British Guardian also reported on this incident, stating, "After a long struggle to eradicate illegal filming known as 'molka,' South Korea is now fighting against deepfake videos." AFP news agency reported, "South Korea's deepfake cases are among the notable incidents that have sparked public outrage."

Meanwhile, concerns are growing as large-scale group chat rooms suspected of generating and distributing deepfake pornography have been discovered on social network services (SNS), including Telegram.

In particular, more than one in three victims of deepfake videos are minors. According to the Korea Women's Human Rights Institute under the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, among the 781 people who requested support for deepfake victims from the Digital Sexual Crime Victim Support Center (DiSeong Center) between January 1 and August 25 this year, 36.9% (288 people) were teenagers or younger.

In fact, as deepfake-related harm has rapidly spread across schools nationwide recently, education authorities and local education offices have taken strong measures. The Ministry of Education has formed an emergency task force (TF) to alleviate the anxiety of students and teachers and plans to prepare follow-up measures for deepfake responses in the education sector by October, after holding inter-ministerial meetings next month.

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