Eavesdropping Without Consent... Controversy Over 'Child Protection App'

App Usage Surges After Daejeon Elementary School Student Murder Case
...Potential Violation of the Act on the Protection of Communications Secrets

Following the elementary school student murder case in Daejeon, parents' interest in 'child protection applications' has surged. These apps are developed to prevent accidents involving minors, but their main feature, 'listening to surrounding sounds,' raises concerns about illegal wiretapping and privacy invasion, prompting calls for regulatory improvements.

A police detective mobile unit vehicle in front of an elementary school in Seo-gu, Daejeon. Photo by Yonhap News

Apps designed for child protection typically offer various functions such as real-time location tracking, making phone calls, triggering alert notifications, checking phone usage history, and listening to surrounding sounds. They can be linked not only to smartphones but also to smartwatches, allowing real-time monitoring of the child's situation. The problematic feature is 'listening to surrounding sounds.' This function enables guardians to remotely listen to ambient sounds in real time, potentially overhearing conversations without the consent of the parties involved, which may violate the Act on the Protection of Communications Secrets (APCS). Article 14 of the APCS prohibits anyone from recording or listening to conversations between others that are not publicly disclosed using electronic devices or mechanical means. Violations can result in imprisonment from one to ten years and disqualification for up to five years.

"Legal Risks Are Greater for Commercial Services"

Lee Kwang-wook (54, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 28), a personal information and information security law expert and attorney at Hwawoo Law Firm, stated, “The function of remotely listening to others' voices is likely to be considered an act of a third party using means to listen to undisclosed conversations under the APCS,” adding, “Consent from the guardian alone does not substitute for the rights of all conversation participants, so the illegality is highly likely to be recognized. The legal risks are even greater if it is a commercial service.” Another attorney from a major law firm, who requested anonymity, said, “Since the app is installed on the student's phone, there could be debate over whether the recording was made directly by the conversation participants or if the student can be considered the recorder,” but also pointed out, “However, Article 14 of the APCS prohibits listening acts using electronic devices, so the illegality is likely to be recognized.”

Supreme Court precedents also recognize that a parent secretly placing a recorder in their child's bag to record classroom conversations violates the APCS. The Supreme Court Criminal Division 1 (Presiding Justice Oh Kyung-mi) overturned and remanded the lower court's ruling that fined elementary school teacher A 5 million won in January last year on charges including violation of the Special Act on the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes (2020Do1538). In this case, the victim child's parents suspected child abuse and secretly placed a recorder in their child's bag to record classroom lessons. The Supreme Court ruled that the recording collected “conversations between others that were not publicly disclosed” and deemed the evidence inadmissible. Lee Dae-sik (43, Bar Exam 7th), attorney at Yulchon Law Firm, said, “If appropriate measures to prevent misuse of the function are not taken, aiding and abetting under the APCS may be established,” adding, “There are also precedents where people who sold radios to eavesdrop on police officers' conversations were recognized as aiding and abetting.”

App Downloads Surge More Than 70 Times After Incident

The parents of the victim student in the Daejeon case revealed that they were able to track their child's location in real time through the child protection app and used the 'listening to surrounding sounds' feature to hear sounds at the crime scene. The victim's father heard sounds such as a woman running and gasping for breath and drawers opening and closing after activating the protection app installed on the child's phone. These recordings became important clues during the police investigation. As this feature became known, interest in related apps surged among parents. According to big data analytics firm Mobile Index, the number of new installations of the child protection app 'Find My Kids' maintained a daily average of several hundred before the incident but surged to 17,874 on the day after the incident, the 11th, increasing more than 70 times.

Kim Ji-hyun, Legal News Reporter

※This article is based on content supplied by Law Times.

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