South Korea is grappling with a surge in digital sex crimes, particularly deepfake pornography. President Yoon Suk Yeol has called for a crackdown on this alarming trend, which targets women and girls indiscriminately.
Deepfakes are artificially created images or videos that manipulate real people’s faces or voices, often for malicious purposes. In South Korea, these fabricated materials are being used to create sexually explicit content without the victims’ consent.
The Telegram messaging app has become a notorious platform for sharing and distributing these deepfakes. The number of reported deepfake crimes has skyrocketed in recent years, with many perpetrators being teenagers.
Victims range from minors to adults, including university students, teachers, and even military personnel. The creators of these deepfakes often obtain their target’s images from social media platforms like Instagram.
Authorities are working tirelessly to combat this growing problem. Police are launching a seven-month campaign to identify and prosecute those responsible for creating and spreading deepfake pornography. However, the scale of the issue suggests that the official figures may only represent a fraction of the actual cases.
As South Korea continues to battle this digital scourge, it’s clear that a comprehensive approach is needed to protect its citizens from the harmful effects of deepfake technology.
