By Kim Hyun-bin
In the digital age, online sex crimes have become prevalent online and an increasing number of people are falling victim each day.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government said on Friday that 40 percent of unwanted sexual videos and photos are uploaded by victims’ ex-boyfriends.
“Sexual videos spread fast online, which can cause severe mental trauma for the victim as well as a feeling of societal isolation,” the Seoul city government said. “To erase all traces online, the victim needs to hire a specialist, which can cost up to 3 million won ($2,815). It’s an expensive procedure.”
The city obtained the figure after helping to resolve 81 online sexual assault cases between October and December last year. The city said it was almost the first initiative done by the regional government.
Most of the cases, accounting for 25 cases (31 percent), dealt with unauthorized video uploads, which was followed by cyberbullying with 13 cases (16 percent), threats to release images with 12 cases (15 percent) and hidden cameras with 11 cases (14 percent).
“In some cases, the videos were approved by the victim at the time, but later were used for blackmail purposes,” the city said. “Some hidden camera footage was also used to blackmail the victim for money.”
Out of the 81 cases, most victims were female accounting for 76 cases, while four cases involved male victims. One case had both female and male victims.
Most of the video footage was uploaded to pornographic sites accounting for 21 cases (42 percent), followed by social media in 15 cases (30 percent), and five cases (10 percent) with Webhard, a Korean file-hosting service operator.
Online sex crimes are becoming a grave social issue with unwanted sexual videos or photos becoming public with just a click of a button.
Removing the files falls to the victims who are asked to pay a lot of money. To make it worse, it’s almost impossible to remove the uploaded files permanently.
Last year, President Moon Jae-in stressed the gravity of online sex crimes and vowed to put a stop to them.
On Thursday, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency announced it would create a special team investigating online sex crimes.