Google accused of not filtering obscene photos

This image captured from Google shows the search results when the keyword “street surreptitious snapshots” in Korean is searched.

By Jun Ji-hye

Internet giant Google is facing criticism here for not taking technical measures to prevent minors and teenagers from being exposed to obscene material such as intrusive pictures of body parts.

When the words “surreptitious street snapshots” written in Korean is searched on Google, a number of pictures of women's body parts, apparently taken illicitly by hidden cameras, appear in the results. A user does not need to go through an age confirmation process to access such information.

This is in contrast to what Korean portals Naver and Daum are doing. When a user attempts to search for “surreptitious street snapshots” there, the portals automatically exclude information unsuitable for minors and teenagers from the search results until a user confirms their age.

Criticism against Google's failure to filter out harmful contents to minors is growing as voyeurism crimes have recently become a serious issue here after a female model was arrested for secretly taking pictures of a male nude model during a nude drawing class at Hongik University in Seoul and spreading the pictures on the internet.

According to the Juvenile Sex Protection Act here, owners of online service providers can face up to three years in prison or a 20 million won ($19,000) fine if they do not take proper technical measures regarding “sexual material,” being seen by minors, even after the firms become aware of such information being distributed.

Also, the law regarding the promotion of information and communication network use and protection of information requires an age confirmation process in distributing obscene material.

Commenting on the issue, an official from the Korea Communications Standards Commission said the commission is not authorized to block certain keywords to be searched in portals as it is tasked with deliberating on search results.

“We are monitoring various search results created through various keywords,” the official said. “Once any illegal obscene material is discovered, we will deliberate on it and take proper action.”

The official noted that foreign companies are required to comply with relevant Korean laws as long as they offer services to Korean users. But there have been some limitations to effectively taking disciplinary actions, such as the imposition of fines or criminal punishment, as the firms' corporations are not in Korea.

He added that the commission has set up a cooperative system with Facebook and Twitter as well as Google since 2015, under which the service providers voluntarily delete illegal obscene material.

“There are some differences in the legal systems and regulations between countries, so we are working with foreign companies to adjust standards,” the official said.

Google Korea said anyone can make a report to the firm when they discover improper images, and a releated team of the firm takes measures such as deletion after conducting a review.