Kim Rahn is the managing editor of The Korea Times. Since joining the company in 2003, she has covered various beats including the presidential office, Seoul city government, the Bank of Korea and the tourism industry. In 2014, she won the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award for her coverage of the ordeals of migrant women in Korea.
ID check to be tightened for adult website
By Kim Rahn
Adult-only websites will have additional procedures to check whether visitors are aged over 19, as part of measures to prevent minors accessing them.
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said Thursday that a revision to the Youth Protection Law will take effect on Sunday with strengthened regulations on identification check on “harmful to adolescents” websites.
The revision comes as minors frequently access adult-only content online through fake registration using their parents’ or other adults’ resident registration numbers.
“Websites carrying lascivious or violent content should check not only whether the members are over 19 but also whether the people logging in are actual members,” Kim Sung-byuk, a ministry director, said.
Besides the widely-used identification method of resident registration number, those visiting such sites will have to prove their identity again via tools such as authorization certificates, Internet Personal Identification Number (i-PIN) or cell phone registration. Website operators will select one such method.
“Children could access such websites once they registered with their parents’ resident registration numbers. But now, even if they are registered, they have to undergo additional procedures every time they log in. We believe the measure will effectively keep them away from harmful content,” Kim said.
Site operators who don’t adhere to the procedure will be subject to up to three years in prison or a 20 million won fine.
Regarding criticism that adult users of those sites will be bothered with the process, Kim said, “Many measures devised to protect minors are bothersome to adults. But we hope they will understand and accept the new rule in terms of protecting children.”
In addition to the identification process, the revision will also ban site operators from displaying lewd images, sounds or phrases on main pages before login occurs.
“Currently, children can see such images without logging in. Now the content will appear only after visitors log in through the strengthened identification procedure,” Kim said.
The new rules were announced in September last year but it took a year for the law to go into effect as the government had to amend related ordinances and collect opinions from related parties.