96 child sex offenders apprehended in police undercover investigations
Korea Times file
Police have apprehended 96 child sex offenders and arrested six of them in undercover investigations begun last year into digital sex crimes against children, officials said Tuesday.
Police conducted 90 investigations after undercover methods were allowed through the amendment of the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth against Sex Offenses in September following a series of shocking child sex exploitation cases that were revealed in 2020.
In the cases, investigators did not disclose their police identity in 81, nabbing 24 suspects, and used fake identities in the remaining nine, catching 72 suspects.
Most of the investigations, or 83.3 percent, uncovered the sales, distribution or advertisements of material containing child sex abuse, followed by the production of such materials at 11.1 percent, possession of such materials at 3.3 percent and the act of approaching children for sexual exploitation at 2.2 percent.
The National Police Agency said it has created a special team to oversee undercover investigations to prevent any improper use, such as inducing people to commit a crime or using the gathered evidence for purposes other than the investigation.
But no such cases have been found to date, officials said. (Yonhap)