Jung Da-hyun is a reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues in Korea, including foreign residents, education, environment and politics. Driven by a deep interest in people’s stories, she focuses on investigative and feature reporting through direct interviews and field coverage. She received the Amnesty International Korea Media Award for her “Deepfake Crisis at Schools” series. Reach her at dahyun08@koreatimes.co.kr. Always open to hearing your stories.
AI, deepfake technology fuel surge in digital sex crimes in Korea
Posters detailing support services for digital sex crime victims are displayed outside the Digital Sex Crime Victim Support Center in Jung District, Seoul, Nov. 6, 2024. Yonhap
By Jung Da-hyun
Gov't steps up international cooperation as most servers are based abroad
The number of digital sex crime victims in Korea exceeded 10,000 for the first time last year, as the methods of abuse became increasingly varied, driven by the growing accessibility of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI).
In response to the evolving nature of these crimes, the government has pledged to enhance international cooperation and implement new measures specifically designed to address technology-driven offenses.
The number of digital sex crime victims who received assistance from the Digital Sex Crime Victim Support Center rose to 10,305 in 2024, a 14.7 percent increase from the previous year, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said Thursday.
Given the difficulty in accurately estimating unreported cases, the ministry acknowledged that the actual scale of digital sex crimes occurring online is likely much greater than the reported figures.
Teenagers and people in their 20s accounted for 78.7 percent of reported victims, highlighting the heightened vulnerability of age groups most active on social media and anonymous digital platforms.
Reports of deepfake-related digital sex crimes surged last year, with 1,384 cases involving image manipulation using AI and advanced technology. This marks a sharp increase from the 423 cases reported in 2023 — more than triple the previous year's figure.
Approximately 92.6 percent of victims of these digital sex crimes were in their teens or twenties.
Park Sung-hye, head of the content removal support team at the Digital Sex Crime Victim Support Center, voiced concern over a troubling trend in which teenagers are increasingly treating the use of AI-generated deepfake images as a form of entertainment.
“We are also seeing cases where teens request deepfake images from companies using photos of friends or even teachers and then circulate the manipulated content,” she said.
What’s more concerning is the growing sophistication of these manipulated images.
“When the center first opened in 2018, most manipulated images involved crude edits, such as adding sexual captions to photos,” Park said. “But now, with the rise of tech-savvy youth, these issues are likely to escalate further.”
Deepfake sex crimes using generative AI were also reported last year, according to the center.
Following a major deepfake incident in August last year — involving both minors and university students as victims and perpetrators — the government launched a dedicated response team.
The center provides emergency counseling and support for content removal, while also gathering evidence to assist in active investigations of manipulated content being produced and distributed on platforms like Telegram.
Despite these efforts, the center continues to struggle with a shortage of support personnel.
The number of requests for the removal of explicit content submitted to the center skyrocketed from around 28,000 in 2018 to more than 300,000 last year. However, the number of personnel dedicated to content removal rose only slightly, from 39 to 41.
The ministry and the support center also emphasized the need for stronger international cooperation, noting that more than 95 percent of websites hosting explicit content targeted for removal were found to have servers located overseas.
Telegram established a direct hotline with the Korean police and the Korea Communications Standards Commission in September last year to enable quicker response and content removal.
Additionally, the support center also signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S.-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to enhance cross-border collaboration in tackling digital sex crimes.