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| Rep. Baek Hye-ryun, center, of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea speaks during a meeting between lawmakers and government officials at the National Assembly in Seoul, Thursday, to discuss responses to online sex crimes. /Yonhap |
By Kim Se-jeong
The government and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) vowed Thursday to pass bills to criminalize the downloading and circulation of child pornography and abusive sexual videos on computers and snmartphones, and to redefine the age of consent, in an effort to protect minors from sexual exploitation.
Under Korean law, a 13-year-old is considered mature enough to have consensual sex ― lawmakers are pushing to raise the age to 16.
They are also seeking to impose sanctions on internet business operators who fail to remove such video clips from their websites and those who advertise and promote them online. When it comes to the proceeds from circulating child pornography, lawmakers want law enforcement bodies to confiscate them from alleged offenders even before they go on trial.
"Online sex crimes, as proven, are serious crimes which can destroy a person's life completely," said Rep. Baek Hye-ryun of the DPK, who is leading the legislative effort among lawmakers, during a meeting with government officials Thursday.
The push for legislative changes against online sex crimes comes in the wake of the Telegram sexual abuse and exploitation case in which Cho Ju-bin, 24, blackmailed women and minors to make sexually explicit videos of themselves and distributed paid access to them in Telegram group chat rooms.
Several legislators from both sides of the aisle have proposed bills to curb online sex offenses, and the meeting between the government and legislators was intended to show their determination to complete the legislative change before May 31, the last session of the 20th National Assembly. In June, newly elected lawmakers will take office and all proposed bills from the previous session will be discarded.
Earlier this month, Cho was indicted on multiple charges including blackmailing women to create the sexually explicit videos.
Police said he initially lured the women by offering to pay them a lot for making the sexually explicit footage. After receiving the videos, he threatened to release the videos to their friends and families unless they complied with his requests to make more explicit and abusive clips.
He circulated the videos in a group chat called "Baksa" (Korean for a doctoral degree holder) and collected payments via cryptocurrency from his clients. His group chat had thousands of paid members and the police said he created a separate group chat for active participants only and offered them "tailor made" videos. The prosecution said 74 victims have been identified, among whom 16 were minors.
The case has also led the judiciary to come up with tougher sentencing rules for offenders such as Cho. Earlier this week, the Supreme Court's sentencing commission held a meeting and agreed to come up with new guidelines for these offenses.
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