Criticism mount over verbal attacks on cyberspace

Posted on : 2007-06-07 21:35 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST

Concerns about the impact of malicious internet comments took center stage again this week after a high-school girl killed herself apparently due to verbal attacks from net users.

The 16-year-old girl identified only by her family name Lee was found dead on June 5 after she hanged herself in her apartment room in Daejeon, 164 kilometers south of Seoul. Her death took place more than two months after she appeared on a commercial TV show for losing 40 kilograms in a short time.

Though the exact cause of her suicide is not yet known, her family and friends say stress from malicious internet comments could have driven her to her death.

She was verbally attacked on her personal homepage from jealous fans of a popular teen idol group as a photo of her in a friendly pose with a member of the group quickly spread on the internet.

Many teenage netizens, jealous of her transformation into a slim beauty, questioned whether she had had plastic surgery, including fat removal, or had taken diet pills.

Her death came only a few months after Jeong Da-bin, a popular TV actress, and pop singer Yuni took their own lives early this year after being plagued by net users.

Last year, another top star, actress Kim Tae-hee, sued a group of netizens for circulating false rumors that her month-long trip to the United States for language study was actually a cover for an abortion.

Politicians are also increasingly becoming a target of what they call "cyberterrorism" by opponents.

Sohn Hak-kyu, a former Gyeonggi Province governor and independent candidate of the December presidential election, told the local press in February that he suffered from Internet comments by conservatives when he spoke in support of former President Kim Dae-jung's sunshine policy of engaging North Korea.

Politicians worry that such attacks will increase as December's presidential election and April's parliamentary poll approach.

Min Gyeong-bae, professor of the NGO study department of Kyunghee Cyber University, says verbal violence in cyberspace is mainly due to lack of personal contact.

"Because there are no face-to-face interactions between people in the cyberspace, people often forget that they are criticizing a real people, so they don't feel guilty about what they write," he said.

Large internet portals are trying to prevent verbal attacks on their bulletin boards by using a computerized system for filtering out four-letter words and hiring monitors. They also keep a blacklist of netizens who have attacked others.

A law requiring people to write using only their real names on the Internet on a limited basis is to go into effect in early July while prosecutors seek ways to increase punishment for cyberspace slanderers.

Some experts say, however, that mandating netizens to use only their real names could stifle freedom of expression on the Internet.

"We rather need a peaceful strategy to encourage more and more writers with good intentions to lead public opinion on the Internet to oppose malicious comments," Min said. "That is the best way, I think, to keep cyberspace clear of the small number of people who verbally attack others."
SEOUL, June 7 (Yonhap News)

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