hankyoreh

(Hankyoreh file photo)

Sex crimes involving pornographic deepfakes are turning up throughout Korean society. Not only university students but also minors — including children in high school, middle school and even elementary school — are among the victims of the digitally altered images and videos of people’s photographs. Some perpetrators have been brazenly making deepfakes from official photographs of female soldiers that can only be viewed on the military’s intranet.

It’s enough to arouse suspicions that illicit images of this kind are being created and distributed wherever people congregate online. How did the authorities allow things to reach this state?

In one recent offense, a number of students at a middle school in Busan created pornographic deepfakes of students and teachers at their school and posted them to a group chat room on KakaoTalk. A criminal complaint against the students has reportedly been filed with the police.

According to social media posts, similar cases have occurred at some 150 middle and high schools nationwide. This suggests a widespread problem of deepfake crimes being perpetrated by teenagers who are accustomed to digital content.

Adolescents are particularly susceptible to online sex crimes because of their proficiency with online technology. It’s shocking enough to know that deepfake crimes were previously discovered at 70 different universities nationwide — but the fact that even minors are being exposed to them is dumbfounding.

According to the Hankyoreh’s investigations, crimes involving deepfakes in military units have reached severe levels.

One Telegram channel opened on Aug. 8 circulated illegal deepfakes targeting women in the armed forces. The operator reportedly disparaged female soldiers as “military supplies” and made sexually objectifying remarks about them “feeling such a sense of superiority because they wear a uniform.”

How is the military supposed to function properly with these sorts of bizarre attitudes where fellow soldiers are not viewed as comrades-in-arms through thick and thin?

Through its sources, the Hankyoreh learned that some of the deepfakes involving female soldiers used ID photographs and government official certifications that could only be accessed on the military’s intranet. Since that intranet is only accessible to insiders, it should be possible to track down the people who used that information to create illegal deepfakes.

The Ministry of National Defense should waste no time in sending a message by hunting down those responsible and punishing them.

These cyber sex crimes involving deepfakes are taking place on Telegram, which is able to avoid investigation because its servers are located abroad. For this reason, Korean police have shown a lack of initiative in investigating the offenses, leading to victims themselves going on the hunt for those who wronged them. On social media sites, chat rooms are being created for taking tips on deepfakes, and guidelines for protecting yourself from becoming the target of deepfake pornography are being circulated online. 

The fact that such ghastly crimes are occurring in a country whose president blathers on about “law and order” every time he speaks is despicable. The government must stop sitting on its hands and actively come up with response measures. 

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]