The Central Digital Sexual Crime Victim Support Center (Di-Sung Center) supported 10,305 victims of digital sexual crimes, including deepfakes, last year. This indicates that there are at least 10,000 victims of digital sexual crimes, marking the first time since the center began related support in 2018 that the number surpassed 10,000.
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the Korean Women's Human Rights Promotion Agency released the '2024 Digital Sexual Crime Victim Support Report' on the 10th.
According to the report made public that day, the Di-Sung Center provided over 332,000 services to 10,305 victims of digital sexual crimes last year. The number of victims supported increased by 14.7% compared to the previous year, while the number of support services rose by 20.6%.
It was the first time that the number of digital sexual crime victims counted by the Di-Sung Center surpassed 10,000 last year. The government had previously opened the Di-Sung Center in 2018 to support counseling for victims, removal of victim images, and connections to legal and medical services.
The total number of digital sexual crime victim types reported to the Di-Sung Center is 16,833. The largest proportion was anxiety about distribution at 25.9% (43.58%), followed by illegal filming at 24.9% (4,182 cases), distribution at 17.2% (2,890 cases), and threats of distribution at 13.3% (2,244 cases).
By gender, 72.1% (7,428) of victims were female, while 27.9% (2,877) were male. By age group, those in their teens (2,863, 27.8%) and twenties (5,242, 50.9%) accounted for 78.7% (8,105) of all victims.
The government plans to produce and distribute prevention education content and materials suitable for children and adolescents to enhance its capabilities in responding to digital sexual crimes. Additionally, it plans to expand the budget and personnel of the Di-Sung Center to ensure 24/7 counseling for victims.
Vice Minister Shin Young-sook said, "We will continually seek measures to proactively support victims of digital sexual crimes."
Shin Bora, head of the Women's Human Rights Promotion Agency, stated, "We will work to provide faster and more effective support to victims of digital sexual crimes by ensuring the stable establishment of centralized functions and improving the quality of victim support services."