Police said on the 16th that about 3,500 suspects were arrested over the past year in a crackdown on cybersex crimes. Half of the suspects were teenagers.
The National Office of Investigation (NOI) of the Korean National Police Agency said it uncovered 3,411 cybersex crime cases and arrested 3,557 people in a crackdown carried out from Nov. last year to Oct. this year, detaining 221 of them.
By number of cases, deepfake (fake videos) crimes were the most common with 1,553 cases (35.2%), followed by child and youth sexual exploitation material (1,513 cases, 34.3%) and illegal recordings (857 cases, 19.4%).
Among suspects, teenagers accounted for 47.6% (1,761 people), or about half. They were followed by those in their 20s (1,228 people, 33.2%), 30s (468 people, 12.7%), and 40s (169 people, 4.6%).
In particular, in deepfake crimes, teenagers (895 people, 61.8%) and those in their 20s (438 people, 30.2%) made up more than 90%. The Korean National Police Agency said these age groups are accustomed to using digital media.
Representative cases include a 17-year-old male student who approached 19 female classmates via Instagram and other platforms saying he would "tell them who was distributing deepfake videos," then produced sexual exploitation material, and a 15-year-old male student who produced 590 deepfakes by combining nude photos with the faces of female entertainers; both were detained.
Police also conducted 256 undercover investigations, up 32% from 194 in the same period a year earlier. They said 913 people were arrested and 36 were detained through undercover operations.
Those arrested for cybersex crimes increased 47.8% from 2,406 in the same period a year earlier. The Korean National Police Agency analyzed that deepfake threats have surged since the second half of last year due to advances in technology such as artificial intelligence (AI), and that amendments to the Act on the Punishment of Sexual Crimes expanded the scope of penalties for deepfakes.
Accordingly, the Korean National Police Agency said it built and strengthened international cooperation systems with platforms such as Telegram and increased arrests by using deepfake detection software.
To prevent secondary harm from cybersex crimes, police requested the Korea Communications Standards Commission to delete or block 36,135 videos over the past year. They also connected 28,356 cases to the Digital Sex Crime Victim Support Center.
Police plan to continue the intensive crackdown on cybersex crimes through Oct. 31 next year and strengthen prevention activities for emerging crimes. Park U-hyeon, deliberation officer for cyber investigation at the Korean National Police Agency, said, "As AI technology advances, cybersex crimes are becoming increasingly sophisticated and covert," and added, "As these are serious crimes that destroy victims' dignity, we will do our utmost to eradicate them and protect victims."