bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Reuters

Agence France-Presse

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Tuesday called for digital sex crimes to be thoroughly investigated after media reported that sexually explicit deepfake images and videos of South Korean women were often found in Telegram chat rooms.
The reports by domestic media have coincided with the arrest of Pavel Durov, Telegram’s Russian-born founder, over the weekend – part of a French probe into child pornography, drug trafficking and fraud on the encrypted messaging app.
The Korea Communications Standards Commission, the state media regulator, plans to hold a meeting on Wednesday to discuss measures to counter sexually explicit deepfakes.
“It’s an exploitation of technology while relying on the protection of anonymity. It’s a clear criminal act,” Yoon said during a televised cabinet meeting.
Yoon talked about sex crimes on social media in general and did not mention Telegram by name.
Telegram did not immediately respond to request for comment.
South Korea has the world’s fastest average internet speeds, but activists say it also has an acute epidemic of digital sex crimes, including spycams and revenge porn, with inadequate legislation to punish offenders.
“Recently, deepfake videos targeting unspecified individuals have been rapidly spreading through social media,” Yoon told a cabinet meeting, according to his office.

Online deepfake sex crimes have surged, according to South Korean police, who say 297 cases were reported in the first seven months of the year. That’s up from 180 last year and nearly double the number in 2021 when data first began to be collated.
Most of the accused were teenagers and people in their 20s, the police said.
The local media reports included one analysis that went viral by the Hankyoreh newspaper which looked at Telegram channels where it said deepfakes of female university and high and middle school students were being shared.
The Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union said this week it has been informed of some cases where school students have been the victims of sexual deepfakes. It has called on the education ministry to investigate the matter.
Sexually explicit deepfakes targeting female military personnel have also been found in Telegram chat rooms, according to the Military Sexual Abuse Victim Support Center, a group that supports victims of sexual abuse in the military.
“The biggest issue with online sexual abuse is that their deletion is extremely difficult. Victims often suffer without even being aware of it,” Bae Bok-joo, a women’s rights activist and a former member of the minor Justice Party, said.
“I don’t believe this government, which dismisses structural gender discrimination as mere ‘personal disputes’, can effectively address these issues.”
The government needs to declare a “national emergency” over deepfake porn, said Park Ji-hyun, a women’s rights activist and former interim leader of the main opposition Democratic Party.


“Deepfake sexual abuse materials can be created in just one minute, and anyone can enter the chat room without any verification process,” she wrote on social media platform X.
“Such incidents are occurring in middle schools, high schools and universities across the country,” Park said, alleging there were hundreds of thousands of perpetrators of such abuse.
South Korea has successfully prosecuted perpetrators of online abuse.
The mastermind of a notorious online sex abuse ring, which lured and blackmailed at least 74 women, including teenagers, into sending degrading sexual imagery of themselves, was jailed for 42 years in jail in 2021.
Telegram’s reputation has been tarnished for some years in South Korea after it emerged that an online sexual blackmail ring was operating mostly in the app’s chat rooms.
Making sexually explicit deepfakes with the intention to distribute them is punishable by five years in prison or a fine of 50 million won (US$37,500) under South Korea’s Sexual Violence Prevention and Victims Protection Act.


Will South Korea heed Ukraine’s call for weapons aid amid Trump’s win, Russia warning?

Hong Kong stocks recover from 2-month low as investors assess Trump’s new China tariffs

South Korean man convicted of evading military service by binge eating

Trump is urged to include South Korea in strategic meetings about Taiwan

South Korea

South Korea vows tougher stance after outcry over sexual deepfakes in Telegram chat rooms

South Korea’s president called for an investigation into deepfake porn after media reports that Telegram chatrooms were sharing explicit images of minors at schools and universities sparked public outrage.
Photo: Getty

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called for a crackdown on digital sex crimes amid rising deepfake abuse, highlighting the need for stronger legislation. Photo: TNS

Critics blast Seoul’s ‘submissive’ Tokyo ties as Kishida seeks Yoon talks before exit

Japanese PM Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol meet in Lithuania last year. Photo: Kyodo

The two islet off the coast of South Korea known as Dokdo, or Takeshima in Japan. Photo: AP

US President Joe Biden looks on as Yoon shakes hands with Kishida during a joint news conference last year. Photo: AP

‘Pro-Japanese traitors’: South Korea’s Yoon slammed over wartime whitewashing

Japanese nationalists holding war flags of the Imperial Japanese Army visit Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine earlier this month. Photo: dpa

A group of Japanese lawmakers visits the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on August 15. Photo: Kyodo via Reuters 

South Koreans wearing masks of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, US President Joe Biden and Japan’s PM Fumio Kishida protest in Seoul against joint military drills in June. Photo: AFP

India’s rape-murder case sparks calls for more women protection, strong policing

Activists at a protest rally condemn the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata. Photo: AFP

A medical professional protesting against the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata. Photo: AFP

Security personnel guard RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata, where the rape and murder of a doctor happened on August 9. Photo: EPA-EFE

South Korea’s reunification plan based on human rights risks deepening row with the North

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife Kim Keon-hee wave national flags during the celebration of the 79th National Liberation Day in Seoul on August 15. Photo: EPA-EFE

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during the celebration of the 79th National Liberation Day in Seoul on August 15. Photo: EPA-EFE

Then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il raise their arms before signing a joint declaration during a summit in Pyongyang. Photo: AP

A worker dismantles loudspeakers set up for propaganda broadcasts near the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas in Paju, South Korea. Photo: AP

Trainee doctor exodus pushes South Korea’s collapsing healthcare system to the brink

Trainee doctors have walked off the job in their droves in South Korea – forcing hospitals to scale back critical services. Photo: EPA-EFE

Medical staff walk past an ambulance parked outside a hospital in Seoul. Photo: AFP

News

Asia

East Asia

South Korean President Yoon called for a crackdown on digital sex crimes amid rising deepfake abuse, highlighting the need for stronger legislation


South Korean President Yoon called for a crackdown on digital sex crimes amid rising deepfake abuse, highlighting the need for stronger legislation.
