Deepfake sex crimes increasing among teens in South Korea

Recent progress in video technology has had some alarming effects in South Korea, as a growing number of tech-savvy youngsters are using deepfake technology to produce sexual images of people, often their own peers, without their consent.

A recent report showed that there were 180 criminal cases related to deepfake images in 2023.

Of the 120 people punished for those crimes, 91 - or 75.8 per cent were teenagers, according to a report compiled by Representative Cho Eun-hee of the People Power Party, which used data provided by the National Police Agency.

Both the number of deepfakerelated crimes as well as the percentage of such crimes perpetrated by teens have been trending upwards. In 2022, there were 156 cases of deepfake crimes - 61 per cent of convictions were of teens.

"These digital sex crimes that inflict irreversible damage on the victims are spreading among teens, as if it were a game," Ms Cho said, calling for a systematic revision to prevent such crimes.

On Aug 21, the Busan Metropolitan Office of Education said four middle school students were being investigated by the police for using deepfake technology to digitally clone the faces of 18 students and two teachers. They made some 80 pornographic images of the victims, which they shared via mobile messenger apps.

There were 12 cases of students spreading pornographic deepfakes of fellow students in Busan in 2023, but there have been 15 cases in the first six months of 2024 alone.