![\"Kim](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/354635.jpg\" "\\"Kim")
<\/p>\nSEOUL, July 31 \u2014 Under banners emblazoned \u201cSolidarity\u201d and \u201cWe stand together with victims\u201d, a group of South Korean women digital detectives dredges the internet for a scourge of illegal AI-enabled pornography.<\/p>\n
South Korea \u2014 home to the world\u2019s leading smartphone and memory chipmakers \u2014 takes huge national pride in its tech prowess.<\/p>\n
But the success story has a dark side: women suffer rampant \u201cdigital sex crimes\u201d, rights groups say. Spycams film them in private while chat groups blackmail them for explicit content and share so-called \u201crevenge porn\u201d without consent.<\/p>\n
AI-generated deepfakes are the newest threat. Using the generative technology and a picture of their victim\u2019s face, harassers can fabricate invasive pornographic images portraying their targets.<\/p>\n
At the National Centre for Digital Sexual Crime Response \u2014 housed in an airy Seoul office \u2014 23 women are tasked with turning the tide, trawling the web and filing delete requests backed by threats of legal action.<\/p>\n
Last year, the group pulled down 318,000 videos and photos \u2014 deepfakes, spycam content and intimate imagery shared without consent \u2014 on behalf of 10,600 people, 75 per cent of whom were women and girls.<\/p>\n
\u201cSouth Korea acted faster than others because not only digital sex crimes became common earlier than elsewhere, but also women spoke out against them just as quickly and vigorously,\u201d Kim Mi-soon, the head of the government-founded centre, told AFP.<\/p>\n
Deepfake deluge<\/p>\n
The centre opened in 2018, a year that saw tens of thousands of women demand action through anti-spycam protests.<\/p>\n
The organisation\u2019s headquarters and 17 regional hubs also offer counselling and legal advice and collect evidence for prosecutions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kim Mi\u2011Soon, head of the National Centre for Digital Sexual Crime Response, browses the centre\u2019s internal website in Seoul on July 2, 2026. \u2014 AFP pic<\/p>\n
One 33-year-old woman, who asked to be identified only by her surname Kim, said she had deepfakes shared in 2024 on encrypted apps beyond the reach of the centre\u2019s specialists.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe centre may not be perfect, but it can make a huge difference for victims going through this nightmare alone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Kim, a member of the military, said she felt \u201chealed\u201d by their support \u2014 including financial aid to secure a trauma diagnosis for court evidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gave me a huge sense of relief and solace,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNavigating the whole legal procedure alone while suffering trauma would have been impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Digital sex crimes are proving a mutable menace.<\/p>\n
In 2020, the \u201cNth Room\u201d scandal revealed men were exploiting dozens of women and girls they called \u201cslaves\u201d in pay-to-view \u201csextortion\u201d chatrooms.<\/p>\n
Since the 46-person national response centre was founded, sexual deepfakes have become the new trend.<\/p>\n
Between 2019 and 2023, global deepfake circulation surged 550 per cent, according to web safety firm Security Hero.<\/p>\n
Nearly 98 per cent of content was AI-generated pornography of women, with more than half the victims in South Korean, according to company research.<\/p>\n
K-pop stars are main targets, but ordinary women are increasingly ensnared in a country where police data show digital sex crimes account for 40 per cent of all sexual offences.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince last year, we\u2019ve seen more and more deepfakes of ordinary women and girls \u2014 with the images becoming way more sophisticated than before and victims getting younger and younger,\u201d said deletion specialist Kim Yun-hee.<\/p>\n
The centre uses its own AI tools, including a monitoring system capable of detecting exploitative material and messages targeting children.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis job is not easy,\u201d the 31-year-old told AFP. \u201cBut it feels really rewarding whenever our clients say our service is a true life-saver.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Leading the way\u2019<\/p>\n
Deepfake pornography is illegal in South Korea, with possession punishable by up to three years in prison and creators facing up to seven years behind bars.<\/p>\n
Penalties were increased in 2024, the year a series of Telegram deepfake chatrooms were found to be sharing AI-generated sexualised footage of female acquaintances, classmates, colleagues and relatives, sometimes created from photos taken from victims\u2019 social media accounts.<\/p>\n
Clare McGlynn, law professor at Britain\u2019s Durham University and an expert in image-based sexual abuse, said Seoul is \u201cleading the way on providing holistic support services and investing in the latest technology to try to reduce the harm\u201d.<\/p>\n
South Korea\u2019s approach offers \u201can example for the rest of the world\u201d, she told AFP.<\/p>\n
Yet campaigners warn the problem\u2019s root cause is a patriarchal culture that regards women as sexual objects undeserving of dignity.<\/p>\n
Kim Yeo-jin, head of the nonprofit Korea Cyber Sexual Violence Response Centre, told AFP the online problem needs an offline solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless we tackle this fundamental cause by fostering more gender equality in wider society and strengthening gender equality education at school, no amount of removal efforts will be enough,\u201d she said. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEOUL, July 31 \u2014 Under banners emblazoned \u201cSolidarity\u201d and \u201cWe stand together with victims\u201d, a group of South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[54089,12113,54087,54090,54088,112,33],"class_list":["post-104767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-seoul","tag-ai-generated-pornography","tag-deepfakes","tag-digital-sex-crimes","tag-kim-mi-soon","tag-national-centre-for-digital-sexual-crime-response","tag-seoul","tag-south-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}