A warning notice about crimes involving deepfake sexual exploitation material is posted at the Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency on Aug. 30, 2024.NEWS1
Over 270 people were indicted for deepfake crimes last year, more than three times as many as the year before, according to government data released Tuesday.
Deepfake crimes involve editing, synthesizing or generating images, videos or audio of a person’s face, body or voice against their will in a way that may provoke sexual desire or humiliation, then distributing or possessing the resulting content.
A total of 273 people were indicted, either in custody, without detention or through summary proceedings, for deepfake crimes under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes last year, up about 3.5 times from 62 the previous year, according to data from the Ministry of Justice submitted to Democratic Party Rep. Kim Yong-min, a member of the National Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee.
The annual number of people indicted for deepfake crimes had remained at around 30 to 40, with 42 in 2021, 36 in 2022 and 29 in 2023. The figure then surged to 62 in 2024 and 273 last year.
Compared with 2021, the number of people indicted last year increased more than fivefold.
The trend has continued this year.
A total of 142 people were indicted for deepfake crimes from January through August, about 3.5 times the number indicted during all of 2021.
About one in 10 of those indicted were detained. Of the 584 people indicted between 2021 and August this year, 73, or 12.5 percent, were detained under arrest warrants.
A school police officer gives students a lesson on preventing crimes involving deepfake sexual exploitation material at a middle school in Suseong District, Daegu, on Aug. 30, 2024.YONHAP
During the same period, 117 suspects, or about 20 percent of those indicted, faced summary proceedings, which allow relatively minor cases to be decided through a written review without a formal trial.
The number of juvenile deepfake cases referred to juvenile courts has also surged in recent years.
A total of 255 juvenile deepfake cases were referred to juvenile courts last year, up 1.8 times from 91 the previous year.
The figure stood at 59 in 2021, 24 in 2022 and 36 in 2023 before jumping to 91 in 2024.
From January through August this year, 128 juveniles were referred to juvenile courts for deepfake crimes, already well above the total for all of 2024.
“Deepfake crimes are serious offenses that can destroy a person’s life, but lenient punishment has become so commonplace that even teenagers are taking part in such crimes without a sense of guilt,” Rep. Kim said. “We will work to make related laws and systems more effective so that digital sex crimes can no longer take root in our society.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
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