Male middle schoolers in Gyeonggi busted over deepfakes of female classmates
Police in Gyeonggi say the eight suspects created and shared deepfake pornography using female classmates’ social media photos, with more than 10 victims identified.
A poster warning against crimes involving deepfake content is displayed at the Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency on Aug. 30, 2024.
NEWS1
A group of male middle school students in Gyeonggi have been caught creating and sharing deepfake content by editing photos of female students from the same school.
Eight male students attending a middle school in Gyeonggi were caught on charges of violating the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes, including the production and distribution of fabricated video content, according to the Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency's cyber investigation team on Wednesday.
Four students were 14 or older at the time of the offense and were referred to the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office because they were subject to criminal punishment. Four others were between 10 and 14 years old — thus exempt from criminal responsibility — and were referred to the juvenile division of the Suwon Family Court. The referrals took place in stages from late March to June this year.
The students are accused of screenshotting photos posted on social media accounts of female students from the same school between May and August last year, and editing them with other images to create deepfake pornography. The eight are also accused of watching and sharing the content among themselves.
More than 10 students have been confirmed as victims so far.
The investigation found that the eight students shared the fabricated videos with each other through social media, and no signs that it was distributed outside the group were found.
Police said different charges were applied to each student, since the degree of involvement in the offense, whether producing, possessing or watching the fabricated video content, varied.
"There are concerns about secondary harm, so we cannot disclose the specific details of how the investigation began," a police official said.
BY HYEON YE-SEUL [[email protected]]
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.
