KOREAN NET

Acting Minister and Vice Minister of Gender Equality and Family Shin Young-sook on April 17 (right) speaks at the launching ceremony for the National Center for Digital Sexual Crime Response at the Women's Human Rights Institute of Korea in Seoul's Jung-gu District. (Ministry's official Facebook account)

By Park Hye Ri

The newly launched National Center for Digital Sexual Crime Response, which runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, is part of the country's upgrade of its support system for the victims of such crimes to unify the national hotline for reporting and receiving counseling to 1366.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on April 24 said this after a meeting of its committee to prevent violence against women and finalized the second basic plan (2025-29) for policy to prevent such violence.

Under the vision "A safe daily routine free from sexual violence, a society where everyone is respected," the plan focuses on upgrading the response system to digital sexual crimes in a systematic manner and heightening protection for vulnerable groups like children and teens given the types of damage and recent surge in such offenses.

First, the center will be upgraded as the national hub for responding to digital sexual crimes ranging from deletion and blocking distribution of illegally filmed videos to investigation and punishment. An integrated website will also speed up the reporting, consulting and provision of information on the damage of such crimes.

Businesses that receive requests to delete illegally filmed videos must block such content and undergo a mandatory review from the Korea Communications Standards Commission. And processes for deletion support will be automated like for artificial intelligence-based deep fake videos and requests for removing illegally filmed footage.

Stronger investigations will also be conducted into digital sexual crimes committed on closed platforms such as Telegram. To this end, the scope of undercover probes will be expanded to adults in addition to children and teens, and the country will also join the Budapest Convention on the overseas preservation of evidence of cybercrimes.

Under consideration is a protective order system to allow victims of stalking to directly request protection from courts. Safety measures will be also heightened such as weekly monitoring for victims of date stalking within 30 days after reporting, installing intelligent surveillance cameras and supporting private security.

Another proposal is revisions of the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth Against Sex Offenses to upgrade protection and support for both types of victims like using categories like distribution of exploitation materials of child sexual abuse, grooming and prostitution.

"The basic plan contains policy tasks to proactively respond to new types of violence toward women and remove blind sides in protection for victims," Acting Minister and Vice Minister of Gender Equality and Family Shin Young-sook said. "We will do all we can to ensure a daily routine free from violence against women."

hrhr@korea.kr