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Police arrest nearly 1,000 in deepfake sex crime crackdown

Published: 17 Apr. 2025, 09:33 Updated: 17 Apr. 2025, 19:15

The National Office of Investigation headquarters in Seodaemun District, western Seoul, on Jan. 11. [KIM HYUN-DONG]

Police arrested 963 individuals after a seven-month crackdown on sex crimes involving content created through deepfake technology, with most arrests involving teens and those in their 20s.

The National Office of Investigation (NOI) under the Korean National Police Agency announced on Thursday the results of its enforcement campaign targeting the production, distribution, possession and viewing of sexually explicit illegal videos, conducted from Aug. 28, 2024, to March 31 this year.

The number of people arrested during this period rose by 260 percent compared to the 267 people apprehended in the previous seven months before the crackdown began, according to police.

Of those arrested, 669 were teenagers — including 72 juveniles not subject to criminal punishment under current law — followed by 228 in their 20s, 51 in their 30s, 11 in their 40s and four aged 50 or older. Teenagers and those in their 20s accounted for 93.1 percent of all arrests.

Among those apprehended was a suspect who, from November 2022 to August 2024, created a Telegram chat room listing the names and universities of female college students and distributed deepfake videos around 270 times.

Another suspect ran a Telegram group named after a K-pop idol group and produced and shared approximately 1,100 deepfake videos of celebrities from August 2023 to March this year.

Police officers conduct a school campaign on preventing digital sex crimes including deepfake videos at a school in Gwangju on April 9. [YONHAP]

The police also requested that more than 10,000 videos be deleted or blocked through coordination with the Korea Communications Standards Commission and other relevant agencies.

With a revision to the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes set to take effect on June 4, which allows undercover investigations in deepfake cases even when the victim is an adult, the police plan to make active use of this expanded authority.

"The production of sexually manipulated deepfake videos is a crime, but so is possessing, purchasing or viewing them," police said.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.

BY LEE JI-YOUNG [[email protected]]