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Teenager arrested for allegedly creating, sharing deepfake porn images, videos

Published: 22 May. 2025, 09:31

The Korean police's logo as seen on an officer [YONHAP]

A teenager has been arrested for creating and sharing sexually explicit deepfake images and videos that superimposed the faces of female celebrities and ordinary women onto nude bodies.

The high school student allegedly operated three Telegram chat rooms from November last year to April this year, where he shared the illicit content, according to the Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency on Thursday.

Police said 23 others were booked without detention for allegedly producing or redistributing some 3,500 fabricated images and videos in the chat rooms. Of those, 15 were teenagers and the remaining eight were in their 20s to 40s.

Authorities noted that crimes involving deepfake pornography have become increasingly common with the rapid advancement of AI platforms, and the manipulated content is often difficult to distinguish from real footage.

The police launched an undercover investigation in February after receiving intelligence on the case via Telegram. In cooperation with the platform, police identified and apprehended all suspects.

“A false belief that secure messaging platforms like Telegram are untraceable often leads people to commit such crimes without awareness of the consequences,” a police official said. “We will continue to track down those who commit deepfake crimes, which are a serious violation of human dignity.”

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
BY LEE JI-YOUNG [[email protected]]