SEOUL: The number of online sex crimes targeting children and teens in South Korea has nearly doubled in just one year, with the police warning of a steep rise in cases involving grooming and artificial intelligence-generated sexual content.
Data released this week by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family shows that so-called grooming-related offences – legally defined in South Korea as online communication with minors for the purpose of sexual exploitation – rose from 73 reported cases in 2023 to 202 in 2024.
Nearly all the victims were girls (97 per cent), most of them middle school age.
The figures were obtained by Democratic Party Representative Jeon Jin-sook and released on Oct 22. She warned that perpetrators are increasingly young and tech-savvy, exploiting platforms popular with minors to build trust and manipulate victims.
“We’re seeing both victims and offenders get younger,” Jeon said. “It’s critical that schools begin teaching digital literacy early so children can recognise these threats and protect themselves.”
South Korea has seen a broader surge in digital sex crimes over the past four years, as new technologies make it easier to create and distribute exploitative content.
According to the National Police Agency, reported digital sex crimes rose from 9,700 cases in One of the fastest-growing categories involves AI-generated sexual images and videos, typically deepfakes that misuse the likeness of real people without their consent.
Just 31 such cases were reported in 2020, but that number jumped to 550 in 2024.
As the volume of abuse increases, so has demand for victim support.
In 2024, more than 332,000 cases were handled by the Digital Sex Crime Victim Support Centre, a national agency that helps victims remove content and access counselling.
This is nearly double the number from 2020. The majority of cases (more than 300,000) involved requests for the removal of non-consensual images or videos, often uploaded to social media or file-sharing sites.
The centre, which operates under the Korea Women’s Human Rights Institute, supported just over 10,000 individuals in 2024, an eightfold increase from when it launched in 2018. It operates from 8am to 10pm local time.
Jeon called for an urgent expansion of both staff and hours, noting that many victims discover their abuse late at night or on weekends. “We need a 24-hour response system,” she said. - The Korea Herald/ANN
