South Korea is facing a reckoning about the proliferation of harmful deepfake pornography. Law enforcement officers and politicians are promising to crackdown on the illegal behaviour, but many victims say attitudes among men need to change.
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00:00These women have had enough of a social media scourge.
00:07The number of reported deepfake cases has exploded in recent weeks, with chat rooms
00:13exposed containing thousands of members, creating and disseminating fabricated sexual images
00:20of real girls and women.
00:22Most perpetrators are teenagers.
00:25In this chat room, people can easily obtain deepfake photos by paying money through a
00:30bot system.
00:32Independent journalist Won Yoon-ji cracked open the first major case earlier this year.
00:37Dozens of women harassed with their photographs converted into deepfake porn.
00:42His attempts to really humiliate me and try to get me to respond, that really, really
00:50just felt like a physical assault.
00:53After building trust with a suspect over the encrypted messaging service Telegram, Yoon-ji
00:58lured him out, organising women's underwear to be dropped off at a university toilet block.
01:04When he came to collect, police swooped.
01:07After nearly two years of conversation, it was the only moment I saw hope.
01:12I thought, this crime will end now, the victims can finally rest easy.
01:18Facing a police investigation, Telegram has set up an exclusive email for authorities.
01:23The government's pushing for a hotline.
01:26Many women aren't waiting, deleting their social media photos en masse.
01:31This problem is being viewed almost as a national disaster in Korea.
01:35Creating deepfake material can result in a jail sentence of up to five years or a fine
01:40of almost US$40,000.
01:43Politicians are now calling for even tougher measures, including lowering the age of criminal
01:48responsibility.
01:49What victims want is a change in attitudes among men.
01:53So I'm less worried about the technologies than with the persistent misogyny and rape
02:00culture.
02:01A need to prevent a problem that's proliferating in South Korea and abroad.