“Widespread” digital sex crime affects the lives of women and girls in South Korea, report says

(Reuters) – The digital sex crime It is now so widespread in South Korea that fear of it is affecting the quality of life of women and girls, and many victims say they have thought about suicide or leaving the country, a watchdog said on Wednesday from the human rights.

South Korea has become the world’s epicenter for spy cameras: the use of tiny hidden cameras to film victims naked, urinating or having sex.

Other cases refer to the leakage of intimate photos without permission, or sexual abuse, such as rapes captured by the camera, the videos of which are later shared on the Internet.

Victims are often further traumatized and “engulfed in abuse” during subsequent encounters with police and other justice officials, and by the expectation that they must gather evidence and monitor the Internet for new appearances of their images , he pointed out in a report the American organization Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“Digital sex crimes have become so common, and so feared, in South Korea that they are affecting the quality of life for all women and girls,” said Heather Barr, author of the report, in a statement.

Serious sequelae

“Women and girls told us that they avoided using public toilets and that they were distressed by hidden cameras in public and even at home. An alarming number of survivors of digital sex crimes reported having considered suicide.

The report, based on 38 interviews and an online survey, said prosecutions for sex crimes related to illegal filming increased 11-fold between 2008 and 2017, according to data from the Korean Institute of Criminology.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has asked the police to investigate the growing number of allegations of sexual abuse, including recently among members of the military.

Last year, police broke up an online network that lured dozens of underage women and girls into what authorities have called “virtual slavery,” blackmailing them into sending increasingly degrading and sometimes violent sexual images of themselves. .

HRW said the South Korean government needs to do more, increasing legal penalties for convicted criminals, increasing the number of women among police, prosecutors and judges, and changing the broader gender inequality that normalizes the consumption of non-consensual images. .

In 2019, prosecutors dropped 43.5% of digital sex crime cases compared to 27.7% of homicide cases and 19% of robbery cases. Although they generally achieved convictions for the sex crimes they were prosecuted, according to the report.