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Good practice

South Korea's Post-"Nth Room" Digital Sex Crime Reforms & Victim Support Center

South Korea · Seoul · See the South Korea profile

South Korea criminalized possession of illegal sexual footage and deepfake sex content after the 2020 "Nth Room" scandal, and expanded a victim-support center that served a record 10,305 people in 2024 — though rights groups say enforcement remains weak.

10,305 victims
Victims supported by Digital Sex Crime Victim Support Center (2024)
14.7 %
Year-on-year increase in victims supported (2023-2024)
~332,000 services
Individual support services delivered (2024)
300,000+ pieces
Illicit content pieces removed (2024)
423 to 1,384 cases
Reported deepfake ('synthetic/edited') abuse cases (2022-2023)
South Korea's Post-"Nth Room" Digital Sex Crime Reforms & Victim Support Center

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Ministry of Gender Equality and Family / Korea Women's Human Rights Institute
Period
2018–2024
Keywords
gender-based violence, technology-facilitated abuse, criminal justice reform, victim support services

Context

Following South Korea's 2020 'Nth Room' digital sex-trafficking scandal, lawmakers amended the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes, the Criminal Act, and related statutes (effective 21 May 2020) to criminalize possession, purchase, storage or viewing of illegally filmed sexual footage, and raised penalties for producing or distributing such material.

Objectives

Criminalize possession/distribution of illegal sexual footage and deepfake sex content, impose takedown/monitoring duties on online platforms, and expand victim support services.

Activities

Legislative amendments (2020, further round 2024 criminalizing possession of deepfake sexual content); expansion of the Digital Sex Crime Victim Support Center (run by the Korea Women's Human Rights Institute since 2018) into a 17-province network offering counselling, content-removal and legal/medical referral services.

Results

In 2024 the support center served a record 10,305 victims (up 14.7% year-on-year), delivered about 332,000 individual support services, and removed over 300,000 pieces of illicit content. Reported deepfake abuse cases rose from 423 (2022) to 1,384 (2023), a 227% increase.

Conclusions

Independent monitors including Human Rights Watch report persistent enforcement gaps, with police and courts frequently criticized for dismissing victims; lawmakers have called the original 2020 response reactive and under-resourced.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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