To prevent the problem of the same footage being repeatedly distributed even after illegal recordings are deleted, the government will undertake an integrated response to illegal harmful sites.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced on the 6th that it held a plaque-unveiling ceremony at the Government Complex Seoul to mark the launch of the pan-government joint ‘Digital Sexual Crime Victim Integrated Support Team’.

The integrated support team is a pan-government joint body in which the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the Broadcasting, Media and Communications Commission, and the National Police Agency participate together. The ministry’s Director-General for Safety and Human Rights Policy will serve as head, and the team will operate with eight people in total, including one deputy head and seven members. The Central Support Center for Victims of Digital Sexual Crimes, operated by the Korea Women’s Human Rights Institute under the ministry, will cooperate by taking charge of initial analyses of platforms that distributed illegal recordings.

The government has so far provided deletion support in about 1.53 million cases for roughly 53,000 victims of digital sexual crimes. However, it explained that the method of filing reports and deletion requests at the level of internet addresses (URLs) where the victimized footage was posted had limits in stopping the sites themselves that repeatedly disseminate illegal recordings.

In particular, for sites based on overseas servers, immediate access blocking and administrative sanctions were difficult even when clearly illegal recordings were posted. Problems persisted in which sites refused deletion requests or reposted the same videos repeatedly.

The integrated support team plans to analyze data on approximately 26,000 illegal harmful sites accumulated at the Central Support Center for Victims of Digital Sexual Crimes to identify the distribution routes of illegal recordings, site operation methods, revenue structures, and more.

It will also analyze bypass access pathways to enhance the effectiveness of deletion and blocking measures, and, for sites that repeatedly distribute illegal recordings or refuse deletion requests, pursue an integrated, pan-government response such as investigative referrals, imposition of administrative fines, swift blocking, and international cooperation.

In addition, for clearly illegal recordings, access will be swiftly blocked through telecommunications operators, and in urgent and grave situations such as mass harm, the integrated support team will respond directly.

An official of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said, “Some illegal harmful sites continue to create bypass access pathways even after being blocked,” adding, “Although there are penalty provisions for refusing deletion and the like, there have been almost no actual cases of punishment, so we will concentrate our capacity on responding to harmful sites that had been left unaddressed.”

Won Min-kyung, Minister of Gender Equality and Family, said, “The government will go beyond simple deletion support to swiftly block the distribution channels of illegal recordings and establish a robust response system that mobilizes every possible means to hold fully accountable those who repeatedly disseminate them and refuse deletion.”