Police have developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-based program to detect sexual exploitation materials and are using it in investigations. It is expected to dramatically accelerate tasks such as reviewing sexual exploitation materials, improving the effectiveness of responses to digital sex crimes.

The National Office of Investigation of the National Police Agency announced on the 9th that it had completed in-house development of an AI-based ‘Automated Program for Detecting Sexual Exploitation Materials and Drafting Evidence Documents’ and distributed it to investigators at provincial police agencies and police stations nationwide.

The program quickly and accurately identifies human body exposure within digital evidence secured by police and provides detection results as probability values. It was created by combining AI technology that detects specific objects in image or video files with the ultrafast search technology of antivirus programs that can locate desired files in milliseconds.

Through the program, investigators can make the final determination on whether content constitutes sexual exploitation material while greatly reducing their review burden. The program also has a function that automatically prepares results in an evidence-document format, allowing investigators to simplify the process of compiling findings one by one. According to police, whereas it previously took 320 hours to search 4,215 videos totaling 403 hours (890 gigabytes), decide whether they were sexual exploitation materials, and prepare the findings in an evidence-document format, using the program the work was completed in 3 hours.

Police developed the program in December last year during an investigation into suspects who hacked more than 120,000 IP (Internet Protocol) cameras, known as ‘home cams’ and installed in private homes and elsewhere, to produce and sell hundreds of sexual exploitation materials. At that time, in the process of extracting key evidence from a vast volume of seized items to substantiate the charges, the program's effectiveness was proven. Police then incorporated requirements from frontline demand units, reinforced and tested it, and distributed it to police organizations nationwide.

Police said they expect such gains in investigative speed to help block, at an early stage, the risk of further dissemination of sexual exploitation materials and to realize substantive, victim-centered protection measures. Among frontline investigators, there is also an expectation that it will become a powerful weapon for keeping the optimal time window for securing evidence “in a work environment where every minute counts.”

The National Police Agency plans to continuously gather feedback from the field and improve and supplement detection accuracy and program functions to fit on-site needs. Park Woo-hyun, Cyber Investigation Deliberation Officer at the National Police Agency, said, “Crimes of producing and distributing sexual exploitation materials are grave offenses that completely destroy the lives of ordinary citizens,” adding, “With this distribution of the program having dramatically increased investigative speed for tasks such as analyzing massive amounts of evidence, we will track ever-evolving digital sex crimes to the end and sternly punish perpetrators.”