Nor are celebrities immune from sexual invasion. "In order to eliminate digital sex crimes, the wrong idea that sexually objectifies a woman's body must be changed first," the ministry said in comments to the Thomson Reuters Foundation. It said raising awareness about women's rights was also key. South Korea's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said offenders must get punishments that match the severity of the offence, and that the country's highest court is drafting new sentencing guidelines on digital sex crimes. The government has introduced a slew of counter measures: longer jail terms, daily checks in public toilets and a taskforce to help victims kill off the unwanted online videos. Official figures showed there were about 6,000 cases of the so-called spycam porn in 2018 and about 6,500 the year before.Ĭulprits typically film in public places, changing rooms or toilets, or in hotels, then sell the footage to porn sites.Ī South Korean porn website that attracted more than a million users and hosted thousands of spycam videos thrived for years until it was shut down in 2016 after activist complaints.įootage can fetch up to 100,000 won ($90), with top earners netting more than 100 million won a month, local media say. The problem is especially acute in tech-savvy South Korea, where thousands of women have taken to the streets in protest. THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION/Beh Lih YiĪround the world, sexual predators have capitalised on technology to target women, from "revenge porn" – releasing naked pictures of former partners – to "upskirting", using phones to look up women's skirts. South Korean parents Lee Young-tae (left) and Jeong Hee-ho (right), whose daughter took her own life after she was filmed secretly in a so-called spycam porn case, pictured during an interview at their home in Gimhae, South Korea December 14, 2019. Nearly one in four women who has been harassed or secretly filmed has thought about suicide, according to an October survey of 2,000 victims by the Korean Women's Development Institute, a government think tank. The mental fallout is just as devastating, they say. Women's rights campaigners also want tougher penalties, saying voyeurs should not be let off lightly just because they stop short of an actual physical assault. There is a big gap now," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation at his home in a rural town near the South Korean port city of Busan. "I want the court to look at illegal filming as a crime that is as severe as sexual assault. Under the law, he could face up to five years in jail. Lee's father believes the man, also a pathologist, got off lightly. In November, he was sentenced to 10 months in jail. Most victims are women - rights groups say the scandal is indicative of wider sexism in society - and Lee's case has spotlighted the mental toll it can take on its victims, along with the leniency of punishments meted out to many men.īefore Lee died, her father said she had taken to drink and anti-depressants after police caught the man filming illicitly in a supermarket, only to discover his stash of secret footage, her naked body among the many women he had previously filmed. I don't want to believe that she's gone," said Lee Young-tae, father of the 26-year-old pathologist, who killed herself by leaping from a building in September.Īs digital sex crimes rise worldwide, South Korea has become the global epicentre of spycam - the use of tiny, hidden cameras to film victims naked, urinating or mid-sex. Lee Yu-jung took her own life after a colleague secretly filmed her in the changing room of the hospital where they both worked, the country's first reported 'spycam' death.įootage of Lee was found among a bigger cache of video of women, all illegally snatched in the country's spycam epidemic, often with cheap devices as small as a key ring. GIMHAE, South Korea, Jan 13 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The wedding hall was booked and home furnishing all bought but the bride - one of thousands of women to fall victim to an epidemic of high-tech voyeurism in South Korea - is not here. As digital sex crimes rise worldwide, South Korea has become the global epicentre of spycam - the use of tiny, hidden cameras to film victims
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