AI-generated deepfakes are the newest threat. Using the generative technology and a picture of their victim’s face, harassers can fabricate invasive pornographic images portraying their targets. Under banners emblazoned “Solidarity” and “We stand together with victims”, a group of South Korean women digital detectives dredges the internet for a scourge of illegal AI-enabled pornography.
South Korea — home to the world’s leading smartphone and memory chipmakers — takes huge national pride in its tech prowess. But the success story has a dark side: women suffer rampant “digital sex crimes”, rights groups say. Spycams film them in private while chat groups blackmail them for explicit content and share so-called “revenge porn” without consent.
At the National Center for Digital Sexual Crime Response — housed in an airy Seoul office — 23 women are tasked with turning the tide, trawling the web and filing delete requests backed by threats of legal action. Last year, the group pulled down 318,000 videos and photos — deepfakes, spycam content and intimate imagery shared without consent — on behalf of 10,600 people, 75 percent of whom were women and girls. “South Korea acted faster than others because not only digital sex crimes became common earlier than elsewhere, but also women spoke out against them just as quickly and vigorously,” Kim Mi-soon, the head of the government-founded centre, told AFP.
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The centre opened in 2018, a year that saw tens of thousands of women demand action through anti-spycam protests. The organisation’s headquarters and 17 regional hubs also offer counselling and legal advice and collect evidence for prosecutions. One 33-year-old woman, who asked to be identified only by her surname Kim, said she had deepfakes shared in 2024 on encrypted apps beyond the reach of the centre’s specialists. “The centre may not be perfect, but it can make a huge difference for victims going through this nightmare alone,” she said.
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