"Before I went to junior high school, I always thought that as long as a man's genitals came into contact with a woman's genitals, a woman would get pregnant. Because we haven't received proper sex education since we were young." In 2020, the "Korea N Room Incident" shocked the world. Zhu Yushi, the original reporter and alarm person, the "Tracking Group Spark" composed of two ordinary female college students, wrote in the article.
Room N, as the name suggests, is a secret chat room established on social platforms. The owner of the house uses women (including underage women) as sexual slavery objects, and spreads the sexual photos and videos taken by deceiving and threatening them in the chat room. , buying and selling for profit, persecuting more than 70 women and attracting more than 260,000 users. After the case was solved , the main culprit, Zhao Zhubin, was sentenced to 42 years in prison. According to public information, the core operator was only a 25-year-old college graduate at the time.
After the sensational incident, there are still many issues worth reflecting on. As the "Following Mission Sparks" said, national education, victim protection and legal aid cannot be ignored. Bullying has never been a way of expressing love , whether in the family, on campus or in society , but an irrefutable sexual exploitation. crime. With the proliferation of social media, digital sexual exploitation crimes cannot be ignored, they are as serious as real sexual exploitation crimes.
This article is excerpted from "The Tracker of Room N" and published with the authorization of the producer.
01
2020 starts
"Tracking Mission Spark" has always kept in mind that "it is just the beginning". 2020 is an extraordinary year. Although the reports we wrote about the incident in Room N have been hidden, in March this year, the attitudes of the people and the government towards digital sexual exploitation crimes have changed dramatically, which is very emotional. Most people have come to realize that the crime of digital sexual exploitation is a serious crime, and it is no lesser than the crime of sexual exploitation in the real world. As women living in this land, we are deeply comforted. Although we have been hoping that this incident can be properly handled, the excessive attention paid to the victims by society has made our hearts uneasy. In order not to give up this hope, we wrote this book. The starting point is to record the crime of digital sexual exploitation in written form and prevent the same thing from happening again.
Over the past year or so, we have witnessed a horrific crime of digital sexual exploitation. It can be said that we are immersed in the fear that our photos and videos are widely spread in virtual space all the time. Some of the victims we spoke with reported being tormented by the "what if someone recognizes me" unease, whether eating, walking, or hanging out with friends. Also, if a notification pops up on the phone that a friend has sent a text message, they will also feel a sudden sink in their hearts, worrying that "the friend will not see my photo, right?" Live a peaceful life without any worries.
Every time I go to a public restroom, this thought pops up: What if there's a sneak camera in this hole? At the moment when the “illegal shooting video of the rental house of XX University (the school we attended)” spread, the conviction that “I should have not been secretly filmed” seemed to be an illusion. When I saw the news of the suicide of a victim of my age, I knew this feeling was right. Candid photography is the real violence that happens around us. Because I have always had a fluke mentality. Recently, whenever I see reports of "illegal filming" and "digital sexual exploitation crimes", I feel deep pain, as if the victim's heart is connected to me. It felt like someone was sticking a needle into their heart.
Since the popularity of the Internet, Internet culture in the early 21st century has been dominated by men. During that period, in addition to Conch.com, the male-centered online community also uploaded numerous "postscripts of illegally filmed videos". In 2020, some online media and "10th generation" daily magazines (that is, daily magazines for teens), "News Online", etc. still frequently use bikini photos uploaded by female artists or celebrities to SNS to write "news", the media blindly Pursue so-called "clicks" until female sexuality is objectified.
In 2021, a group of art works called "School Flowers" caused widespread controversy due to "candid photos of girls and sorted by appearance"
In a country that treats the sexual exploitation of women as entertainment and a means of making money, from the moment of birth as a woman, if you don’t want to encounter illegal filming and digital sexual exploitation crimes, or if you want to hold the perpetrators accountable, you need to put in a lot of effort. . If you are victimized by a crime of digital sexual exploitation, you first need to provide evidence to prove that you are the victim. If you want the perpetrators to get the punishment they deserve, the victims have to stand up and testify. From start to finish, the degree to which the perpetrator is punished depends on the effort of the victim.
In South Korea, for a woman to truly accuse herself of a crime of digital sexual exploitation, she must sacrifice her daily life. It is estimated that there are at least hundreds of types of digital sexual exploitation crimes. For those with names alone, there are digital sexual exploitation, acquaintance abuse, deepfakes, illegal filming, cyber harassment, cyber spoofing, etc. These appalling crimes often occur at the same time. It wasn't until 2020 that South Korea recognized that digital sex crimes were also "crimes." Every time a case is exposed, the government and the judiciary will swear to form a "temporary task force" to severely punish the criminals, but these alone cannot eradicate the crime of digital sexual exploitation. In addition to the cyber investigation team in the National Police Agency, South Korea also urgently needs to establish a "permanent organization" under the command of the central government to deal with crimes of digital sexual exploitation and even crimes in virtual space.
02
Victims are with us
Regret, anger, loss... Every time we face a crime of digital sexual exploitation, our emotions can't help but become agitated. Hundreds of types of digital sexual exploitation crimes have been narrowed down by the media to the N-room incident and the doctor's room incident. Victims of digital sexual exploitation crimes that go unnoticed by society struggle to get the assistance they deserve. Not only that, but victims blame themselves. We should recognize the seriousness of the crime of digital sexual exploitation and listen to different voices. Only in this way can victims be protected in a democratic way.
The suffering we meet varies from victim to victim. It's a shame to say that, but we don't quite understand why they were hurt. In the brief moment of facing the victim, our inner social concept collapses with a bang. We are not victims, so we can only try to ask questions from the victim's shoes. This is basic courtesy and the attitude you should have as an interviewer. For a long time, Korean society has been accustomed to saying to victims, "Why do you go out for a walk so late?" "Why do you wear such a short skirt?" These words are tantamount to saying that the injuries suffered by the victims are self-inflicted. Others said, "Can people who have been sexually exploited laugh so brightly?" "If it were me, I would be so ashamed that I would be speechless for the rest of my life", "Is there any evidence? What a vixen" and so on. hold the victim's mouth.
Understanding the victim requires not only judging the full picture of her life based on the facts of the victim, but also respecting the attitude of her personal life. We will work together to empower victims of sexual exploitation to take the stand. We hope you all walk with us on this journey.
The forms of persecution that occur in cyberspace are still relatively unfamiliar to most people, and the age of victims and perpetrators is getting younger and younger, so it is necessary for citizens to understand the shape of digital sexual exploitation crimes. The following will introduce a few examples of digital sexual exploitation crimes that continue to wreak havoc in Korean society.
Case 1: The Precursor of Room N
In early April 2020, a reporter from JTBC contacted us. "In 2018, JTBC tracked the circulation of illegally filmed images. One year later, in 2019, the incident in Room N, which was investigated and interviewed by the 'Tracking Team Sparks', attracted public attention. I really want to meet the two of you . " April One day, we met him in a coffee shop.
In July 2018, the JTBC investigative reporting team "trigger" tracked the circulation of illegally filmed images. In the process, they discover a sex crime taking place on the famous chat app "Ax". The investigation team downloaded "Ax" and pretended to be a minor and started chatting, and a large number of obscene messages were sent. Adult males don't mind that the other person is underage, and instead keep sending sexually harassing messages. Some men will make sexual demands when they come up, but some men will first close the distance through dialogue, and then slowly make excessive demands. The members of "trigger" pretended to be girls in their teens and had a conversation with a man in what can be said to be a typical "trick" method.
Here's a typical assailant greeting: "How old are you?" "How was your day? " "Have you ever had physical contact with your boyfriend? "
Phishing (sex crimes committed after gaining the victim's trust) often targets children and teens. This type of sexual crime often first cultivates a certain sense of intimacy through the Internet, and then lures the victim to the real space, and finally commits crimes such as rape and sex trafficking, so it is more dangerous. Perpetrators also sometimes take screenshots of chats and threaten victims with exposing the chats or telling their parents.
In the summer of 2018, "trigger" discovered that the illegally shot video in "A×" was distributed and sold on Telegram, and reported the perpetrator to the police. That is to say, before the incident in Room N, someone had already reported to the investigative authority for the "criminal sexual exploitation of minors". But until now, the National Police Agency's Internet Search Team had not yet had a team dedicated to investigating crimes of digital sexual exploitation. Members of "trigger" sorted out accounts on Telegram selling sexually exploitative videos and reported them to the police, but only 1 of the 10 or so perpetrators were caught by the police. The police do not seem to think that the crime of digital sexual exploitation is a serious crime, and often concludes that it "cannot be caught" before the investigation begins, so the intensity of the investigation can be imagined. The police repeatedly told reporters that "criminals on Telegram cannot be caught".
Case 2: One year after getting rid of the perpetrator, the trauma is still in progress
In August 2019, we were investigating the crime of acquaintance abuse, and there was a sad news in the Telegram chat room - "Everyone, the woman (victim) is dead. "
"Who is she? It's not my fault anyway, hee hee."
"Fake, right? I haven't heard of people dying (for sexual exploitation). "
It is sad that a victim of a sexual exploitation crime took her own life. The bad news was spread to Gotham Room and other Telegram chat rooms through SNS, and its authenticity remains to be tested. Seven months later, in March 2020, we decided to investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths of victims of sexual exploitation crimes.
The truth is that at the time the victim pretended to commit suicide. It is understood that the threat of the perpetrator has been repeated, and the victim has tried his best to get rid of the threat, so he asked an account operator on SNS to criticize the issue of exploitation to upload an article with the content of "the victim himself committed suicide". Victims also know this is wrong, but there is really no other way. At that time, society treated the victim who posted "indecent content" more harshly than it is now, and it was difficult to find someone to help her out of the quagmire in that situation. After the article was uploaded, the threat of the perpetrators stopped. However, the psychological wounds of the victims have not healed.
The victim said: "Although it has been more than a year, I still dare not tell my parents or friends. Every day I search for my name and school on websites such as SNS and Google, and I cry every now and then. "
We advised her to seek psychological counseling. "I'm going to go to college because I'm under pressure to improve my grades, and it's hard to find time for counseling. We don't know what to say.
We heard that she had simply received telephone counseling, and we asked if it was helpful. The psychiatrist said that because he repeatedly persuaded the other party to call the police, it was not clear. It was later heard that she did not seek further consultation. In fact, only face-to-face consultation can provide staged and substantive assistance to victims, but victims have always resisted this. It is best for victims to inform the outside world and ask for help, but the fear of minor victims is much greater than we expected. In particular, they are worried that the police will let their parents know, and they are also afraid that the police will find the school. In fact, they don't know that even if the person reporting the crime of digital sexual exploitation is a minor, the police do not need to inform the guardian of the details of the victimization.
The victim cried on the other end of the phone and said that she really wanted to forget her past experience. "Thank you for listening to me..."
Now, how many victims are alone shivering in fear? Eradicating sex crime is not a one-man battle, it is a problem that needs to be solved by the whole society. I want victims to know that some people will not question them or accuse them, but will only extend a warm helping hand to them.
03
Please stop victim guilt
Before I went to junior high school, I always thought that as long as a man's genitals came into contact with a woman's genitals, a woman would become pregnant. Because we have not received proper sex education since childhood. In South Korea, people have always been very secretive about "sex", especially the society does not allow women to express their sexual desires, so in some private areas, a lot of things happened. Some people choose to express their sexual desires through SNS because they do not have the right to decide on their own sexuality. Is this their fault? Is this really wrong behavior?
It's normal for teenagers to express themselves and want to be noticed by others. But it's not right to make money with this mentality of teenagers, this is an undisputed fact. But there are still many people who like to pick faults from victims: "Why publish 'indecent' content online? " "Why apply for so-called 'high-paying part-time jobs'? Isn't this an opportunity for criminals? "
Here's a question for you all. A guy on a motorcycle stole your bag as he passed you, what would you do? Most people will choose to "report to the police". When you find the police, you say without hesitation, "My bag was stolen! " At this time, will the police say, "Well, why don't you take good care of your bag?" and then pass the responsibility on to you, the one who was stolen. body? Certainly not. Because the person who stole the bag is the one at fault. But when it comes to sexual crimes, the social concept is much stricter.Even in the police station, they will be questioned "Didn't you upload the photo first? " "You know this is also a crime, right? ", which means that the victim provides the perpetrator with an opportunity, so he also has a certain responsibility.
Lawyers say teens who post indecent content could be punished under the Children and Youth Act or the Infocomm Act. But on this basis, it is right to claim that the victim is provided with the opportunity to commit a crime, so that he is harmed in this way? Why do laws exist?
It doesn't matter whether the victim's behavior is common sense, what matters is that the crime has occurred. The idea that only the "perfect victim" is protected when it comes to sex crimes is wrong. Some people evaluate the victim's words, written words, and actions one by one, and if they fail to pass the qualifications, they will accuse and doubt them. Because of this notion that the victim is at fault, it is difficult for victims of sex crimes to muster up the courage to come forward. No victim deserves to be killed. Some people can't understand this no matter how much you explain it to them. If you really don't understand (don't want to understand), just memorize this sentence.
04
How is victim assistance going?
After the incident in Room N was exposed, many parties expressed their willingness to assist the victims. However, the problem of secondary injury became extremely serious after the reports of victim assistance were published. The prosecutors stated that among the victims of the N-room incident, “for those who have been injured for more than 5 weeks, they will pay 15 million won per year, a total of 50 million won in medical expenses. For those who have been injured for less than 5 weeks, the Provide support for treatment costs.” In this regard, the media, who feared that the world would not be chaotic, reported on the title, "The victims of the N-room incident will receive up to 50 million won in compensation." Netizens who saw the report said, "It's not a simple victim, why do you want to compensate? They ""This is an excessive special offer", accusing the victims one after another. They also left a message on the national petition message board saying "don't make compensation". Victims became more helpless.
Article 30 of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea clearly states: "Nationals who have suffered life or bodily harm as a result of the criminal acts of others may obtain assistance from the state in accordance with the law." This applies not only to the victims of the Room N incident, but also to Victims of other crimes. In addition, not all victims of the N-room incident can receive 50 million won in compensation, and only if the conditions are met can they be compensated. Among the victims we have seen, no one has yet been found to have received adequate state support. In order to receive support from the state, victims must go to the responsible agency to explain the facts of their victims one by one. At the end of March, we were interviewed by an average of 9 media outlets per day for a week. Even as witnesses, we are tired of testifying. It is really cruel to let the victims who were directly injured repeatedly explain and prove the facts of the victims.
Importantly, what the victims wanted was not monetary compensation, but the removal of all relevant images. Considering the characteristics of various virtual spaces where illegally filmed videos circulate, monetary compensation cannot solve all problems. There are still major deficiencies in video deletion support and investigation support. Fortunately, in July this year, the Ministry of Gender and Family announced that it has decided to invest 875 million won in a project to strengthen the function of a support center for victims of digital sexual exploitation. The center will also play the role of preparatory monitoring and 24-hour counseling services for illegal filming targeting children and adolescents . It used to be that if sexual exploitation images were circulated, the main thing to do was to remove them, but now crime can be prevented in advance and managed afterwards.
After the incidents of Room N and Doctoral Room were exposed, victims could get all kinds of assistance, but other victims of digital sexual exploitation crimes could only get some limited assistance. Victims of an acquaintance abuse crime can feel uneasy about not being able to trust the people around them, but at the same time, the penalties that apply to this crime are very light. Because it is a crime of digital sexual exploitation, it is difficult for the investigative agencies to solve the case, and sometimes it is even difficult to convict the criminals according to the charges of sexual crimes. It is time for investigative and judicial authorities to analyse the types of crimes of digital sexual exploitation and develop responses accordingly.
Although the government has announced that it will vigorously promote the resolution of the Telegram sexual exploitation problem, no special measures have been enacted. Take the issue of legal aid. Victims of digital sexual exploitation can get help with lawyers' fees through the Ministry of Women's Family's Free Legal Aid Fund. The first-instance lawyer costs about 1.2 million won, and each person can apply for a subsidy of up to 5 million won. If more grants are needed, a decision will be made after deliberation. The problem is that in digital sexual exploitation cases, there are many follow-up issues such as filming, distribution, and redistribution, and there are many accomplices. The charges are also varied. With existing legal remedies, it is difficult to take appropriate countermeasures.
There are also issues with the size of the annual payment of the Legal Relief Fund. According to Kim Hye-jung, deputy director of the Korea Sexual Violence Consultation Center, among the four implementing agencies that implement the free legal aid fund of the Ministry of Women and Family, the consulting agency that applied for the fund to the Korea Sexual Violence Crisis Center is the most, but the center's fund will be closed in June 2020. The month has run out. Now that the fund is draining faster than in previous years, the cause should be identified and replenished, but the government has remained indifferent. The attorney fees for the perpetrators are rising, but the legal aid fund established for the victims is serious
Insufficient , and now it has simply bottomed out.
Proceeds of crime can go into legal aid funds. The United States, Canada, Japan and other countries are confiscating criminal proceeds from property crimes such as fraud and using them to support victims. In South Korea, the proceeds of crime are fully incorporated into the state treasury, and even if victims prove through criminal proceedings and court trials that they have been defrauded, in order to recover the funds, they must go through civil proceedings. In 2006, Japan's newly revised "gang crime punishment law" stipulates that when the victim directly files a lawsuit for damages, he may face problems such as retaliation, litigation costs, difficulty in proving the amount of loss, money laundering and concealment of criminal proceeds, etc. Confiscate and recover the proceeds of gang crimes within a certain range. The notable place is here. Japan has enacted a law on "Payment of Benefit for Victimization Loss such as Proceeds of Crime (money mainly paid by the state or public organizations)", and the above-mentioned confiscated and recovered criminal damage property is not included in the general national finances, but designated as "victimized damages". Recovery payment,” which is first kept by the procuratorate and then distributed to the victims.
05
What is this?
In May 2020, we received reports of a new crime of digital sexual exploitation. Although we know that the perpetrators on Telegram will never disappear, at least we feel that the crime of sexual exploitation on Telegram seems to be decreasing. At the time, we also thought that we could take this opportunity to solve other crimes of sexual exploitation together. But we were wrong. The perpetrators acted much faster than we thought. Not only that, but other types of sexual exploitation crimes are also proliferating. The new type of sexual exploitation crime method is quite complicated. We only got a vague grasp of the crime after listening to the whistleblower’s account for two hours and reading dozens of related materials. We already know of more than 30 victims alone, and hundreds of perpetrators.
It's simply "crash". At a time when there is just hope that the crime of digital sexual exploitation can be eradicated, new crimes have emerged. It felt like a mental pillar had collapsed. No matter how hard we try, is there no way to stop the growing number of perpetrators? We feel deeply powerless. How many more crimes of sexual exploitation are taking place in virtual spaces we don't know about? I shudder to think about it. However, we must not let this go, and we immediately acted again. Now that the facts of the crime have been mastered, reporting is the first priority. It's just that we are a little concerned that the police are currently busy investigating Telegram's sexual exploitation incidents, and is there any time left to investigate new sexual exploitation crimes immediately?
We decided to report the case to the Gangwon Regional Police Agency, which has been in contact with us since July 2020. In the past year, the two sides have accumulated trust, and I feel that this time will be smoother. To better illustrate the situation, we went to Chuncheon with the whistleblower. Sitting in the reception room of the network investigation team of the Gangwon Regional Police Agency, we briefed the police on the specifics of the case, and the police responded the same as when we first heard about it. It is impossible to understand this criminal method only by a brief introduction. After about 3 hours of explanation, the police understood the seriousness of the problem.
But the problem is, there is currently no evidence to prove the crime. In the face of sexual exploitation in Telegram, we can go in and collect evidence directly, but this time the criminal den is impossible to find. The perpetrator threatens, taunts the victim, but leaves no traces that can become evidence of the crime, which is indeed a higher level of crime. Although we have been following up on this issue for two months, we have to continue to pay attention and postpone the reporting time for fear that the perpetrators may destroy the evidence and escape after the hasty report. This is an intelligent cybercrime like the incident in Room N. Until the time this book was published, we didn't know if we could report the issue. We will report on the day the perpetrator is arrested. We need to let the world know the ugly face of the digital sexual exploitation crime spreading in South Korea, only then can we face and solve the deep-rooted rape culture.
