One in five people in South Chungcheong reports experiencing digital sex crimes

Nearly one in five South Chungcheong residents surveyed said they had experienced a sex crime through online media, according to a report by the South Chungcheong Social Service Institute. The survey of 1,000 residents, conducted in April, included 600 women and 400 men. Overall, 22.9% reported having experienced digital sex-crime victimization.

Respondents most often identified their 20s as the period when their victimization had been most serious, at 36.2%. That was followed by their 30s, at 18.8%, and their years in high school, at 14.4%. Another 11.8% pointed to the period from before elementary school through middle school.

Obscene conduct using communications media accounted for 79.3% of reported victimization types. Other responses included attempts to lure victims into sexual relations online, at 18.9%; illegal filming, at 13.6%; and threats or coercion using recordings, along with the distribution of photos, recordings or copies, each at 9.5%. The production or distribution of manipulated videos accounted for 4.7%.

Unknown offenders represented the largest group, at 36.9%. In 18.2% of cases, respondents said they could not identify the offender. Intimate partners accounted for 8.9%, while family members represented 0.5%.

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Digital-ethics education and online-safety education for elementary, middle and high school students are urgently needed, as the rates of perpetrators and victims have recently risen sharply.

Only 12.2% of victims said they reported the crimes to police. The rate was 6% among women and 20.8% among men. Among those who did not report, 42.3% said they did not consider the incident serious, while 14.9% said they did not want their identities exposed. Victims reported reduced trust in others, greater fear for their safety and stopping online activities.

More than half, or 54.4%, said they had received no meaningful help in recovering. Respondents ranked thorough personal protection as the most important victim-support measure, stronger judicial cooperation with internet operators based overseas as the most urgent investigative measure, and expanded public disclosure of offenders’ identities as the leading punishment and prevention measure.

Lee Kyung-ha, a research fellow at the institute, called for urgent digital-ethics and online-safety education for elementary, middle and high school students. She also urged training for parents, university students and young adults, who showed the highest victimization rate, as well as prevention programs for middle-aged and older residents. Prosecutors’ crime data showed that several categories of digital sex crime rose sharply between 2020 and 2024, including obscene conduct through communications media, manipulated videos and threats or coercion using recordings.

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At the same time, tailored digital sex-crime prevention education is needed for parents on identifying signs and counseling children, for university students and young adults, who have the highest victimization rate, and for middle-aged and older people, whose numbers are increasing in South Chungcheong.