"Witnessed the Devil"... 'n번방' Showing Sexual Exploitation of Minors

Luring Minors with High-Paying Part-Time Job Bait
Threatening with Personal Information to Film Videos
Helpless Minors with Immature Judgment

"Put the Suspect on the Photo Line"
260,000 Agree on National Petition for Identity Disclosure

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] Thousands of people shamelessly express "Let's rape" while watching women with the word "slave" carved into their bodies with a knife and naked young girls. Scenes of middle school-aged girls being confined and sexually assaulted are commonplace, and the world is fascinated by videos of larvae crawling inside women's bodies. This is the so-called 'n번방' (n Room), where minors were blackmailed into producing sexual exploitation materials and distributed through secret Telegram chat rooms.

According to the police on the 20th, Jo, a man in his 20s who is a key figure in the n번방 case, was arrested the previous day on charges including violation of the Act on the Protection of Children and Juveniles Against Sexual Abuse. Won Jeong-sook, the chief judge in charge of warrants at the Seoul Central District Court, stated, "The case is serious as dozens of women, including children and adolescents, were threatened and coerced into producing obscene materials, which were then distributed for enormous profit, causing extreme suffering to the victims and fostering a distorted sexual culture in our society."

The n번방 case reveals the bizarre and horrific reality of child and adolescent sexual exploitation occurring online. Jo, presumed to be the so-called 'Doctor,' lured minors with bait such as high-paying part-time jobs as models or online dates. He obtained personal information like student IDs and bank account numbers under the pretext of salary payment. Initially, he requested photos with low explicitness, and the children were drawn in by the prospect of earning large sums from just a few pictures. However, the explicitness of the photos gradually increased, and when they refused, the threats began. Minors who posted obscene materials feared legal punishment, and Jo exploited this fear. Some even had words like 'Doctor' and 'Slave' carved onto their bodies, becoming real slaves as demanded by the Doctor.

Professor Lee Soo-jung of the Department of Criminal Psychology at Kyonggi University explained, "The Doctor legally threatened immature adolescents that they could be punished for voluntarily taking obscene photos, preventing them from refusing his orders. Adults naturally think they can report such crimes, but the threats worked on minors with underdeveloped judgment." She added, "He exploited the psychology that adolescents, after watching obscene materials featuring youths out of curiosity, eventually desire stronger stimuli."

As these atrocities became known, a petition to the Blue House demanding "to bring the perpetrators who drove young students into hell to the photo line" was posted, garnering about 260,000 signatures as of 11:30 a.m. that day. The police are currently reviewing whether to disclose Jo's identity.