The Korea Communications Standards Commission's correction requests related to obscene and sex trade information on YouTube increased from 24 cases last year to 171 cases this year, a 7.1-fold increase.
On the 28th, Choi Su-jin, a member of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee, reviewed the Commission's data on YouTube correction requests and revealed that regarding obscenity, sex trade, and digital sex crimes, there were 60 cases in 2020, 25 cases in 2021, 125 cases in 2022, and 26 cases in 2023, totaling 236 cases over four years. However, in the first half of this year alone, 171 correction requests were made.
According to the Commission's data, the number of various violation reviews was 226,846 in 2020 and 264,920 in 2023. Among these, reviews related to obscenity, sex trade, and digital sex crimes accounted for 87,572 cases in 2020, representing 38.6% of all reviews, but surged to 126,188 cases in 2023, making up 47.6%. Furthermore, in the first half of this year, out of 137,904 cases, 75,082 cases (54.4%) were related to these issues.
The Commission reviews illegal and harmful information distributed through information and communication networks and issues correction requests. However, the communication monitoring personnel consist of only 72 people: 51 general operators and 21 specialized operating committee members. Overseas platforms respond to correction requests through voluntary measures.
Regarding this, a Commission official explained at a related business agreement ceremony with Seoul City on the same day, "From last year until July this year, we conducted a comprehensive inspection of deepfake-related information on Telegram. Last year, about 90% of the 161 correction requests resulted in deletions, and until July this year, out of 78 cases, all but 4 were deleted," adding, "The remaining cases are under review."
Although highly provocative videos are widely exposed on YouTube without age restrictions, due to YouTube's nature as an overseas platform, there are limitations to correction requests.
Assemblywoman Choi said, "Exposure to obscenity, sex trade, and digital sex crimes has recently extended to deepfakes on Telegram," and added, "We will consider punitive legislation to block illegal content, such as laws that prohibit acts considered illegal offline also online, similar to Europe."
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