Business Agreement at Seoul City Hall on the 10th
Operation of Visiting One-Stop Support
Preventive Education and Joint Material Production...
As deepfake-based illegal sexual synthetic materials have emerged as a social issue, education and investigative authorities centered in Seoul have launched a joint response. A four-party hotline will be established, and deletion, victim support, and preventive education will be conducted.
On the 10th, Seoul Metropolitan Government signed a "Business Agreement for Joint Response to Child and Adolescent Deepfake" at Seoul City Hall with the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, and Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. Given that a significant number of perpetrators and victims in the recent deepfake controversy are teenagers, the agreement aims for close cooperation among educational institutions, judicial and investigative agencies, and local governments.
The number of deepfake victims reported to the Seoul Digital Sexual Crime Safety Support Center increased sharply from 10 in 2022 and 17 in 2023 to 304 this year. Both victims and perpetrators were mostly teenagers, accounting for 36.6% (121 people) and 31.4% (27 people), respectively.
Through this business agreement, the four organizations will form a joint cooperation system without barriers to provide integrated support. First, a "School Hotline" will be activated to quickly connect cases of confirmed on-campus victimization from schools to Seoul City. When students request assistance through teachers or School Police Officers (SPO), the Digital Sexual Crime Safety Support Center will help delete victim videos or photos.
Victimized students can request immediate deletion of illegal synthetic materials online simply by reporting school violence. The center also operates a "One-stop Integrated Support Visiting Schools" program, where professional counselors from the Safety Support Center visit schools or third-party locations to provide deletion assistance or legal and psychological counseling.
For prosecutor and police cases, a delivery system between "Seoul City and Prosecutors/Police" will be established to minimize harm. Previously, victim videos secured by prosecutors and police were collected in person by victim support officers from the Safety Support Center. Starting next year, videos can be transferred through the system under this agreement, which is expected to expedite deletion support for victim videos.
Based on the fact that adolescent perpetrators do not fully recognize the seriousness of deepfake sexual crimes and consider them as "pranks," preventive education will also be strengthened. The city, the Office of Education, and the Police Agency will jointly produce focused deepfake educational materials and conduct education for students and parents. The Office of Education plans to expand the "Visiting Schools Digital Sexual Crime Prevention Education," which has been conducted since 2021, focusing on schools where incidents have occurred.
Seol Se-hoon, Acting Superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, stated, "To ensure stable academic operations at schools, we will make every effort to prevent illegal synthetic material (deepfake) damage and promptly support deletion of illegal synthetic materials and psychological and emotional stability and recovery when damage occurs."
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said, "With this business agreement, we will activate a four-party cooperation system encompassing administrative, judicial, educational, and investigative agencies to establish an integrated response system from preventive education to deletion and blocking of victim videos and rapid recovery of victims' daily lives. We will do our best to become a social bulwark protecting children and adolescents from deepfake crimes."
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