"Made Because It Was Pretty"... Male High School Student Expelled for Distributing Deepfake Composites

Male High School Student Created and Distributed Nude Photo Fakes
"Serious Violation of Educational Activities"... Expelled
Seoul Police Agency "69% of Suspects Are Teenagers"

The Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU) held a press conference on the 29th of last month in front of the Government Seoul Office in Jongno, Seoul, to announce the results of an investigation into illegal synthetic substances and sexual crimes in schools, strongly condemning the government for aiding and abetting sexual crimes. Photo by Jo Yongjun jun21@

A male high school student who synthesized the faces of teachers and acquaintances onto nude photos and distributed them has been expelled.

On the 23rd, the Namdong Police Station in Incheon announced, "We have sent high school student A, who was booked without detention on charges of violating the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Crimes, to the prosecution."

A is accused of using artificial intelligence (AI)-based 'deepfake' technology in July to synthesize the faces of four people, including a high school teacher, onto nude photos to create sexually exploitative material and distribute it on social networking services (SNS). Initially, the police applied for an arrest warrant for A, but it was dismissed by the court, so he was handed over to the prosecution without detention.

Earlier, two female teachers who were victims filed complaints at the police station, and during the investigation, two additional victims?a private academy instructor and a senior student?were identified. During the police investigation, A reportedly stated, "I made (the illegal synthesized images) because they were pretty." A police official said, "We suspect A distributed the videos via Telegram, and during digital forensic work, we identified additional victims. We recently completed the investigation and sent the case to the prosecution."

In response, the Northern Education Support Office of the Incheon Metropolitan Office of Education recently held a Teacher's Rights Protection Committee meeting and judged that A's actions caused a serious infringement on educational activities, resulting in his expulsion. Measures related to students infringing on educational activities under the Teacher Status Act are divided into seven categories, with expulsion being the most severe. A representative of the Incheon Teachers' Union said, "Although the investigation is not yet complete, we made this decision based on evidence directly secured by the victim teachers. The victim teachers suffered greatly. We hope the student grows properly through appropriate punishment."

Meanwhile, at a regular press briefing on the same day, Kim Bong-sik, Commissioner of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, stated, "We have formed a task force (TF) focused on responding to false video materials and are investigating 126 deepfake sexual crime cases." He added, "Among the 74 suspects, 51 are teenagers, accounting for 69% of the total. We are continuing pre-booking investigations against Telegram headquarters and are cooperating internationally as necessary according to procedures."