Korea Communications Commission Releases "Transparency Report on the Handling of Illegal Recordings"
"Number of Reports Increases... More Blocking Actions by Service Providers"
Last year, the number of illegal recordings deleted by domestic and international internet service providers reached 180,000. This figure more than doubled compared to the previous year.
On July 4, the Korea Communications Commission announced the release of the "2024 Transparency Report on the Handling of Illegal Recordings and Related Materials," which contains these findings.
This report covers the actions taken by 81 domestic and international internet service providers, including Naver, Kakao, Google, and Meta, regarding illegal recordings such as sexually explicit fake videos and child and youth sexual exploitation materials.
The report provides information for each provider on: ▲ the number of reports received and the outcomes of handling illegal recordings, ▲ efforts made to prevent distribution, ▲ the establishment and operation of procedures related to distribution prevention, and ▲ the assignment and training of personnel responsible for distribution prevention.
The report submission requirements apply to value-added telecommunications operators, including social networking services (SNS), online communities, internet personal broadcasting, and portal sites, with either annual sales of at least 1 billion KRW or an average of at least 100,000 daily users, as well as webhard operators.
Throughout last year, internet service providers received 231,261 reports of illegal recordings?such as sexually explicit fake videos and child and youth sexual exploitation materials?from users, institutions, and organizations. Of these, 181,204 cases were deleted or blocked. The difference between the number of reports and the number of deletions or blocks occurred because some reported posts were not illegal recordings, were reported multiple times, or had already been deleted.
The number of reports increased by 59.7% (an increase of 86,448 cases) compared to the previous year, while the number of deletions and blocks rose by 122.15% (an increase of 99,626 cases). The Korea Communications Commission analyzed that the increase in reports was due to heightened public awareness of digital sex crimes, and that service providers responded more actively by deleting or blocking relevant information.
Lee Jinsook, Chairperson of the Korea Communications Commission, stated, "With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) services, digital sex crimes involving advanced manipulation technology videos (deepfakes) are increasing rapidly. To prevent secondary harm, it is crucial for internet service providers to make efforts to prevent distribution." She added, "I hope that providers will continue to faithfully prepare transparency reports and fulfill their social responsibility to create a safer society."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
