After News of Police Investigation... 139 Users of Illegal Recording Site Turn Themselves In

Investigation into 'AVMOV' Site Began Last Month
540,000 Members Involved in Illegal Recordings of Family and Romantic Partners

As the police investigation into the online site 'AVMOV,' which distributed illegal recordings secretly taken of family members, romantic partners, and others, is underway, it has been confirmed that 139 users of the site have turned themselves in so far.

The Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency announced at a regular press briefing on February 2 that it had received 139 voluntary confessions from individuals admitting to having used the AVMOV site since the investigation began. All those who submitted confessions were users of the site, and so far, there is no evidence that they were involved in the site's operation.

Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency. Yonhap News

Separately, the police have identified and booked some members of the site's management team. Launched in August 2022, the AVMOV site has served as a platform for distributing illegal recordings, allowing users to exchange secretly filmed videos of acquaintances such as family members or romantic partners, and to download them using points purchased for a fee. The number of registered users is estimated at around 540,000.

The Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency detected the site during its own monitoring process in December last year and launched an investigation. Access to the site has now been blocked. The police have determined that the company managing the site's servers is based overseas and have continued their investigation through international cooperation. After news of the police investigation into the site was reported by the media, a wave of users from across the country began turning themselves in within about a month.

The police plan to review the usage records of all site users, including those who have turned themselves in, to comprehensively examine the types of videos viewed, whether illegal recordings were possessed or distributed, and whether any child or adolescent sexual exploitation material was involved, before deciding whether to press charges. A police official explained, "For example, simply possessing or viewing child or adolescent sexual exploitation material is punishable by law. Even if users accessed the same site, the decision to press charges and the severity of punishment may vary depending on how the site was used."