According to Reuters news agency, South Korean legislators approved a law prohibiting the possession and viewing of sexually graphic deepfake images and videos. South Korea’s National Assembly passed the new law on Thursday. All that is needed for it to become law is President Yoon Suk Yeol’s signature of approval.
According to the new legislation, those who buy, keep, or view such content may receive a maximum penalty of three years in prison or a fine of up to $22,600.
Producing sexually explicit deepfake content in South Korea for distribution is currently prohibited by law, with violators risking a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment or a fine of approximately $38,000 according to the Sexual Violence Prevention and Victims Protection Act.
Reuters reports that if the new legislation is approved, the maximum sentence for the offense of producing deepfake pornography would be raised to seven years, regardless of whether the creator had the intention of sharing the content.
In South Korea, there has been widespread anger in recent years regarding the sharing of sexually explicit AI-altered images and deepfakes. Last month, officials started looking into claims of such content being circulated through chat rooms on the Telegram app.
A South Korean journalist named Ko Narin conducted an inquiry for Hankyoreh newspaper in August, revealing that the faces of female Seoul National University alumni were used in sexually explicit deepfake videos made and shared by former male classmates.
Ko told BBC News earlier this month that he was surprised by the level of organization and systematization of the process. The most disturbing discovery I made was a school group for underage students with over 2,000 members.
The spread of such imagery among youths in South Korea seems to be a prevalent issue. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported this week that 387 individuals, the majority of whom are teenagers, have been arrested this year for creating deepfake sexual content.
The inquiry into Telegram started shortly after French authorities brought charges against CEO Pavel Durov for various crimes, including the claim that his platform facilitated the spread of child sexual exploitation material.
According to reports, explicit deepfake images of pop star Taylor Swift quickly circulated on Elon Musk’s social media platform X earlier this year, gaining millions of views and causing X (formerly Twitter) to temporarily restrict searches for the singer in January.
In May, two U.S. senators collaborated on bipartisan legislation designed to combat the spread of non-consensual intimate deepfake images on the internet. The bill suggests consequences like monetary fines and a maximum of two years of imprisonment, along with civil fines that could go as high as $150,000.
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