South Korean lawmakers passed a bill criminalising the possession and viewing of sexually explicit deepfake images and videos.
On Thursday, the new bill law was passed by South Korea’s National Assembly. It now only lacks President Yoon Suk Yeol’s signature so it can be passed. Under the new bill, anyone who buys, stores or watches such material could face up to three years in prison or a fine equivalent to $22,600 (30 million won).
In South Korea, there has been a wave of outrage over Telegram group chats in which sexually explicit and illegal deepfakes have been created and widely distributed, prompting calls for harsher punishment.
The law states that creating sexually explicit fake material for the purpose of distributing such content is illegal. Offenders face up to five years in prison or a fine of about $38,000 (50 million won) under the Sexual Violence Prevention and Victim Protection Act. Hence, if the new bill passes, the maximum sentence for creating fake pornography will go up to seven years, regardless of whether the creator intended to distribute the images.
The spread of such images among young people in the country appears to be a widespread problem. The country’s police have dealt with more than 800 cases of sexual offences involving deepfakes this year. 387 people have so far been arrested, 80 per cent of whom are teenagers. The figures compare with 156 for the whole of 2021, when the data was first collected.
Countries around the world are grappling with the spread of fake content. Earlier this year, social media platform X blocked users from searching for Taylor Swift after fake explicit images of the pop singer appeared on social media.
