Man acquitted of possessing deepfake images of underage K-pop stars; court rules photos are 'fabricated'

A man in his 20s has been acquitted of charges related to purchasing composite images that superimposed the faces of underage female celebrities onto nude photographs of other women.

The first criminal division of the Daejeon District Court's Cheonan Branch, presided over by Chief Judge Jo Yeong-jin, handed down the not-guilty verdict Monday against the defendant, identified only as A, who had been indicted without detention on charges of violating the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth from Sexual Abuse — specifically, possession of child sexual exploitation material.

A had been tried on charges of purchasing composite images — featuring the faces of female celebrities grafted onto nude photographs of other women — for 20,000 won (about $13).

Under the relevant law, anyone who purchases, possesses or views material that can be clearly recognized as depicting a child or youth faces a minimum sentence of one year in prison.

Prosecutors argued that the images A possessed featured underage women and therefore constituted child sexual exploitation material.

The court disagreed.

"The composite images in question are not material in which actual child or youth victims directly appear — they are nothing more than fabricated images created using the victims' faces," the court said in its ruling. "There is no room to consider this as child sexual exploitation material as defined by law."

The court added that the mere fact that the celebrities whose likenesses were used are members of idol groups is not sufficient to establish as common knowledge that they are under 19, and that the poor quality of the composites made it easy to recognize them as fabricated.

"This is not a matter that can be punished under the statute cited in the indictment," the court added.

Police crack down on cyber sexual violence

Separately, police announced last November that a yearlong intensive crackdown on cyber sexual violence had resulted in the arrest of more than 3,000 suspects.

The National Investigation Headquarters of the Korean National Police Agency detected 3,411 cases of cyber sexual violence and arrested 3,557 suspects, 221 of whom were taken into detention.

Deepfake crimes accounted for the largest share at 1,553 cases, or 35.2 percent of the total, followed by child and youth sexual exploitation material at 1,513 cases and illegal filming at 857 cases. Cases involving child and youth sexual exploitation material produced using deepfake technology were also counted under the deepfake category.

Teenagers made up nearly half of all suspects by age group, accounting for 47.6 percent, or 1,761 people.

Police plan to continue the intensive crackdown on cyber sexual violence through October, with a particular focus on arresting perpetrators of new types of crimes that exploit deepfake technology, generative AI and related technologies.

8000 깨진 코스피, 서킷브레이커·사이드카 동시 발동…‘검은 월요일’ 덮쳤다 [투자360]

8일 한국거래소에 따르면 코스피는 전 거래일 대비 676.18포인트(8.29%) 내린 7484.41로 장을 마쳤으며 미국 금리 인상 우려와 중동 지역 지정학적 리스크가 겹치면서 코스

https://biz.heraldcorp.com/article/10766387

yul@heraldcorp.com