South Korea failing to tackle widespread digital sex crimes: Human Rights Watch report
16 June, 2021
South Korean authorities are failing to properly tackle the country's widespread digital sex crimes against women, which have a devastating effect on victims, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report said on Wednesday (Jun 16).
South Korea is the world's 12th largest economy and a respected technological power, but remains a male-dominated society with a poor record on women's rights.
Digital sex crimes, or the sharing of intimate pictures or video without permission, are a massive problem in the country, where "molka" or spycam videos secretly filmed in public areas are common, as is "revenge porn" - private sex videos filmed or shared non-consensually by disgruntled exes.
South Korean officials "in the criminal legal system - most of whom are men - often seem to be to simply not understand, or not accept, that these are incredibly serious crimes", said HRW's Heather Barr, the report author.
In 2019, almost 45 % of sexual digital crime cases were dropped by the country's prosecution, weighed against 19 % of robbery cases and 27.7 % of homicides, the report said.
Even when there have been convictions, it found almost 80 % of perpetrators received just "a suspended sentence, an excellent, or a combination of the two" last year.
"Digital sex crimes have become so common, therefore feared ... they are affecting the standard of life of most women and girls," Barr said.
Spycams have grown to be so prevalent that female police officers now regularly inspect public toilets, with women telling HRW they avoided using the amenities altogether.
One woman who spoke to Barr was given a clock by a male employer, which she devote her bedroom - only later learning the device had been streaming footage to him for over a month.
Victims often feel deep shame and so are socially ostracised, and an "alarming number" told HRW they had contemplated suicide.
The report comes as an anti-feminist backlash grows in South Korea, with companies accused of endorsing "radical feminism" being boycotted by some men.
Barr said "widely accepted harmful views" about women and girls were the primary cause of the phenomenon.
The government has "not sent a clear and forceful message that people are equal," she said.
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