Telegram “Nth Room” case… Moving beyond outrage in search of systematic legal change
By Park Juyeon
Published: April 20, 2020
Translated by Seung-a Han
A few months have passed since Tracer Team Fireworks [Chujeokdan
Bulggot], along with other media sources, first exposed the enormous sexual
exploitation of the Telegram “Nth Room” case to the world. Though the primary
operators—Jo Ju-bin included—that ran the Nth Rooms have been arrested and
charged, there is no news about the ‘watchers’ who paid hundreds of thousands
or even millions of won to participate in these crimes.
Moreover, a number of media sources muffled the very
essence of this issue by calling the circulated sexually exploitative materials
“pornography”. Some even talked about the case as “a political maneuver” in the
midst of a general election.
As the 21st National Assembly is about to take its seats, now is the
time to stride beyond rage toward discussions on legal solutions for digital
sexual exploitation.
 |
| “Round
Table in Search of Legal Systems for the Eradication of Digital Sexual
Exploitation” at the Korean Women’s Development Institute’s international
conference hall, April 7th. © Korean Women’s Development Institute |
How
did the digital world become a breeding ground for sex crimes?
“I started to wonder if there are cases that involve
such a massive number of people like this in other parts of the world as well.”
Kim Ae-ra, an associate researcher at the Korean Women’s
Development Institute, analyzed the structure within which sexual crimes are
occurring on digital platforms.
“Korea is a society where changes in gendered sex
culture and sexual perceptions are slow in progress while high-speed networks
are fast and digital literacy is high. It seems like this reality brought such
results.”
She said it must not be overlooked that “we are living
in an individualized media age and the lines between consumption, production,
and distribution are blurred with the rise of the internet. Moreover, ‘digital
capitalism’ revolving around contents and influencers has been established.”
“It is also important to note what sexual violence has
become. It no longer is only face-to-face sexual crimes but has become a
business that is profitable—for instance by circulating anything from a woman’s
[pirated] personal selfie to sexual exploitation videos.”
“It is easy to make channels within Telegram as well as
to seek members [for the channel] without having any physical contact.
Moreover, the fact that some of the suspects are in their teens shows that
these crimes are free of limitations in age or time and space. It is also
notable that these activities were industrialized in such a short period of
time, highly possible due to the barriers for possession, consumption,
distribution, and production (of sexual exploitation videos) being almost
gone.”
In this structural environment, the men who used to
watch porn together and share comments on their experiences buying sex
are now showing male solidarity by collectively creating, producing, and
distributing videos of sexual exploitation.
 |
| Different
women’s organizations formed “The Committee for Telegram Sexual Exploitation
Joint Countermeasures,” demanding fundamental solutions in response to the
Telegram Sex Exploitation Case. This is the view at the press conference that
took place in front of the stairs of Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in
Gwanghwamun on March 26th. © The Committee for Telegram Sexual Exploitation Joint Countermeasures Facebook |
Kim indicated that “social media definitely has a
positive aspect of collecting and sharing ‘collective intelligence’, but this
was the very aspect that led to organized crime in the ‘Nth room’ case”, though
she emphasized that it was not completely unexpected.
“We need to see these crimes not as emerging from nowhere
but as preexisting sexual crime culture just taking different forms with new
technology.”
“Reproduction
and distribution are acts of production”, consumption and possession are acts
of violence
Since Jo Ju-bin was arrested, much attention has been
drawn to what charges will be pressed against him and what punishment he will
be receiving, but opinions are divided. Moreover, many people are looking
towards how the participants and consumers will be punished.
In digital sexual exploitation cases like the “Nth
Room,” the boundary between production and consumption is ambiguous and it is
often difficult to grasp who the original producer is.
Kim argued that “we should consider reproduction and
distribution also as acts of production” and, taking into account the
specificities of the digital medium, redefine the categories of harm and damage
caused by gender-based violence.
She explained that “for victims, the consumers are
objects of fear as much as the producers and distributors (of sexually exploitative
materials),” and that we should discuss “active consumers punishment” as well.
“Since the relationships of production, distribution, consumption and
possession are extremely close, we should research the harm and damage in this
situation as well as discuss how to apply laws.”
Moreover, one cannot help but ask whether the platform
really has no responsibility at all for this issue. Kim said, “As we already
witnessed with what the Webhard Cartel (which distributed illegally-filmed
videos) resulted in, platforms play a key role in digital sexual exploitation
crimes. We should actively demand accountability from the platform services.”
 |
“These
people wanted more and new videos, even though they knew that the videos being
shared were created through illegal filming and threats. How are they different
from [Jo Ju-bin]?” Graphics produced by ‘The Committee for Telegram Sexual
Exploitation Joint Countermeasures’ emphasized that it is vital to punish users
as well as the organizers in order to prevent such crimes.
|
Kim also pointed out that “discussions on
technology-related crimes tend to revolve around technical supplementation and
contingency plans.” These are valid discussions, but analysis on “why women,
especially female children and teenagers, are victims of these crimes”
shouldn’t be missing from the discourse as well.
“In order to understand the specificity of
technology-related forms of gender violence such as image-based sexual
exploitation, we need to consider how the medium of technology affects gender
relationships as well as its harmfulness to women.”
We
need to take into account the specificity of a ‘nonphysical sex crime’ in a
digital medium
Yoon Duk-kyung, a researcher at the Korean Women’s
Development Institute, explained that digital sex crime’s primary legal basis,
Article 14 of the Sexual Violence Punishment Act (a special law on sexual
violence crimes and punishment) has been continuously revised. It is
significant to note that the acts of non-consensual distribution of self-filmed
videos, distribution of re-filmed versions of pre-existing materials, and
combination of materials from different sources, have become punishable.
However, she criticized that (the law) is “still limited
in addressing the sexual objectification of non-sexual parts of the body or the
whole body.”
For instance, there was a court ruling in the past that
circulation of pictures of uniformed high school girls or pictures of
non-sexual body parts does not qualify as “filming crimes with cameras” even
though such acts of non-consensual filming often lead to verbal [written]
sexual harassment through sexual objectification during the process of
distribution.
Yoon suggested the legal direction to take to strictly
punish digital sexual crimes, which are not physical rape, also
as serious crimes.
She explained that it is important to “acknowledge
digital sexual crimes as serious sexual crimes (though they do not consist of
physical rape or violence) that dehumanize the victims by inflicting mental and
physical pain through sexual humiliation”.
She deemed it particularly problematic that a crime is
accepted as a sexual violation depending on the court’s views on concepts of
sexual humiliation or sexual desire.
Furthermore, she emphasized that we must discuss whether
‘sexual humiliation,’ currently a requisite component of sexual crime, is
really necessary in the structure of a particular crime, what role it plays in
the crime, and if there is a need for it to be replaced with a different
component because there is a fundamental issue that [the current definition of]
this crime is based on the concept of ‘the obscene’, in which the body evokes
sexual desire or humiliation.
In sexual crimes with cameras or other filming involved,
there is a need to describe the crime and the victims’ emotions in more neutral
language: for instance, “for sexual purposes” or “harassment” as well as
“sexually offensive and insulting.”
Yoon indicated that it is “necessary to reform the laws
regarding camera-related and other filming crimes because when mutually
agreed-on and filmed sexual material is distributed non-consensually, and when
third parties redistribute it, the perpetrators can be punished for
distributing obscene materials but not additionally punished for it as a crime
of sexual violence.”
She proposed modifying the legal criteria to stop
revolving around the “body parts that can cause sexual desire or humiliation”
and focus on “the basic type of privacy infringement crime” and in addition to
that punishing when sexual attributes or illegalities are involved.
“It is also a possible solution to establish a new
privacy infringement crime (under Article 316-2) within the criminal law and
include privacy infringement crimes that are sexual in nature within the Sexual
Violence Punishment Act.”
Victim
protection as important as punishment of perpetrators
While illegal filming is problematic, as is shown in the
“Nth Room” case, distribution and consumption are similarly serious matters.
Yoon said it is urgent to “arrange a sentencing standard for digital sexual
crimes.”
 |
On
April 10th, members of the Committee for Telegram Sex Exploitation Joint
Countermeasures attended the trial for a social services worker with the
surname “Kang” who took part in the operation of the ‘Doctor’s Room’ and stood
in front of the court with protesting pickets. Kang is on trial for threatening
a woman before he was charged with being involved in the Telegram sexual
exploitation case. The prosecution has requested the two cases be merged. The
Committee for Telegram Sex Exploitation Joint Countermeasures announced that
they will continue monitoring the trials so that every perpetrator involved in
the Nth Room case will be prosecuted appropriately. © The Committee for
Telegram Sex Exploitation Joint Countermeasures Facebook
|
She suggested considering “the introduction of a
punitive damage compensation system to sanction the distribution and sale of
illegal materials.”
“The punitive damage compensation system allows the
imposition of additional indemnities, as well as fully guaranteed compensation,
in cases where a victim suffers damage from the perpetrator’s ‘intentional or
near-malice act.’ Since this practice already exists in laws such as the
Subcontracting Transaction Fairness Act and the Credit Information Act, it is
plausible to consider introducing it.”
Yoon also discussed the legal necessity of protecting
the victims of digital sexual crimes.
The first step is to “explicitly define digital sexual
crime within the Sexual Violation Prevention Act (a set of laws on preventing
sexual crimes as well as on victim protection).” Since the law regulates the
prevention of sexual violence, it is necessary to broaden the range of people
who qualify as victims.
Moreover, she asserted that victims should be given
further protection by taking regulations on crimes such as “the production,
distribution, etc. of obscene materials depicting children or youth” from the
Act on the Protection of Children and Youth Against Sex Offenses and
“distributing obscene materials online” from the Act on Promotion of
Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection,
Etc, and adding these to the Sexual Violation Prevention Act.
The “Round Table in Search of Legal Systems for
Eradication of Digital Sex Exploitation” was full of diverse discussions on
legal solutions beyond what’s written here. A member of the ReSET project
stated that “we need to consider a plan to punish even the possession of
digital sexual crime materials and have conversations regarding the punishment
of acts of watching, abetting, and instigation.”
She also pointed out that “since digital sexual crimes often start
from personal information being leaked, the theft of personal information with
the purpose of sexual exploitation must be punished.”
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