[Newsmaker] 6 out of 10 digital sex crimes targeted minors

Six out of 10 arrests for digital sexual violence in Korea during 2020 involved sexual exploitation of minors, government data showed Tuesday. Among the victims of overall sexual violence cases, women accounted for the majority with 88 percent.

The data was part of the report, titled "2022 Statistics on the Life of Men and Women," by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

Since 1997, the government had been releasing the annual report under the title "Statistics on the Life of Women," but this year decided to change it to "Life of Men and Women," to reflect the changed social situation.

The number of suspects arrested for alleged digital sexual violence was 4,223 in 2020, up from 2,891 in 2019. Of the 2020 figure, 61.8 percent involved sexual exploitation of children.

In same period, the number of sexual violence victims was 30,105, and 88.6 percent of them were women. The total number of victims slightly decreased compared to 2019, but the proportion of women among victims increased by 0.7 percentage points.

The number of domestic violence arrests was 52,431, a decrease of 7,041 cases from 2019. Dating abuse cases went down 876 to 8,982 compared to the previous year, while the number of stalking arrests also slid 99 to 481.