Stigma, criticism follow deepfake victims

As hundreds of reports have been recently made to police regarding the distribution and creation of sexually explicit deepfake images and videos, calls for increased protection and stronger punishment of perpetrators are being raised in South Korea.

According to the Korean National Police Agency, authorities have seen a giant surge in the number of reports made by victims of deepfake pornography since it declared a seven-month crackdown on digital sex crimes from Aug. 27 to March 31, 2025. As of Tuesday, a total of 118 reports have been made just since Aug. 26. This marks a 10-fold increase compared to the number of reports made from January to July, which had totaled up to 297 cases over the seven months.

Deepfakes, digitally manipulated or generated photos that are impossible to distinguish from real images, have recently come under fire as local media have reported on numerous Telegram chatrooms where sexually explicit deepfake content generated and manipulated via AI was distributed. Responsible for creating the deepfakes were groups connected to specific regions, university campuses, middle and high schools and military units.

Following a recent surge of media reports as well as reports made by the victims of the crime to the police, some online comments have been spotted claiming the general public and the government are “overreacting” to deepfake pornography.

On Wednesday, YTN reported on comments written under its news reports that read: “Honestly, I don’t even understand why deepfake pornography is such a big deal,” and “They’re just graphics and not actual people. Can we really say that there are victims involved here?”

On online forum websites such as DC Inside, multiple posts written recently were also found claiming that the controversy over deepfake pornography here has been “blown out of proportion.” One post even read, “It’s more of a bummer that technology hasn’t advanced enough to make (deepfake pornography) better,” while several other posts made derogatory comments about the victims and female activists who recently took part in protests against deepfake pornography.

“As such comments belittle the amount of shame and embarrassment victims of deepfake pornography often feel, they can also constitute a form of secondary victimization,” human rights lawyer Min Go-eun told The Korea Herald. Secondary victimization refers to additional trauma or harm a victim experiences after the initial crime, usually due to insensitiveness, blaming or dismissive attitudes from others.

Off the internet, Gwangju Nambu Police Station was criticized for its deepfake sex crime prevention campaign which used an image of a group pointing their fingers at a victim. The Ministry of Justice advises against using such images, as they imply that the victims are responsible for the sex crimes committed against them.

Local media also reported on a middle school in Gwangju where six students, who were victims of deepfake pornography, said they were suffering from secondary victimization after the perpetrating student was not successfully separated from them.

With some students forced to interact with the perpetrating student when going to and from different classes, a father of one victim told Yonhap News Agency that his daughter is “going through a great deal of emotional distress."

“My daughter is having a hard time psychologically, knowing that the perpetrating student used to see her as a sexual object, even saying that she wants to transfer to a different school,” he said.

Regarding the recent rise in the number of secondary victimization cases for deepfake sexual crime victims, lawyer Min told The Korea Herald that it could be due to the rampant “perception that takes deepfake sexual crimes lightly.”

“To punish an individual for secondary victimization, it must be proven that such actions were made to defame and insult the victim. However, it can be difficult to prove that in this case, as both the victims and perpetrators can be difficult to identify,” said Min.

While stronger regulations against secondary victimization for criminal cases such as sexually explicit deepfakes are important to have, Min added that it’s also important to “educate the general public as to why deepfake sexual crimes are as serious as other forms of sexual crimes” to prevent further secondary victimization.

“Besides the prevention of secondary victimization, it’s also important to provide any mental health support necessary for the victims of deepfake pornography,” Min added.