Police have arrested 1,416 suspects for digital sex crimes against minors over the past three years.

Police have arrested 1,416 suspects of digital sex crimes against minors in the past three years in a disguised investigation. There is a growing voice saying that the scope of fake investigations limited to crimes against children and adolescents should be expanded to crimes against adults to solve digital sex crimes on Telegram with excellent security.

According to the National Police Agency, from September 23, 2021 to August this year, the National Police Agency conducted a total of 515 false investigations, arresting 1,416 people. The law then came into effect, allowing police to conduct false investigations into digital sex crimes.

In terms of crime type, “sale and distribution of sexual exploitation of children and adolescents” accounted for the largest share with 400 cases (77.7%). There were 66 cases of sexual exploitation of children and adolescents (12.8%), 21 cases (4.1%) of conversations for sexual exploitation purposes and 19 cases (3.7%) including the distribution of illegal film recordings.

Under the current law, disguised investigations are subject to digital sexual crimes against children and adolescents. It is divided into a “private investigation” that does not reveal or deny the identity of a police officer, and a “confidential investigation” that pretends to be a non-police officer using documents, drawings and electronic data.

Fake investigations are becoming more active. The number of fake investigations between January and August this year was 130, an increase of 5.7 percent compared to 123 cases in the same period last year. The number of arrests also increased by 18.7 percent from 326 to 387.

Recently, Gyeonggi Southern Police Agency launched a Telegram channel from December last year to July this year to arrest three teenage sellers (two arrested) who sold celebrity deepfake sexual exploitation. Twenty-four buyers who bought and watched the video were also arrested without arrest.

The Chungnam National Police Agency has arrested a 28-year-old man who sold and advertised sexual exploitation of children and adolescents on the social networking service (SNS) “X” (Twitter) from January to February. The man had 19,000 (2TB) worth of sexual exploitation.

Sham investigations raise concerns that abuse could lead to innocent victims or excessive violation of basic rights. Police explained that they strictly manage the selection and training procedures for disguised investigators to address these concerns.

According to the current law, a confidential identity investigation must be approved in advance by the head of the investigation department of the higher police station. Investigation-related data must be submitted to the National Assembly every six months and to the National Police Commission at the end of the investigation. Investigation of false identity may require a request from the Public Prosecutor’s Office and permission from the court.

A police official said: “The covert investigation is an investigative technique that can collect evidence and identify and arrest suspects of crimes using security messages that do not cooperate with investigations such as Telegram.” “After inspecting three cities and provinces in the first half of this year, we confirmed that there were no cases of illegality or abuse during the investigation process.”

The police are currently seeking to revise the law to extend the scope of covert investigations, which are limited to crimes against children and adolescents, to crimes against adults and to allow for ex post facto identity checks.

The police also stressed the need to expand the scope of fake investigations. On the 2nd, Woo Jong-soo, head of the National Investigation Division of the National Police Agency, said: “Recently, there are many digital sex crimes targeting adults, not children and adolescents, but fake investigations are impossible. The investigation requires prior approval, although timeliness is important,” he said.

“We will actively push for post-clearance to be possible when covert investigation needs to be extended to adults (target crimes), and covert investigation into identity confidentiality is also urgent,” he said.