The prosecution also filed charges of offering and possessing for sexual exploitation of a high school student.

Prosecutors have charged a high school student with offering and possessing sexually exploitative sex toys. He placed a nude photo of the Buddha statue on the victim’s face, which he discovered through social networking sites (SNS), and sent it to his victim’s boyfriend.

Although the suspect is a boy and commits a crime for the first time, the Public Prosecution Service states that this is a measure to severely punish crimes that use deepfake technology (fake videos). Deepfake has recently become a social problem.

The Incheon Prefectural Public Prosecutor’s Office announced on December 3 that it has charged a high school student (Teenager A) without arrest with possessing and distributing sexual exploitation material under the Act for the Protection of Juveniles from Sexual Exploitation and distributing fake videos under the Act on the Punishment of Sexual Violence.

Mr A is accused of providing his victim’s friend with a photo of a young woman he discovered via Twitter (currently X) last December, featuring a photo of a female Buddha and a nude female body.

Police, who initially investigated the case, referred the case to the Public Prosecution Service only on charges that she provided fake videos under the Sexual Violence Punishment Act.

The Public Prosecution Service also arrested A on suspicion of offering and possessing sexual exploitation. The Public Prosecution Service was of the opinion that the fake video was a form of exploitation of children and young people within the meaning of the Protection from Sexual Exploitation of Young People Act.

Prosecutors face less than five years in prison if they are only accused of providing fake videos under the Sexual Violence Punishment Act that were sent by the police. However, if they are accused of possessing or distributing sexually exploitative material under the Youth Sexual Protection Act, they can be punished with up to 30 years in prison.

The Public Prosecution Service stated: “The suspect is a first-time offender and a minor, but he has been charged without having undergone any deprivation of liberty, given the seriousness of the case.”

According to existing case law, expressions in which children and adolescents actually appeared using advanced photosynthesis technology or computer graphics are considered to be expressions (sexual exploitation) recognizable as children and adolescents.

This also includes images of children and adolescents that use drawings or computer graphics in which children and adolescents are depicted as objects of desire, child and adolescent characters in cartoons and games, and images of children and adolescents that have been merged with photographs.