A woman in her 30s, known only by her last name Kim, was recently surprised when she received a nude photo.

*Telegram. (Photo source = Yonhap News)*

A woman in her 30s, known only by her last name Kim, was recently surprised to receive a nude photo of a man after clicking on the message “Take a quick look at this” with an X (old Twitter text).

Kim said: “You get about five or six times a year photos that you don’t want to see, or messages of sexual harassment asking you to sell stockings or underwear.” He added: “It seems like a Barbary man who used to be active on the streets is now active online.”

Kim had received similar messages several times before and after deleting the messages, he blocked his account.

As digital sex crimes such as ‘deepfake sexual exploitation’ become more common, so too is the harm caused by ‘cyberflashing’, where nude or sexual images are sent to an unknown number of people.

According to the “2023 Digital Sexual Crime Victims Support Report” released on December 8 by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the Korea Women’s Human Rights Promotion Agency, the number of “cyberbullying” victims supported by the Digital Sexual Crime Victim Support Center has doubled in five years, from 251 in 2018 to 500 last year.

The report defines sexual harassment through telecommunications means such as mobile phones or the unilateral sending of sexual videos that the other party does not want as ‘cymongering’.

According to the report, 90.2% (451 people) and 9.8% (49 people) of cyberbullying victims were male last year. By age, teenagers accounted for 38.4% (192) and those in their 20s for 46.4% (232).

A message that Kim, a victim of cyberflashing, recently received from X (X, former Twitter). (Photo source = Yonhap News)

This process sometimes uses the iPhone’s near-field wireless file sharing system, “AirDrop.” AirDrop can anonymously send photos and files to any Apple device within about 30 feet (9 meters) of the device via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

“The woman next to me was also surprised to see her cell phone,” said Joo, a student who received a nude photo in an airdrop at a bus stop on her way to school last year. “I think someone who was waiting for the bus nearby also spray-painted a similar photo.”

Singer Soyou also appeared on a YouTube channel in May, confessing, “I receive a lot of photos with texts like ‘I can satisfy you’ through Instagram messages.” He added, “I’ve tried to complain about it, but it’s hard to get hold of Instagram.”

Bae Sang-hoon, a professor of police administration at Wooseok University, noted: “It can be seen as an attempt to shame the other person to satisfy his or her desire to show off and get sexual stimulation. We should make sure to get treatment in time so that it does not develop into a bigger crime.”