National Assembly Passes Bill to Investigate Digital Sexual Crimes Against Adults

The National Assembly passed an amendment to the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes, which allows police to conduct disguised investigations into digital sexual crimes such as deepfakes targeting adults as well as children and adolescents.

The amendment allows police to keep their identities private, access crime scenes, collect digital sex crime evidence and data, and conduct a fake investigation using fake identities in case of unavoidable circumstances.

In addition, if an illegal act is committed for unavoidable reasons during a false identity investigation, criminal punishment, disciplinary action, or damages will not be held liable unless there is intentional or gross negligence.

At the same time, an amendment to the Information and Communication Network Act, which includes edits, composites, processors, and sexual exploitation of children and adolescents, was approved at the plenary session to the extent that the Korea Communications Commission can order telecommunications service providers to stop posting videos.