A police officer delivers a lecture on preventing deepfake sexual crime at a middle school in Daegu, Aug. 30. Yonhap

A total of 434 deepfake damage cases affecting underage students and teachers have been reported from schools this year, the education ministry said Monday.

Through the country's 17 regional education offices, the education ministry found a total of 434 deepfake damage cases reported at schools below the university level from January to last Friday.

The latest figure marks a sharp increase of 238 cases in just ten days, compared with the previous count of 196 reported from January to Aug. 27.

Of these cases, 243 were from high schools, 179 from middle schools and 12 from elementary schools.

Of the total, 350 cases have been referred to investigative bodies for investigation.

A total of 617 individuals were affected by these cases, including 588 students and 27 teachers.

There has been a surge in deepfake porn videos exploiting the face images of young or underage women in group chat rooms, prompting the police to launch investigations into suspects and the messaging service Telegram.

Seoul police chief Kim Bong-sik separately said Monday a total of 101 cases of deepfake sex crimes are currently under investigation in Seoul, with 52 individuals identified as suspects so far.

Of these suspects, 39 are teenagers, accounting for 75 percent of the total, Kim said. (Yonhap)