University students and members of women's rights groups hold plancards during a press conference in Gangnam District, Seoul, Aug. 29. Yonhap

Deepfake porn images have sent many Korean women scurrying to take down selfies from Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms as concerns have been mounting that no one is an exception to the crime in the world's most-wired nation.

"It feels like what should have been the safest place for us, our routine lives, has been violated," said a 27-year-old woman, who identified herself only by her surname Lee, revealing that she deleted all traces of herself from social media.

The issue of sexual deepfakes rose to the spotlight when a graduate of Seoul National University in his 40s allegedly conspired with three other men to create sexually explicit images and videos of victims using deepfake technology, and share them on Telegram.

Sixty-one victims have so far been identified, including 12 alumni of the same school as the perpetrator.

In no time, media reports flourished of other similar cases of deepfake sex crimes, with some chat rooms known to target minors.

One Telegram channel reportedly had over 220,000 members and was equipped with a program that instantly turns a photo into a nude, with the perpetrators encouraging members to share photos of people they know.

Bae Sang-hoon, an adjunct professor of the police administration department at Woosuk University, said perpetrators in these crimes are driven by factors like a sense of inferiority, amusement and sometimes just to harass or take revenge on someone online when it cannot be done physically.

"The earliest form of insulting someone you know began when, as kids, people drew mustaches on a photo hung in a public bathroom, or ripped out the eyes from a photo in a graduation album," Bae said.

The difference today is that with the fusion of Telegram, widely used by teens and the younger generations, and artificial intelligence, it has led to explosive damage across the nation, the professor said.

"Deepfake technology makes it hard to distinguish whether something made up is real or a caricature, and this confusion makes it even more dangerous," Bae said.

The number of deepfake victims who asked for help from the state agency tackling digital sex crimes amounted to 781 people between Jan. 1 and Aug. 25, and 288 of them, or 36.9 percent, were minors.

Students listen to a prevention training for sexually explicit content using deepfake technology at a school in Daegu, Aug. 30. Yonhap

The education ministry said it received 196 reports of damage from such deepfake sex crimes among students and teachers from January until Tuesday, with teachers accounting for 10 of the cases.

In the face of these deepfake crimes, women are hurriedly taking down photos of themselves on social media, or going out of their way to hunt down the suspects themselves.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, keywords like "illegal porn" and "expose_the_deepfake_perpetrators" decorated the top trends of the country, with many sharing a list of schools suspected of being targeted in the chat rooms, sharing updates of related news stories, and sharing tips on how to avoid falling victim.

A photographer, who asked to remain anonymous, said he would "temporarily halt uploading posts with the faces of models" due to concerns about deepfake crimes.

Kim Su-jeong, director of the Women's Human Rights Counseling Center, said the government should educate perpetrators that their actions are wrong and cannot be tolerated, rather than telling the victims to take down their photos or posts.

"The repeated violence against women in this country is a result of the state's failure to listen to the numerous calls in the past raising alarms on the issue, lax punishment for perpetrators and a lack of awareness that such actions are crimes," she added.

On Tuesday, President Yoon Suk Yeol urged authorities to root out the digital sex crimes using deepfakes during a cabinet meeting, referring to it as a "clear criminal act".

In a belated response, the government has since announced a series of measures, including toughening punishment for deepfake sex crimes, pushing to secure a hotline with Telegram for year-round consultations and punishing people for simply possessing deepfake pornographic materials.

Following reports that many of the victims were found to be minors, the education ministry also vowed to better educate students on digital ethics and online sexual abuse prevention training.

The officials from Daejeon Police, Daejeon City, and Daejeon Metropolitan Office of Education hold a meeting to crake down deepfake sex crime at Daejeon metropolitan police in Daejeon, Aug. 30. Yonhap

The National Police Agency also announced a seven-month intensive crackdown on deepfake sex crimes.

"The fundamental cause of all violence against women is sexual discrimination, the thought that women are not equal beings but some object to relieve one's sexual desires, and even the culture where men share this as a kind of fun activity and encourage each other," Kim said.

Bae Jeong-weon, director of the Center for Sexuality and Harmonious Life and adjunct professor of Seong University, said that exposure to pornographic materials from a young age and the prevalence of the objectification of women in society makes teens become numb to such crimes.

"Many teens tend to think of it as kind of a game in which they play to upgrade their levels often competitively among other peers," she said, noting the prevalent exposure of such sexual content in games, porn and in cyberspace that often leads them to objectify women.

Pointing to France's recent push to ban mobile phones at school for children up to the age of 15 and a similar discussion in the United Kingdom, Bae said, "Even if we can't go that far, we need to at least inspect and rule out access to violent games for adolescents."

Bae also stressed that media literacy education and humanism education are equally important.

"The real question is, do we have the time to teach kids about building their humanistic character under an education system that traps students in an endless cycle of tests and competitions," she asked.

On Thursday afternoon, nearly 70 university students and members of women's rights groups gathered in front of Gangnam Station in southern Seoul, calling for a thorough investigation into deepfake crimes, stern punishment for perpetrators and a set of fundamental prevention measures.

"Deepfakes are not a game!" they chanted. "Violence can't break us!" (Yonhap)