Lee Jae-myung: "I Will Install a Digital Sex Crime Response Center for Prevention and Oversight"

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hun] Governor Lee Jae-myung of Gyeonggi Province unveiled plans to establish a Digital Sex Crime Response Center capable of preventing and monitoring digital sex crimes and providing victim relief services.
On the 30th, Governor Lee Jae-myung held the launching ceremony of the ‘Gyeonggi Digital Sex Crime Response Task Force’ at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government Office to build a prevention and protection system against digital sex crimes, saying, “We will establish the Gyeonggi Digital Sex Crime Response Center to respond to and monitor digital sex crimes and foster specialized personnel,” and calling on the task force to “promptly prepare measures including the roles and staffing composition of the response center.”

The launching ceremony was attended by task force co-chairs including Governor Lee Jae-myung, Professor Lee Su-jeong of the Department of Criminal Psychology at Gyeonggi University, Director Jeong Jung-ok of the Gyeonggi Family and Women Research Institute, ‘Chujok-dan Bulkkot,’ which first reported and exposed the digital sex crime chatroom, and representatives of Gyeonggi Province youth, who held a discussion on the direction of digital sex crime response.

Governor Lee said, “Acts of treating others as means for personal satisfaction are extremely serious and heinous crimes,” and stated, “Digital sex crimes in particular are extremely difficult to remove and manage after the fact, and once spread, they are nearly impossible to control. With today's launch of the Digital Sex Crime Response Task Force, we will mobilize all provincial financial and human resources to take all available actions.”
He added, “Recently, we established a valley guardian system with approximately 200 personnel continuously patrolling to monitor illegal dumping,” and noted, “If we properly develop measures that do not violate the law, we can operate a digital sex crime monitoring unit.”

Professor Lee Su-jeong stated, “Digital sex crimes cannot be understood through surface-level monitoring alone regarding what happens inside,” and said, “We requested the 21st National Assembly to enact legislation allowing police to login as users and conduct undercover investigations.”

Chujok-dan Bulkkot presented practical measures including ▲establishing a one-stop support system and control tower for unified victim support ▲developing measures to regulate inappropriate words in chat programs ▲preparing preventive education materials for non-student youth vulnerable to sex crimes ▲group trauma counseling for victims and related personnel, urging, “Please assist from the victim's perspective, taking into account victim characteristics.”

Approximately 300 citizens accessed the open chatroom operated alongside the discussion broadcast, drawing attention by sharing diverse opinions on digital sex crimes and sexual violence including statements such as ‘I hope there will be proper awareness of digital sex crimes’ and ‘I hope strict punishment will make this form unacceptable.’

Meanwhile, Gyeonggi Province and the Gyeonggi Family and Women Research Institute have been preparing the task force composition to establish community response measures through public-private cooperation against digital sex crimes following the Nth Room incident.
According to the task force operational plan announced today, the task force, comprising 45 experts from various fields including provincial civil servants, provincial assemblypeople, and institutional and organizational representatives, consists of two subcommittees on ‘Victim Support’ and ‘Digital Rights’ and a policy advisory group to support the subcommittees.
The ‘Victim Support’ subcommittee establishes policy direction with participation from the National Police Agency and women violence prevention organizations to support victims of digital sex crimes, while the ‘Digital Rights’ subcommittee collaborates with the Provincial Office of Education, gender-aware human rights education institutions, and women's organizations to operate citizen participation units that conduct continuous monitoring of online sex crimes and lead digital sex education focused on raising public awareness.

In particular, the task force plans to actively respond to digital sex crimes targeting youth by preparing a ‘Korean-style grooming sex crime prevention and management guideline’ (grooming: the act of luring, conditioning, and sexually exploiting children and adolescents).

Following today's launching ceremony, the task force, which began official activities through a video conference attended by all task force members, plans to derive policy measures by field through subcommittee operations over two months from July, and following forums for gathering public opinions and working-level consultations with related agencies, will announce detailed policies for Gyeonggi Digital Sex Crime Response by September.