After the Korean government strengthened its response by shutting down all illegal sites that repeatedly distribute sexual exploitation materials online, the number of sites found to be currently in operation decreased by 29% in one month.
The most common complaint heard in the field of support for victims of digital sex crimes is that ‘even if you delete it, it comes up again.’ It was difficult to prevent endless redistribution by finding and deleting the damaged videos one by one.
Will the government's new response be able to break the vicious cycle of sexual exploitation material reappearing?
From damaged video to ‘site’
On August 20, related ministries, including the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, announced that they would shift the focus of response to digital sex crimes from deleting individual victims' videos to neutralizing the illegal sites themselves.
Previously, the focus was on finding and deleting damaging videos that were spread online or blocking access to the site, but now the relevant agencies are working together to track illegal sites, arrest the operators, and shut down the sites themselves.
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced on the 22nd of last month that as a result of this government-wide response, the number of 'active illegal sites' identified by the government decreased from 6,683 to 4,736 in one month. 1,947, a decrease of approximately 29%.
From January to August of this year, the police arrested 32 operators of illegal sites and suspended the operation of 66 sites.
In particular, the developers of 16 of these sites were arrested and illegally recorded videos stored on their servers were remotely confiscated and deleted.
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The 2.7 billion won in criminal profits obtained from operating the site were also confiscated and collected before indictment.
Information on illegal sites obtained during the victim deletion support process is also used for investigation and access blocking. Sites that require investigation are handed over to the police, and the relevant agencies block access or request that the company providing the server suspend service.
Photo source: News1
The change in response to targeting the site itself was due to the limitations of the existing deletion method.
The Central Digital Sex Crime Victim Support Center (hereinafter referred to as the Digital Sex Crime Center) is an organization that provides counseling for victims of digital sex crimes, provides support for deleting victimized footage, and links investigation, legal, and medical support. It is operated by the Korea Women's Human Rights Agency under the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and opened in 2018.
Cho Sun-ae, head of the Capacity Building Team at the Disung Center, said, “Previously, the approach was to find and delete each damaging video, but now the focus of response has changed to target the site where the damaging video is repeatedly distributed and the operation base itself.”
He went on to explain, “It is difficult for a single agency to neutralize the illegal site itself,” adding, “If all ministries cooperate and one site is shut down, it will have the effect of deleting thousands of damaged videos at once.”
In this response, data on illegal sites that the Disung Center has accumulated over the past eight years while supporting the deletion of damaged footage was also used.
Team leader Cho said, "Since the center opened in 2018, we have supported the deletion of over 1.68 million cases, and the data accumulated in the process became the basis for this in-depth analysis of illegal sites. It is also meaningful in that the records accumulated in supporting victims are now being used as a basis for destroying the perpetrator structure."
At the same time, he emphasized that it is important to prevent re-distribution by disabling the site itself, saying, "The only way to accelerate the recovery of victims' daily lives is to permanently delete the damaged videos."
This same problem was also confirmed when BBC Korea covered the deletion work site inside the D-Sung Center in February last year.
At the time, deletion support staff complained that even if the damaged footage was found and deleted, the same video would be found again on other sites over time.
One person in charge said, “Videos from 10 years ago are now being distributed,” and described the endless deletion process as “pouring water into a bottomless pit.”
It decreased by 29%, but has it disappeared?
Photo source: Ministry of Gender Equality and Family
Experts evaluated the change in response to multiple organizations working together to track and close the sites themselves and the reduction in the number of sites found to be actually operating as meaningful changes.
However, he pointed out that the figure that the number of active sites decreased by 29% does not mean that illegal sites or the distribution of sexually exploitative material itself has decreased that much, and that what happened to the sites that decreased afterwards should also be tracked.
Song Bong-gyu, a professor of industrial security at Hansei University who has studied cybercrime, said, “I think it is meaningful that the government is taking an integrated response,” and explained that in fact, there is a movement to avoid crackdowns, such as the cycle of address changes of illegal sites being noticeably faster recently.
According to Professor Song, sites that used the same address for one or two months in the past have recently changed their addresses on a weekly basis.
It is difficult to determine changes in the entire illegal distribution market based solely on the number of sites operating at a specific time. The site may have actually been closed, but access may have been blocked within the country or the site may have abandoned the existing address and moved to a new address.
Professor Song said, “A decrease in the number of active sites and whether this service has actually decreased are two completely different stories,” and said that we must also look into why the sites that decreased by 29% became inactive.
He explained that it is necessary to 'continuously' track whether the site has actually been closed, whether access is blocked only domestically, or whether the address has changed and is operating again, in order to know whether this decline actually leads to a reduction in the illegal distribution market.
Lee Won-sang, a law professor at Chosun University who has studied cybercrime and criminal law, also evaluated that the method of closing down sites itself is meaningful in curtailing the distribution of illegal sexual exploitation materials.
If there is a perception that even if a site is created, the relevant authorities will continue to find and close it, the burden on operators that they may lose the site at any time increases, and it may become difficult to operate the site stably as before.
Professor Lee said, "If the government continues to take interest in closing these sites, whether temporarily or in some way, the number will decrease. If these sites continue to be closed, the people who run them will think that the government can close the sites at any time, and in that respect, it may have a deterrent effect."
However, he pointed out that just because a site disappears does not mean that the content distributed within it has completely disappeared.
This is because it is not technically difficult for an operator to recreate a site with a new address or create a so-called 'mirror site' that duplicates an existing site.
He said, “What was gone today may appear again tomorrow, so it is a fight of constant chasing and chasing,” and added, “It remains to be seen whether it will continue to decrease in the long term.”
He then emphasized that this response should not be completed as a one-off, but should be established as a system that allows continuous monitoring and tracking.
Server door outside the border
One of the biggest obstacles to keeping track of a site is when the servers are located overseas.
In response to an inquiry from the BBC, the DC Center cited limitations in jurisdiction due to overseas servers as the most fundamental difficulty encountered in the process of neutralizing illegal sites.
Even if access is blocked domestically, if the original remains on the overseas server, the operator can reopen the site by simply changing the address.
Some operators secure dozens of Internet addresses in advance in preparation for a crackdown and then move to another address when the existing address is blocked. The new address is delivered back to users through messengers, social media, and link collection sites.
Team leader Cho Soon-ae explained, “Under domestic law, there are provisions that can sanction users if a request for deletion is rejected, but it is difficult to actually enforce this if the server is located overseas.” He added, “Some sites are using various circumvention methods, such as purchasing dozens of domains in advance and frequently changing addresses.”
He continued, "Ultimately, cooperation between regulatory agencies of countries where servers are located, international hotlines, global platforms, and Internet infrastructure providers is essential," and added, "As this is not a problem unique to Korea, international cooperation must be further strengthened."
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In fact, there are cases where large illegal sites were shut down through international cooperation.
Last year, German and Dutch investigative authorities, with support from the European Union Office for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol), confiscated the servers of Kidflix, a large child sexual exploitation platform, and shut down the site.
According to Europol, from April 2022 to March 2025, just before its closure, the site had about 1.8 million users worldwide. At the time the server was confiscated, approximately 72,000 videos were stored on it.
Through an investigation involving more than 35 countries, approximately 1,400 suspects were identified, of which 79 were arrested. Europol said this was the largest ever operation carried out by its experts in relation to child sexual exploitation crimes.
Through this operation, servers were confiscated and a large amount of sexual exploitation material was secured, and operators and users were also traced.
However, it is bound to take time to actually confiscate a server located overseas or secure the data stored therein. This is because it is necessary to cooperate with the investigative agency of the relevant country and go through local procedures.
Professor Won-sang Lee cited the fact that it is difficult for existing investigation procedures to keep up with the speed of cyber crimes crossing borders as a limitation.
He explained, “To physically confiscate servers located overseas, we need international cooperation, but the process is complicated and takes a lot of time and money,” and explained that it is realistically difficult to secure all the servers of the numerous sites that are quickly created and disappear in cyberspace.
New investigative methods are also being reviewed to compensate for these limitations.
Relevant ministries, including the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, are promoting the establishment of a legal basis for so-called 'active defense', which allows investigative agencies to directly access illegal sites under certain conditions to secure crime evidence and delete the original video of the victim.
At the time of the announcement last August, relevant ministries described this as a type of 'legal hacking' being implemented in countries such as Australia and the UK. Last month, it was announced that it would actively pursue amendments to the law to introduce the system.
Professor Lee said that in some countries overseas, an investigation method that allows directly securing evidence online is being used to investigate cyber crimes, and that there is a need to discuss legal investigation methods appropriate for the changing criminal environment in Korea as well.
However, even if a new investigation method is introduced, it is necessary to continuously find sites that reappear after changing their addresses.
The policy is to continue tracking even if the site identified this time changes its domain or reappears impersonating an existing site.
Minister of Gender Equality and Family Won Min-kyung said, "This achievement is significant in that it proves that it is practically possible to neutralize illegal sites, which were said to be difficult to take because they have servers located overseas," and added, "The government will continue to work together to track and eradicate illegal sites, even if they hide abroad or change or impersonate domains, to the end so that victims can escape the pain they have suffered due to the re-distribution of sexual exploitation materials."
