SEOUL (ANN/THE KOREA HERALD) – Amid rising concerns about digital sex crimes in South Korea, a national survey revealed that 3.9 per cent of middle and high school students have been asked to send or share sexual images.
The South Korean Ministry of Gender Equality and Family released the findings of the 2023 survey on Thursday, which focused on the awareness and experiences of children and youth regarding sexual exploitation.
This survey is carried out every three years in compliance with Article 53 of the Youth Sexual Protection Act.
Conducted with 4,757 middle and high school students nationwide, 14.4 per cent of the respondents said they had been unintentionally exposed to sexual images of minors while using the internet.
The most common source of exposure came from social media, which accounted for 68.3 per cent of the routes of such experience.
Four out of 100 had been asked by someone to send or share sexual images of themselves. This was more likely to be from someone they only knew online than from an offline acquaintance.
It also showed girls were more prone to the experience, as 5.8 per cent of female respondents had such experience, while for boys 2.2 per cent had been asked to send or share sexual images.
A total of 2.7 per cent of sexual images were taken by someone without consent, with more people being forced or coerced by someone they knew without consent (1.7 per cent) than by a stranger in a public place (1.1 per cent).
The sexual image was shared or distributed in 1.1 per cent of the cases.
Meanwhile, 0.6 per cent were threatened or coerced to distribute sexual images. The most common type of threat or coercion was via “offline meeting,” which accounted for 24.7 per cent, followed by requests for additional sexual images, 23.9 per cent, interference in daily life, 17.3 per cent, requests for sexual images or videos of acquaintances, 14.4 per cent, and requests for sex, 12.3 per cent.
