Last year, the number of people indicted for deepfake crimes increased 3.5 times compared to the previous year.

Last year, the number of people indicted for deepfake crimes was found to have more than tripled compared to the previous year.

Deepfake refers to the crime of distributing or possessing a film or video of a person's face, body, or voice by editing or synthesizing it into a form that can cause sexual desire or shame against the subject's will.

According to data submitted by the Ministry of Justice to the office of Kim Yong-min of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly, on the 6th, the number of people arrested, imprisoned, or summarily indicted for deepfake crimes (Article 14-2 of the Sexual Violence Punishment Act) last year was 273, an increase of about 3.5 times compared to the previous year (62 people).

By year, the scale of deepfake crime indictments has remained at the level of about 30 to 40, with 42 people in 2021, 36 in 2022, and 29 in 2023, but has rapidly increased in the past two years to 62 in 2024 and 273 last year.

Compared to 2021, the number of people indicted last year has increased by more than five times.

This trend continues this year.

As of January to August this year, a total of 142 people were handed over to trial for deepfake crimes, which is 3.5 times the number of people indicted in 2021.

Among those sent to trial, approximately 1 in 10 were arrested. Of the 584 people indicted from 2021 to August of this year, arrest warrants were issued for 73 people (12.5%).

Also, during the same period, there were 117 suspects who were summarily indicted through a written hearing without a formal trial due to relatively light charges, which was about 20% of the total number of indicted people.

The number of cases in which young people have committed deepfake crimes and been sent to the juvenile department of the court has also increased rapidly in recent years.

Last year, the number of cases of deepfake crimes sent to juvenile protection was 255, an increase of 1.8 times compared to the previous year (91 cases).

It was 59 people in 2021, 24 in 2022, 36 in 2023, and then increased rapidly to 91 in 2024.

As of August this year, the number of people sent to the juvenile department for deepfake crimes was 128, far exceeding the annual figure for 2024.

Representative Kim Yong-min said, "Deepfake is a serious crime that destroys a person's life, but the punishment is so lenient that even teenagers are participating in the crime without a sense of guilt." He added, "We will effectively improve related laws and systems so that digital sex crimes can no longer take root in our society."