30% of Deepfake, Illegal Filming Victims Targeted by Former Partners: Report

SEOUL, June 23 (Yonhap) -- About 30 percent of victims of illegal filming and deepfake sexual violence identified former partners as perpetrators, a government report showed Tuesday.

The sexual violence safety survey, conducted every three years by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, found that 30.2 percent of victims of illegal filming and deepfakes identified former partners as perpetrators, marking a sharp rise from 9.3 percent in the 2022 survey.

Among female victims in such cases, 42.5 percent identified former partners as perpetrators in the 2025 survey, compared with 13.8 percent three years earlier.

Meanwhile, the share of victims who identified strangers as perpetrators dropped to 21.4 percent from 46 percent over the same period.

The latest survey also showed an overall decline in those who experienced sexual violence in their lifetime.

The share of those who reported experiencing sexual violence through communications devices fell from 9.8 percent in the 2022 survey to 7.6 percent in the latest survey, while those who reported rape or attempted rape declined from 0.2 percent to 0.1 percent over the same period.

The regular government survey is designed to assess the state of sexual violence in the country and serve as a basis for policymaking. The latest report was conducted on 10,151 adults aged 19 to 64 from August to October 2025.