Man in 20s gets 6-year sentence for deepfake videos

A man in his 20s was sentenced to six years in prison by an appeals court for distributing and selling child sexual exploitation materials and deepfake videos on Telegram, local media reported Friday.

The Busan High Court on Thursday upheld the conviction of the man on charges of violating laws on the protection of children and teenagers from sexual abuse, as well as the Animal Protection Act.

According to news reports, the man operated paid, membership-based group chats on Telegram between July 2022 and September 2024, distributing content he collected from overseas websites. The material included 296 deepfake videos with the faces of female celebrities, 183 videos of child sexual exploitation and 1,174 illegally filmed sex videos.

He was found to have promoted the group chats by posting sample videos on social media, then charging membership fees of 20,000 won to 100,000 won ($14-$72), which earned some 66.9 million won in total. The groups combined had around 2,800 members.

The man was also charged with killing two cats by throwing them against a wall.

In addition to the prison sentence, the court ordered the man to complete 80 hours of a sexual violence treatment program, barred him from working for five years in organizations related to children, teenagers and people with disabilities and imposed a fine of 66.9 million won.