Statistics showed that among diverse social media services, Twitter is the most popularly used channel to distribute sexually exploitative content involving children, Monday.
According to data Rep. Kim Young-joo of Democratic Party of Korea received from the Korea Communications Standards Commission on Monday, among 15,000 requests to delete certain content from social media services in 2021, 5,665 cases were requests regarding the child sexual exploitation. Among them, 5,180 cases were regarding content posted on Twitter, which surpassed 90 percent of the child sexual exploitation content in the report.
Also, 894 cases of deepfake videos -- digitally manipulated videos that are hard to distinguish from genuine content -- were reported on Twitter. This accounted for 65 percent of the total reports, followed by 171 cases with Google and 157 cases on Pinterest. Among domestic services, far-right online community Ilbe had the most reports, with 141.
Twitter users can easily create new accounts over and over, even if the company deletes posts or blocks a user's previous account. Kim stressed the need for stronger sanctions, not just leaving the onus on the company.
Kim said, "According to the current law provision, it is necessary to delete and block access to illegal content as soon as the authorities detect it, but the countermeasures to deal with distribution of child sexual exploitation content is weak compared to its seriousness."
Kim called for a law revision to force companies to report to an investigative agency immediately after they have detected sex crime content involving children. “We should revise the related law at this year’s regular Assembly,” she added.
