SEOUL – A South Korean court on October 30 sentenced a man to 10 years in prison for spreading fake pornographic images of women who attended the nation’s top university.

South Korea is facing a deep crisis of fake pornography after extensive Telegram chat groups were identified in 2024 that often targeted students and staff at schools and universities.

In one of the most prominent early cases, between 2021 and April 2024, two men created and distributed nearly 2,000 degrading AI-generated pornographic images of women who attended the same alma mater as the men, Seoul National University.

One of the two criminals, surnamed Park, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while the other attacker, surnamed Kang, received a four-year sentence, a spokesman for the Seoul Central District Court told AFP.

The two men “committed a digital sexual offense of ‘humiliation of knowledge’ against their graduates at a university where the nation’s brightest minds are gathered,” the court said in its ruling.

“The victims lived in fear and anxiety, suspecting all male acquaintances until the defendants were apprehended,” it said, adding that they also had to “live in constant anxiety and recover from their trauma (was ) almost impossible”.

Penalties for bogus offenses have typically been much lighter, with court and police data released by MPs suggesting prosecution rates have been low and a fine or probation the most likely outcome.

Since fake murders became punishable in South Korea in 2020, the 10-year sentence is “the most severe sentence that has been handed down, as far as I know,” lawyer Song Ji-eun, who represented 15 of the victims, told AFP . .

“The court’s decision, which affirmed the need for strict punishment of false crimes in our society and imposed a heavy sentence, is extremely significant,” Ms. Song and her colleague, lawyer Jo Yoon-hee, said in a separate statement.

One of the victims told AFP in August that it was a “huge trauma” to bring her attacker to justice after she was hit in 2021 by a wave of Telegram messages containing fake images showing her being assaulted sexual.

She rarely interacted with Park while attending Seoul National University, but always thought he was “gentle”.

In a letter submitted to the court before the ruling, the victim accused Park of capturing her profile pictures on South Korea’s most popular messaging app, KakaoTalk, and using them to create degrading pornography.

While creating and sharing such images, Park repeatedly said things like “rape is the answer for feminists,” viewing Telegram as a “safe space” where he believed he would not be caught for such remarks, the victim said in the letter.

The offenders asked for leniency in sentencing, citing their own mental health struggles.

But on October 30, the court concluded that “the men’s actions were a distorted manifestation of inferiority and hatred towards socially successful women”, fueled by the anonymity that Telegram offers. AFP