“Remove all your photos showing your face. Deepfake is spreading.”
Park, a 13-year-old second-year middle school student living in Seoul, was alarmed to receive such a message from a friend on Aug. 26. She immediately set her social media accounts to private but was terrified all day that her photos showing her face might have already been used for digital sex crimes.
As deepfake sexual crimes extend from university campuses to teenagers, anxiety is rising among middle and high school students. The fear of potentially being a victim is growing increasingly widespread.
Deepfake refers to content created using “deep learning,” an AI technology that mimics human brain processing, combined with “fake” to indicate its artificial nature. In South Korea, deepfake content increasingly manipulates photos from social media and real-life acquaintances, combining them with explicit material to create and distribute sexually exploitative images. Such content is spread through numerous Telegram group chats organized by region and school. Some chatroom operators who targeted students and alumni from Seoul National University and Inha University have recently been arrested.
The fear of deepfake crimes among teenagers has intensified as it became widely known that Telegram chat rooms are organized for each school. Searching for chat rooms that share sexually exploitative deepfakes on the Telegram channel search site Telemetrio reveals hundreds of results, many of which include school names in their titles.
Students have created and shared a list of schools affected by deepfake incidents, known as the “Telegram deepfake victim school list.” Updated on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), the list included 477 elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide as of 6 p.m. on Aug. 26. It has not been confirmed whether actual incidents have occurred at all the schools on the list.
The vice principal of High School A in Gyeonggi Province, which is on the list, told the Chosun Ilbo, “We have confirmed that deepfake sex crime materials have affected our school,” adding, “Given the seriousness of the issue and the involvement of other local schools, we have decided to cooperate with the police through the education office.”
On the same day, the student council of High School B in Gyeonggi Province shared on their Instagram account, “Personal information and deepfake composite photos of our students are being distributed through Telegram,” urging, “Please remove any personal photos uploaded to Instagram to prevent further damage.
As student concerns grew, education authorities took action. The Daejeon Metropolitan Office of Education issued a special alert on Aug. 26 for digital sex crimes, including deepfakes, and announced a special education week running until Sept. 6. Schools are urged to report incidents to the police, and the education office will provide direct support to affected students.
The number of teenagers committing deepfake crimes is also on the rise. According to data from the National Police Agency obtained by People Power Party lawmaker Cho Eun-hee, teenagers make up 69% (194 cases) of those booked for creating and distributing false videos over the past three years. Under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes, creating or distributing deepfake sex crime materials is punishable by up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 50 million won. However, teenagers, who are accustomed to social media and photo sharing, often do not recognize that creating and sharing deepfake content is a crime.
Some students have even created deepfake sexual content using teachers’ photos. According to data from the nationwide education offices received by Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Baek Seung-ah’s office, the number of pornographic deepfakes targeting teachers created by teenagers surged from eight cases in August 2022 to 30 cases last year, and 35 cases in the first half of this year.
