South Korea's "Nth Room" Case: 260,000 People Paid to "Participate" in Sexual Exploitation
The "Nth Room" incident is a recent case of heinous collective sexual crimes in South Korea. The perpetrators impersonated police officers to coerce and entice victims into taking nude photos, then used these photos to blackmail the victims, committing sexual crimes against them. They also filmed the criminal process and distributed it in membership-based paid chat groups.
As of March 22, 2020, the South Korean police had identified 74 female victims, 16 of whom were minors. The youngest victim was an 11-year-old elementary school student. The number of users who had joined the rooms to share illegal content reached as many as 260,000.
The large number of victims and the involvement of public officials caused a huge uproar in South Korea, with netizens flooding the Blue House website with petitions demanding the identities of the perpetrators and the 260,000 members of the chat groups be made public.
As of March 22, 2020, the South Korean police had filed cases against 13 accomplices involved in the case and arrested the ringleader known as "Doctor" Cho, whose name is 조주빈 (Cho Joo-bin, phonetic), 25 years old, majoring in information and communication, and had served as editor-in-chief of the school journal editorial department. He achieved a GPA of 4.0 in multiple semesters. This person's name is Cho Joo-bin (phonetic).
According to Yonhap News Agency, on March 23, South Korean President Moon Jae-in ordered a thorough investigation into the "Nth Room" case, in which sexually exploitative videos of minors were circulated via the social platform Telegram, and demanded that all perpetrators, including those who viewed the videos, be punished. Moon Jae-in promised that the government would delete all videos involved in the case and provide victims with necessary legal, medical, and other support. The government will also treat the "Nth Room" case as a major crime and conduct a thorough investigation. All members of the chat groups related to the "Nth Room" case will be included in the scope of the investigation, and the police will establish a special investigation team for this purpose if necessary.
Lawyers from Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm stated that even if the real information of the 260,000 members were disclosed, its practical significance would be limited. At most, it could only subject them to moral condemnation, and it would be difficult to impose legal punishment on them.
Although it is said that without buying and selling there would be no harm, judging from current reports, the vast majority of these 260,000 members merely spent money to purchase adult films. Their actions can at most be defined as buying pornography, that is, purchasing obscene materials. And among these people, are any South Korean chaebol figures or officials involved? As is well known, South Korea is a country highly controlled by chaebols. Not to mention that it is difficult to legally punish these people in South Korea; even in our country, it would probably be hard to do so.
In China's Criminal Law, explicit legal provisions are made only for the acts of "producing, reproducing, publishing, selling, or disseminating obscene materials," while the "Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Public Security Administration Punishments" merely prohibits the acts of "producing, reproducing, selling, renting out, or disseminating" obscene materials.
Although Chinese law does not specifically address the purchase of pornography, relevant internet regulations promulgated by the state stipulate that no entity or individual may use the internet to access obscene information. From the perspective of protecting minors, most countries around the world prohibit the publication and dissemination of obscene information online. Purchasing pornography via the internet is, in essence, an act of dissemination and should therefore also be illegal, and public security authorities may impose penalties in accordance with public security administration regulations. In reality, however, because there are so many buyers of pornography, the principle that the law does not punish the multitude makes it very difficult to handle such matters properly.
Online obscene materials such as pornographic videos and images are explicitly classified as illegal items by the state. If purchasing pornography online is non-profit in nature and does not involve dissemination, it does not constitute a crime. However, it is still an illegal act. If the quantity purchased is large, it may lead to dissemination. Depending on the severity of the specific circumstances, such as the quantity of obscene items purchased and held and the degree of obscenity of the content, public security authorities may impose certain penalties on the parties involved in accordance with relevant regulations.
Image source from the internet, delete if infringing!
