Online sex crimes crisis in South Korea affecting all women, report finds

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Online sex crimes crisis in South Korea affecting all women, report finds

Human Rights Watch found sex crime prosecutions involving illegal filming rose 11-fold between 2008 and 2017

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Wed 16 Jun 2021 06.03 BST

South Korea’s epidemic of online sexual abuse has left survivors traumatised for life, and is adversely affecting all women and girls in the country, according to a new report.

Molka – the use of hidden cameras to film or share explicit images of women without their consent – is forcing victims to contemplate suicide or to consider quitting their jobs or leaving the country, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in the report, My Life is Not Your Porn: Digital Sex Crimes in South Korea.

The trauma is worsened by encounters with unsympathetic police and courts, the US-based organisation said, and called on the government to introduce harsher penalties and educate men and boys about the dangers of consuming abusive images online.

“Digital sex crimes have become so common, and so feared, in South Korea that they are affecting the quality of life of all women and girls,” Heather Barr, HRW’s interim director of women’ rights, said on Wednesday.

Barr, who authored the report, added: “Women and girls told us they avoided using public toilets and felt anxious about hidden cameras in public and even in their homes. An alarming number of survivors of digital sex crimes said they had considered suicide.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/16/online-sex-crimes-crisis-in-south-korea-affecting-all-women-report-finds

[niyad]

1. KNR and thank you.