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The Documentary: Somebody is watching me

Somebody is watching me

14/03/2023 GMT

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Somebody is watching me

How misogyny and tech have made South Korea the digital sex crime capital of the world

How misogyny and high tech have made South Korea the digital sex crime capital of the world.

Since 2020, when the so-called Nth Room scandal revealed how women and children were lured and blackmailed to make explicit videos for distribution through chatrooms, the lucrative online sexual exploitation of women and children has mushroomed. Despite government promises and wide-ranging police investigations the perpetrators are going unchallenged. Figures released in 2022 show that over 38% of South Korean women have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime, and that digital sex crime is increasing year on year.

Sojeong Lee investigates why women in South Korea are so especially vulnerable to online abuse and exploitation and why so little has been achieved by government and police.  How have the country’s economic and social characteristics led to this hotbed of digital sex crime?  And beyond the borders of South Korea if this shocking level of cybersex crime could spread to the rest of the global online community, what could be done to prevent it? 

Presenter: Sojeong Lee
Producer:  Amanda Hargreaves

(Photo: A person taking a photo of another person in the street with a mobile phone. Credit: Sojeong Lee)

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