"Crime for Illegal Site Establishment" to Be Introduced... Cutting Off Funding by Blocking Advertising Revenue

Integrated Government Response Led by the Gender Equality Ministry
2.15 Million Korean-Related Videos Posted Online
Blocking Banner Ad Revenue, Strengthening International Cooperation

Going forward, the act of creating illegal filming distribution sites will be treated as an independent crime and will be subject to punishment. In addition, measures will be implemented to uproot illegal ecosystems, such as banning advertisements for illegal sites and suspending bank account transactions to block their profits.

Min Kyung Won, Minister of Gender Equality and Family, is announcing a joint integrated response plan by related government departments to disable illegal filming distribution sites at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 20th. From the right, Jae Sung Yoo, Acting Commissioner of the National Police Agency, Minister Won, and Young Kyu Shin, Director of the Broadcasting and Communication User Policy Bureau of the National Intelligence Service. August 20, 2026. Photo by Yongjun Cho.

On August 20, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, in cooperation with the Korea Communications Commission and the National Police Agency, announced a consolidated response plan for illegal sites, established through the “Government-Wide Digital Sex Crime Response Council.” The government has repeatedly faced noncompliance with requests for deletion of illegal filmed materials, or witnessed repeated re-uploading of such content. In response, the government has decided to shift its approach to combating digital sex crimes by focusing on shutting down illegal sites and eradicating the related ecosystem.

Min Kyung Won, Minister of Gender Equality and Family, stated, “As long as there are sites that refuse deletion requests, re-upload content after deletion, and continue their activities by changing domains, the suffering of victims will never truly end. The government intends to shift its policy focus from merely supporting content deletion to fundamentally neutralizing illegal sites themselves.”

2.15 Million Korean Videos… Majority of Victims Are in Their Teens and 20s

An in-depth analysis by the Digital Sex Crime Victim Integrated Support Team, launched in May, found a total of 6,683 illegal sites accessible via domestic commercial networks or VPN rerouting. Of these, 1,316 sites are either operated in Korean (300 sites) or include a Korean-related category. These sites hosted as many as 2.15 million videos concerning Korean individuals. Over the past five years, there have been 17,716 cases of digital sex crimes, including the production and distribution of illegal filmed content, and the number of victims increases each year. Notably, individuals in their teens and twenties accounted for 77.6% of all victims, underlining an urgent need for a fundamental solution to the problem of digital sex crimes.

Illegal sites largely fall into two categories: free-access and paid membership models. Free-access sites generate revenue through banner advertisements, have backup sites replicating the content, and simultaneously distribute large quantities of videos. Paid membership sites restrict bulletin board access according to membership tier and offer points based on user activity to incentivize the distribution of illegal footage. Noh Hyunseo, deputy head of the Integrated Support Team for Digital Sex Crime Victims, stated, “Operating illegal sites is run as an organized, corporate-style criminal ecosystem.”

New ‘Crime of Establishing Illegal Sites’…Special Investigation Team Introduced

First, a new provision will be created to punish the act of establishing and operating illegal sites. Previously, such acts were not treated as independent crimes but as complicity, often resulting in suspended sentences and thus only minor sanctions. The Ministry of Justice is reviewing amendments to the Act on the Punishment of Sexual Crimes to establish the act of creating illegal sites as an independent crime subject to strong punishment, not as an accomplice but as a principal offender. Related precedents include Article 247 of the Criminal Act, which punishes those who provide places for gambling (the “crime of establishing gambling houses”).

The police will establish a special investigation team for illegal sites. The plan is to concentrate investigative efforts on identifying site operators and removing original illegal materials at their source. Currently, 127 cyber sex crime investigators are deployed at local police agencies nationwide, but most investigations focus on reported cases, making it difficult to proactively detect illegal sites. Over 99% of these illicit sites have servers located overseas, such as in the United States, making it especially difficult to pinpoint the exact location of original servers.

Additionally, investigative agencies will introduce an active defense system, allowing them to directly access illegal sites through legally sanctioned hacking, collect evidence, and initiate deletion of original data. The government will commission research studies into the technical measures and legal feasibility of these actions, moving to amend the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth Against Sexual Offenses. In the United Kingdom, in cases of serious crime, the government operates an “Equipment Interference Warrant (EI Warrant)” system that permits state-sanctioned hacking.

“Cut Off the Money Flow” – Public Disclosure of Advertiser Lists, Emergency Blocking

Advertisement revenue, the main source of illegal site profits, will also be targeted and blocked. Among sites accessible via domestic networks, 1,674 sites were found to display around 40,000 banner advertisements, including those promoting gambling and prostitution. Of all the banner ads, gambling sites accounted for 79.7%, making them the most common. Analysis of 126 illegal sites apprehended by police found their total revenue reached 30.4 billion won. In addition to advertising for gambling, prostitution, and copyright-infringing sites, ordinary advertisements for travel and online shopping malls were also being broadcast. The price per banner ad ranged from at least 500,000 won to 3 million won, with estimated annual earnings per site of at least 200 million won.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is preparing sanctions for general advertisers, such as providing advance notice if their ads appear on illegal sites and publicly disclosing advertisers’ names if ad placements are not suspended. For illegal advertisements related to gambling and similar activities, emergency blocking measures will be implemented. The Financial Services Commission and the National Police Agency plan to block accounts used in the operation of illegal sites by utilizing the “enhanced customer verification system” based on the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information.

Minister Won Minkyoung of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced a joint integrated response plan with related ministries to disable illegal distribution sites such as illicitly filmed materials on the 20th at the Seoul Government Complex in Jongno-gu, Seoul. From the right, Acting Commissioner Yoo Jaesung of the National Police Agency, Minister Won, and Shin Younggyu, Director of the Broadcasting and Communications User Policy Bureau at the Korea Communications Commission. August 20, 2026. Photo by Yojong Jun.

Strengthening International Cooperation: “All-Out Effort to Disable Illegal Sites”

International cooperation will be reinforced to target overseas illegal sites, especially those that repeatedly refuse deletion requests. A communication system will be established with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to facilitate reports of Korean victims. Relevant ministries will jointly send formal requests to overseas hosting and CDN (Content Delivery Network) providers hosting these sites to suspend their services.

A revision of the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth Against Sexual Offenses will mandate platform operators to report whenever they discover content suspected to be child or teen sexual exploitation on their platforms, including user IDs and IP addresses. In the United States, platform operators such as Google, Meta, Apple, and X (formerly Twitter) are required to notify the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) if they discover child or teen sexual exploitation or related crime indicators on their platforms.

Additionally, to combat so-called “domain shuttling”—the practice of evading blocking by frequently changing domains—AI technology development and system upgrades will be pursued. For sites that fail to comply with takedown requests for illegal filmed material, the Minister of Gender Equality and Family will be granted emergency authority to request that key telecommunications providers (SK Telecom, KT, LG Uplus) block access to those sites.

Minister Won emphasized, “It is absolutely unacceptable that illegal filmed content, which destroys the dignity of victims, is used as a means for someone’s profit. We will dedicate all policy resources to disabling illegal sites, the root source of the spread of such materials.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.