Reports Claim South Korea Doesn’t Enforce Laws Against Illegal Pornography Because It Would Penalize Too Many People

“Watching this episode gave me the chills. I am actively terrified.”

The latest episode of Unanswered Question covered one of South Korea’s most controversial issues of “digital sexual crimes”, or the “Mol-ca (몰카, hidden camera)” pornography distribution and circulation.

 

Several Korean distribution websites currently have illegally produced pornographic videos uploaded to them, with millions of users downloading and consuming such content.

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This has become a life-threatening concern for a lot of Korean women, with the victims of such “Molca” porn often committing suicide to escape the “shame”.

 

An anonymous distributor, who called himself a “heavy uploader”, came forward and shared with the program how much he has made in the past by sharing such illegal contents.

“I was the best uploader on that site. Solely from distributing, I made between $250K to 350K per year. I’ve contacted the show only because I’m thinking about quitting.”

— Heavy Uploader A

 

This distributor said he owns 3 terabytes of illegally produced “Molca” pornography. 3TB is equivalent of 1.5 million movies.

“If I told you all the truth, the site could go down. I actually have 3 terabytes of distributable videos. All of them are illegal hidden camera productions.”

— Heavy Uploader A

The program continued to explain that some of these hidden camera videos are sold to Japan, copyrighted as an actual pornographic work, then re-imported to Korea to be considered “legal”.

 

Another distributor explained these “Molca” porn videos bring the uploaders easy money. This is why circulation cannot be stopped.

“I uploaded an illegally made video to the site and went to bed. The next day, I had 50K points in my account. That’s about $22. It surprised me. That’s how I got started. Soon, I was making over $4K a month. I had over 1,500 VIP downloaders. But I’m not even that high up in ranks in terms of the top uploaders.”

— Heavy Uploader B

The distribution site actually allows the more active uploaders to take more profit home. While an average uploader would receive 30% of the total profit made from the circulation of a video, a heavy uploader would receive 50%.

 

This distributor was taken to court for his involvement in the circulation of illegal content. The penalty he faced was a fee of $50.

“It was really strange to me too. Compared to what I’ve made by distributing such illegal videos, doesn’t the penalty seem like a very small price to pay?”

— Heavy Uploader B

 

The uploader claimed there isn’t much fear of getting caught for the distributors either, mainly because the website can deny to provide any personal information for police investigations.

“Even if the police want to know the personal information for the person behind a certain video’s distribution, the website doesn’t always have to share that data.”

— Heavy Uploader B

In addition, there is no current law that could penalize the paying downloaders of these illegal videos — as it would actually penalize a significant number of the South Korean population.

 

A former employee of the distribution website also came forward to reveal that the website itself encourages the distribution of such content.

“Porn is a category that brings in a steady flow of cash in for the website. So the company even had several accounts of its own to upload illegal content. It was a part of the job to be working this account to distribute videos for more profit. The website has a violation monitoring department, but it’s not serious. Besides, the website doesn’t quite oblige to delete, even when the victims request the videos to be taken down.”

— Former Employee

 

Viewers reacted with pure disgust that such an enterprise is able to exist and actually prosper in Korea.

  • “How would we ever end this… It’s so, SO deep-rooted.”

  • “This is f*cking nasty. These people making money off of videos that are LITERALLY taking girls’ lives each day… and getting away with it for $50… Disgusting.”

  • “Did I hear this correctly? Because it would actually penalize a significant number of the South Korean population? I’m… speechless.”

  • “It makes me want to puke to think these people would walk the streets pretending they’re not f*cking criminals.”

  • “I couldn’t finish watching yesterday. It disgusted me and I couldn’t bear.”

  • “This episode made me lose all faith in humanity…”

  • “And to think these uploaders and downloaders must have their own mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, and girlfriends…”

  • “These people are murderers. Those who film, those who distribute, those who watch… they all contribute to the killing of the victims.”

  • “Watching this episode gave me the chills. I am actively terrified.”

Source: Dispatch and Instiz