“Nth Room” 2.0 — The “Yoon XXX” Cases Are Being Investigated For Illegal Circulation Of Sexually Exploitative Videos

The “Nth Room” cases of South Korea swept the world in 2020, when a group of people were caught distributing sexually exploitative videos and blackmailing women as young as teens into taking the said videos. These videos were sold via a Telegram chat group that linked out to more groups, governed by admin god god and his cronies. Later on, it was made known that another room, “Paksa Room”, was created by Cho Ju Bin, also known as Paksa, committed similar crimes.  A year after the initial exposé, on October 27, 2021, it was reported that a new slew of cases have erupted. Are we getting another round of the “Nth Room” disaster?

In the new case, as of October 26, 2021, the police have booked a total of 47 people on charges of violating the Child and Youth Sexual Violence Protection Act as well as the Sexual Violence Punishment Act. They have been charged with re-distributing or selling 3,200 videos of sexually exploitative content which were originally distributed by someone that went by “Yoon” in November 2020. The case has been named the “Yoon XXX” case.

More than 3000 pieces of illegally filmed content were distributed on the Dark Web, with more than 70 victims confirmed at the current stage dated October 26. Even more victims and suspects are predicted to arise as the police are currently intensively cracking down on the case.

Yoon had produced illegal sexually exploitative videos by meeting victims through chat applications. His videos span October 2012 up to November 2020. However, one of the victims sued Yoon unexpectedly in November 2020 and an investigation was launched against him. He was only 28 years old in Korea at that time. As soon as the investigation began, Yoon distributed all the illegal footage he filmed via Telegram and the dark web, and died by suicide the next day. As he died, the case concluded with no rights to prosecute.

However, the videos quickly spread and he quickly became known as “Yoon XXX” or “Money XXX” on the Dark Web. Yoon had even specifically named the victims’ real names and personal information, such as their workplaces, in the video. Some of the victims reportedly were contacted by strangers after the videos were distributed. A portion of these victims were minors.

The incident was first reported in March 2021 where a national petition was posted to shut down the distribution site. With more than 70,000 members and more than 30,000 daily visitors, the site posed a grave danger. It is predicted for the total number of victims to exceed 100 at the final stage of investigation. Stay tuned for more on this case.