AI · SEMICONDUCTOR · FACT CHECK
SKD WIRETrue
The volume of AI-generated sexual exploitation material in South Korea has risen sharply, according to findings cited by the Korean Institute of Criminology and Justice (KICJ) and a press release issued on the matter, with deepfake-based abuse emerging as a fast-growing category of digital sex crimes.
The proliferation of generative AI tools has made it dramatically easier to produce realistic fake sexual images and videos of real people, most of them women and girls. The KICJ citations and the accompanying press release point to this technology as a key driver behind the recent spike in AI sexual exploitation material circulating online.
The UK-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which monitors child sexual abuse material worldwide, has also issued warnings about the spread of AI-generated abusive imagery, underscoring that the problem extends well beyond South Korea.
South Korean authorities and researchers have flagged that detection and takedown efforts lag behind the speed at which such content is produced and redistributed. Victims face the additional burden of pursuing removal of images that can be re-uploaded instantly across platforms.
The full details of the underlying report were not available for direct review; the assessment above draws on the press release text and the KICJ material cited within it. Specific incident counts and growth rates could not be independently established from the available sources.
The claim that AI sexual exploitation material has surged is True.