The government decision to crackdown on underage porno has had many online users scrambling for cover.
With the public outcry over the high-profile pedophile cases, the authority’s unveiled plan of action was to investigate the online storage services where underage porno was easily accessible and through which much of the underage porno circulates. This move was seen as a part of wider efforts to choke the flow of illegal adult contents, it also encouraged many online users to search elsewhere, namely peer-to-peer sharing networks such as BitTorrent.
However, downloading through the BitTorrent protocol also means that user downloads and uploads from each other simultaneously, therefore anyone found downloading underage porno will be doubly charged for not only possession but distribution as well. Currently the possession of underage porno is punishable by the South Korean law.
However, the negative online reaction to the new enforcement appears to be missing a point, i.e., that the enforcement targets underage porn, not adult contents in general. While some of the criteria seems questionable at best and a misguided effort at censorship at worst, it is unlikely to encounter much resistance given how readily accessible illegal underage porn has been on the Korean web space and how frequently the online storage industry turned blind eyes without any effort to filter or screen them out.
From Seoul News:
Porn-downloading Men Tremble With Fear of Being Prosecuted
● Only those who upload ‘regular’ porn will be prosecuted
With a series of high profile sex crimes, the police have investigated approximately 250 web-storage companies and began a sweeping crackdown on the production, distribution and possession of adult content featuring minors, leading to much confusion and trepidation among porn-downloading men. While some are discussing the merits and demerits of the new regulations and potential ramifications for those ‘indiscreet’ downloaders, others are complaining about the heavy-handed nature of the new regulation being enforced. On a web-cafe [forum] set up on Naver called ‘Adult content crackdown response forum,’ over 600 articles were posted, mostly asking ‘When charged for distributing adult materials featuring minors and under-aged children, what should I reply?’ or ‘Am I in danger of being prosecuted for possessing or downloading ‘regular’ porn?’ The confusion further intensified when the Suwon Public Prosecutor Office announced plans to charge anyone in possession of adult materials featuring minors. The current criminal code only prosecutes for distribution of pornographic materials. However, criminal charges could be brought on against not only distributing but downloading adult contents featuring minors.
● And what about women in school uniforms?
A legitimate criteria?
But the questions over the actual enforcement rages on. What’s especially problematic is whether adult females donning school uniforms qualifies as under-age pornography. The police maintains that if the person gives the impression of being underage even if she is over 18, the case will be charged as possession of illegal adult content.
One netizen, who is being summoned by the police, asked if he would be registered as a sex criminal and if his future employment opportunities would be in danger if found guilty. A person convicted of a sex crime cannot work in an educational setting under the current criminal code.
● Are all men potential criminals?
In some quarters there is growing concern that the government is treating all men as potential criminals. One netizen called the standard of law-enforcement as ‘too subjective’ and wondered if watching the movie ‘A Muse‘ (that depicts love between an old man and a high-school student) should be punishable under the new regime.
Comments from Daum:
ㄹㅎ:
Let’s bring it to public discussion and kick-start the domestic adult entertainment industry. We need a proper adult culture for sure…
텔레토비:
Every single TV music producer featuring girl-groups ought to be prosecuted. They have been producing obscenity. Any men caught watching them also ought to be thrown behind bars.
수:
Fucked-up South Korean law, illegalizes all men… ke ke ke
독순애:
I really want to know what’s legal to download and what’s not. Fuck it, let the government handle it.
야인:
Why only men? Women should be treated equally as ‘potential criminals…’
윤순영:
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MGEF) has done it yet again…..;;
초록은내꿈:
Not sure about other things but please punish anyone convicted of making porno with children to the maximum degree. They should be locked behind the bars.
미확인인간:
Crackdown on how women dress as well!
심심해용:
Instead of trying to suppress basic human desire, think rationally. Sexual crime exists because of porn, is that not ridiculous? How about sex-education and/or the legalization of prostitution? The more you try to repress, the more deviant people get. Let it vent a bit and if you use the morality shtick, you might as well kill all men, they are potential rapists after all. Over-generalize you say? Criminalizing porn-watching is the over-generalization to the highest degree.
너의뱃속:
Fuck off and get rid of room-salons and massage rooms first…. They are cherry-popping and us poor folks can only afford porn on the computer, and now they are taking that away as well…
Victor:
Hey, second-hand smoking kills so possession of tabaco should be made illegal. Those in possession of kitchen knives should be treated as potential murderers so they should be thrown in jail too. In fact, throw anyone who sells knives in jail.
김나윤:
Eliminate red-light districts, and sex crime skyrocket. Female police chiefs even recognized this. The current public pressure is being mobilized by the Christian female groups and police going for an easy score. All the advanced countries allow red-light industries.
이긍:
And if women watch porn?? You think only men watch it? MGEF, answer me!! What will you do when women distribute those pornos?
짱구지:
Are they nuts? So now we will get elementary school children convicts… You government dipshits, all this is caused by social alienation and dislocation, not because of porn. Let me ask you, is there any public prosecutor who has never seen porn????
노가리원츄:
Femi-nazi shitheads score yet again. Drop this shit and do your best to prosecute the sexual predators, k?
유리:
Please let’s put a stop to the circulation of underage porn or anything that reminds them of it… Some think it’s alright not knowing the harmful effects. Children are to be protected for our future, NOT objects of sexual fantasy.
아름다운마음:
I knew they would blame porn again…. In the US, Germany and Japan, porno is legal… This shithead administration, MB and PGH… those idiots. A number of researches suggest that there is no positive correlation between porno and sex crime, but they ain’t listening and they’re at it again.
acecart:
Do something about how TV celebrities dress first… All the girl-groups dress really obscenely but adults watching some porn is a problem? I really don’t think so. I have no idea whoever cooked this up but please think first…
dday:
Don’t watch porn you shitheads, your soul will rot away
하루보리:
Anyone here who is not a paedophile or school-uniform fetishist??? Don’t watch that junk, why bitch so much. There are other pornos out there, delete those loli-pornos and uniform-cosplay pornos and get over it.
봉까:
Yah, the Internet, TV, newspaper, magazines, let’s all get rid of these and go back to Joseon dynasty.
