Korean court acquits man who bought Deepfake nude images of teen idols, says photos were "clearly fake"

A man in his 20s who purchased doctored nude images featuring the face of a teenage idol was acquitted by the court.

On June 8, the First Criminal Division of the Cheonan Branch of the Daejeon District Court, presided over by Judge Jo Young Jin, found Mr. A not guilty of violating the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth Against Sexual Offenses, including charges related to the production of sexual exploitation material involving minors.

Mr. A had been accused of purchasing images in which the face of a female celebrity was superimposed onto another woman’s nude body for 20,000 KRW (approx. 13.10 USD).

Under South Korea’s child protection law, purchasing, possessing, or viewing material that can be clearly recognized as depicting children or minors is punishable by at least one year in prison.

Prosecutors argued that the images possessed by Mr. A qualified as child and youth sexual exploitation material because they featured an underage female celebrity. However, the court ruled otherwise.

The court stated, “The manipulated images do not directly depict actual child or youth victims, but are merely fabricated images created using the victims’ faces,” adding that “there is no room to classify them as child or youth sexual exploitation material under the law.”

The court further explained, “The mere fact that the victims are members of an idol group does not automatically make it common knowledge that they are under the age of 19. In addition, the quality of the images was poor enough that they could easily be recognized as manipulated photos. Therefore, the defendant cannot be punished under the law cited in the indictment," ultimately handing down a not guilty verdict.