Police must speed up arrests to prevent further damage
The police have launched an investigation into an online sexual crime in which the perpetrators produced and distributed materials sexually exploiting minors on messenger app Telegram. Besides the prime suspect, identified as "L," at least eight individuals joined the crime as accomplices, and more than 350 sexual exploitation videos and photos have been confirmed. Barely three years after the notorious "Nth Room" incident caused uproar in Korean society and left numerous victims, a similar crime has been uncovered.
"L" and the other suspects used even more secretive and nefarious tricks than in the Nth Room crimes. Unlike Nth Room, which was operated cliquishly as a fixed chatroom, the perpetrators in this case avoided surveillance by changing accounts and moving rooms frequently. The perpetrators even impersonated the trackers of online sex abusers when approaching minors.
The police have activated a task force to investigate but are getting nowhere. The officers cannot identify the distributors as they have no access to Telegram's overseas servers. They have discovered no financial transactions, finding it impossible to track the suspects using financial service networks. In the meantime, chatroom operators are still spreading illegal content mocking the police.
The police deserve to be ridiculed. Despite investigative know-how accumulated in the Nth Room case, the officers took no positive steps until the news media reported the latest criminal scheme. One of the victims filed a report at a police station, but it took no fewer than eight months to transfer the case to the cybercrime squad ― a pathetic example of a slow response.
The police must speed up their pursuit of the suspects and prevent additional damage. In the future, they must deal with criminals swiftly from the crime detection stage. If the police open investigations only after victims' appeals and cries flood out, they can never prevent online sex crimes. Two more things are needed. First, law enforcement authorities should find ways to punish not just the producers and distributors but also the consumers of sex crime content. Second, online sex abuse transcends national borders, meaning that the police must expand international cooperation in crime prevention and criminal justice.
The police have launched an investigation into an online sexual crime in which the perpetrators produced and distributed materials sexually exploiting minors on messenger app Telegram. Besides the prime suspect, identified as "L," at least eight individuals joined the crime as accomplices, and more than 350 sexual exploitation videos and photos have been confirmed. Barely three years after the notorious "Nth Room" incident caused uproar in Korean society and left numerous victims, a similar crime has been uncovered.
"L" and the other suspects used even more secretive and nefarious tricks than in the Nth Room crimes. Unlike Nth Room, which was operated cliquishly as a fixed chatroom, the perpetrators in this case avoided surveillance by changing accounts and moving rooms frequently. The perpetrators even impersonated the trackers of online sex abusers when approaching minors.
The police have activated a task force to investigate but are getting nowhere. The officers cannot identify the distributors as they have no access to Telegram's overseas servers. They have discovered no financial transactions, finding it impossible to track the suspects using financial service networks. In the meantime, chatroom operators are still spreading illegal content mocking the police.
The police deserve to be ridiculed. Despite investigative know-how accumulated in the Nth Room case, the officers took no positive steps until the news media reported the latest criminal scheme. One of the victims filed a report at a police station, but it took no fewer than eight months to transfer the case to the cybercrime squad ― a pathetic example of a slow response.
The police must speed up their pursuit of the suspects and prevent additional damage. In the future, they must deal with criminals swiftly from the crime detection stage. If the police open investigations only after victims' appeals and cries flood out, they can never prevent online sex crimes. Two more things are needed. First, law enforcement authorities should find ways to punish not just the producers and distributors but also the consumers of sex crime content. Second, online sex abuse transcends national borders, meaning that the police must expand international cooperation in crime prevention and criminal justice.
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