Online sexual harassment goes overboard

Online sexual harassment goes overboard. February. 14, 2017 07:07. by Ji-Hoon Lee easyhoon@donga.com. Lee, 42-year-old office worker, who has a 12-year-old son, had a shocking experience. She saw her son playing with a smartphone posting, “She looks yummy” to a post with a photo of a member of a girl group. What surprised her more was her son’s reaction, showing no sign of remorse at all, saying, “Everybody else does so online.” “What my son did was almost like sexual harassment and I was scared that he said he did it just for fun,” Lee said.

Kang Hyeok-soo, 30-year-old office worker, deleted his favorite Internet community from his favorite list due to sexually offending comments on pictures of celebrities and negative comments on their appearance. After reading a "sexually harassing" comment on a picture of a 10-year-old actress, he does not visit the website. “Sexually harassing language went too far even it is cyber space,” he said. “It’s crime but it is offending because people think it fun.”

Online sexual abuse is going overboard as online communities and social media are full of posts and comments that are sexually-offending or contain dirty jokes and sexual comparison or assessments. Few people criticize sexually-offending comments to under 12-year-old actresses. As online communities and social media are open to the public without an age limit, children are exposed to online sexual violence.

According to police statistics, cyber pornography out of illegal content crime accounts for around 20 percent of total crime cases reported, with 3,739 cases in 2014 and 3,475 cases in 2015. Celebrities are now actively responding to online sexual violence that has gone too far. A court ruled fines last month to 11 suspects who often made online sexual harassments on IU, a female singer.

As many people believe online sexual harassment is not a problem as it does not involve a physical contact or saying to a person in person, it is not often regarded as crime.

“Those who think online sexual abuse as a play to show themselves of will increase the level of abuse gradually," said Lee Yoon-ho, a professor of police administration at Dongguk University. "It is a problem caused by the conservative interpretation of online sexual harassment in Korea, as many believe it is not a big deal if it does not involve actual sexual violence.”