Compulsory Notice of `Adult Advertisement` for Sexual Spam Mails

The advertising mails containing bad things for juveniles like sexual and violent contents should attach the notice of `Ads for Adults` to the title from July.

And the abnormal declaration of the titles of Spam mails, advertising electronic mails, such as `Advertise. Ment`, `Advertise~ment`, `Advertise ment`, or `Advertisement` in Chinese letters, is prohibited.

The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) announced on the 7th that it would prepare the amending bills on the promotion of information communication network use and the protection of information in order to prevent the damage of Spam mails, which is appearing as one of serious social problems, and put it into practice from July.

According to the bill, advertising mails whose title is not written with `Advertisement` in Korean letter without any blank should be fined to 5 million won.

In addition, address and ways for contacting should be spelled out in both Korean and English in the content to make recipients easily refuse the acceptance of the mail. The Spam mail containing sexual information harmful for juveniles should compulsorily notice `Adult Advertisement` in the title.

The advertising mails, which recipients permitted accepting, don¡¯t have to attach the notice `Advertisement` to the title, but they should express the date and contents of agreement in the text.

MIC will operate this bill from July after guiding during June, and send the correction order to the businesspersons who violate the law for the first time. But they will be fined to 5 million won from the second violations.

MIC will run a site (www.spamcop.or.kr) for informing the damage from Spam mails from the mid of this month in addition to the site (www.cyberprivacy.or.kr) for informing personal information damages.

Tae-Han Kim freewill@donga.com