Seoul — South Korea’s Gender Equality Minister Won Min-kyong said Friday that Google must take responsibility for any legal violations connected to an alleged leak of personal information belonging to digital sex crime victims.
The information was exposed on a foreign research project website collaborating with Google and was removed only after the South Korean government requested its deletion. The leaked data included personal details of victims who had sought the removal of illegally filmed videos, according to Yonhap news agency.
“A platform with significant influence globally, like Google, has an even heavier responsibility to protect and safely deal with sensitive information of victims,” Won said during a press briefing. “If any legal violations are found, Google must take legal responsibility.”
“This issue should not be passed over lightly as a simple system error or mistake. Google must take the gravity of the issue seriously and take a responsible stance in front of the victims and the public.”
Won said her ministry is working with the Korea Media and Communications Commission to determine whether any laws were violated, including provisions of the sexual violence punishment law.
Google has apologized for the leak, saying it asked the website operator to remove the information as soon as the company became aware of the issue.
The company has also pledged not to share deletion requests from South Korea with outside parties as part of follow-up measures, according to Won.
Meanwhile, South Korea is considering allowing investigators to lawfully hack into websites that distribute illegally filmed sexual material as part of efforts to combat digital sex crimes.
Under the proposal, investigators would be allowed to directly access such websites to remove sexually exploitative material, reduce harm to victims and collect evidence, according to an inter-agency response plan.
The plan was developed by the gender equality ministry, the Korea Media and Communications Commission and the National Police Agency in response to a growing number of digital sex crime victims.
Police investigated 17,716 digital sex crime cases between 2021 and 2025. The number of victims receiving government support reached 10,637 last year, up sharply from 2,087 in 2019.
Authorities said they plan to pursue legislative changes allowing investigators to use such powers, noting that similar warrant-based systems have already been introduced in Australia and Britain.
The plan also calls for legislation criminalizing the operation of websites carrying sexually exploitative illegal material, creating a special investigative team to remove and track such sites, banning advertisements on them and notifying the U.S. Fair Trade Commission about overseas-based websites that fail to remove sexually exploitative material involving Korean victims. (Source: IANS)
