(image: Pixabay)
SEOUL, Oct. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — The rise of YouTubers claiming to be former or current members of organized crime organizations is posing a social problem.
Rep. Cho Eun-hee of the People Power Party referred to a National Police Agency report indicating that there are currently nine YouTube channels run by gang members and unofficial counts reach up to 30.
These gang members share their stories of committing crimes, detailing processes that are typically unfamiliar to ordinary citizens, for the primary purpose of making money.
They exploit many ways to extract violent content that can easily attract viewers.
“The bosses would stage a fake fight and broadcast it live so that they can increase viewership,” one of the higher-ranking police officers said.
The proliferation of this type of content has raised concern that juvenile viewers could imitate the crimes that the gang members talk about in their videos, believing that these crimes are just part of a funny story that these people share.
“Gambling websites, voice phishing and YouTube are the three major sources of revenue for criminal organizations,” Rep. Cho said.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
