Children and youth often fail to report digital sex crimes, leading to the recirculation of exploitative videos. With this new technology, authorities anticipate swiftly identifying and removing child and youth sexual exploitation materials. (Image: Pixabay/CCL)
SEOUL, May 22 (Korea Bizwire) –In a groundbreaking move to prevent digital sex crimes and support victims, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has become the first in the nation to introduce artificial intelligence (AI) surveillance technology capable of detecting child and youth sexual exploitation material. This will enable 24-hour automated tracking and monitoring.
The Seoul Institute, a government-affiliated research organization, initiated research and development efforts in March of last year to implement this technology and completed the program development this month.
The institute is providing comprehensive technical support for the city’s 24-hour illegal video monitoring and deletion operations.
Children and youth often fail to report digital sex crimes, leading to the recirculation of exploitative videos. With this new technology, authorities anticipate swiftly identifying and removing child and youth sexual exploitation materials.
The newly developed “AI Surveillance System for Digital Sex Crimes Against Children and Youth” utilizes deep learning-based facial recognition to determine the gender and age of minors, who are often difficult to distinguish from adults.
Notably, even when faces are not visible, the system can analyze surrounding objects like books, school uniforms, and toys, as well as on-screen text and language commonly used by youth, to identify potential exploitative content.
The city boasts that the entire process, from keyword input to video detection, takes only 90 seconds, an 80-fold improvement compared to the previous two-hour manual search by deletion support staff using related keywords. The accuracy has also increased by over 300 percent.
With the introduction of this new technology, the city can monitor up to 300,000 cases annually, double the previous year’s capacity. As AI learning data accumulates, the system’s accuracy and speed are expected to further improve.
The Seoul Digital Sex Crime Support Center offers one-stop support services, including emergency counseling, investigative and legal assistance, content deletion, and psychological and medical care.
Over the past two years, the center has supported 935 victims with a total of 30,576 cases.
Children, youth, and citizens who have experienced digital sex crimes can seek assistance by contacting the center’s dedicated hotline (☎ 815-0382) or visiting its website (www.8150382.or.kr).
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
