Serving police officer arrested for producing and distributing AI-generated illegal videos over two years on the job
A serving police officer who used artificial intelligence (AI) to composite acquaintances' faces onto fake nude videos and spread them via Telegram chat rooms has been arrested. Sergeant A of the Seoul Dongdaemun Police Station was taken into custody last month on charges of possessing sexual exploitation material and producing and distributing fabricated videos, and it has emerged that he had previously received a suspended indictment — a decision not to prosecute — for a similar offense before joining the police. The investigation found he continued his crimes for nearly two years even after becoming a police officer.
The case illustrates how the harm from AI-composed fake sexual videos — so-called 'deepfake sexual exploitation material' — occurs in reality. Producers and distributors are subject to criminal punishment.
The investigation began with the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency. In December last year, the agency obtained a court permit for covert identity-concealed investigations to track Telegram chat rooms where fake videos were being distributed, with an officer joining the rooms under a hidden identity in an undercover operation. Such covert investigations were introduced through an amendment to the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth Against Sex Offenses in September 2021, following the 'Nth Room' and 'Doctor's Room' cases, and since June last year they can also be applied to digital sex crimes against adults under the Act on the Punishment of Sexual Crimes.
After months of tracking, the undercover officer identified the distributor — who turned out to be Sergeant A, a serving officer working in the traffic division of the Dongdaemun Police Station. Police raided and seized Sergeant A's mobile phone and other items in August this year. The criminal charges listed in the warrant at the time covered the distribution of three fake videos.
However, analysis of the seized items revealed a scale of offending that far exceeded the original warrant. Sergeant A was found to have possessed a total of more than 5,600 items, including some 2,600 fake sexual videos, 1,600 sexually exploitative videos of children and adolescents, and 1,300 illegally filmed videos. He was confirmed to have personally created over 400 AI-generated fake nude videos of acquaintances between March 2022 and July this year, and to have distributed dozens of fake videos in Telegram chat rooms between August last year and April this year.
The Dongdaemun Police Station placed Sergeant A on standby duty immediately after being notified of the Busan agency's investigation, and he has currently been suspended from his position. The station said it could not confirm details of the allegations or the course of the investigation.
