#Nth Room: Analyzing the South Korean Telegram sex crime case

Ellie Han (ISB 10)

Known for her especial interest in all things South Korean, staff author Ellie Han is an introspective and perceptive scholar.

In her newest article “#Nth Room: Analyzing the South Korean Telegram sex crime case,” Ellie dives deep into the Nth Room case that has become viral on social media.

"More than the physical wounds, my heart was hurt more. I haven't been able to sleep since then," says sexual abuse victim of Nth room.

If you've logged on to Instagram recently, you're bound to have seen the tirade of posts and stories by your Korean friends: "This accident should never happen again," "does this make any sense…? I'm so furious. It doesn't take long. Please sign [petition].”, "I don't want the people I love to live in such a frightening world.“

What is all this internet craze referring to?

Recently, two university students revealed the "Nth room case" to the public. The Nth room case is a digital sexual crime case that occurred from 2018 to 2020 in South Korea. The students revealed around 80 chat rooms that distributed illegal pornography on Telegram, with around 260,000 participants. "Nth room" gets its name because the managers who created chat rooms sold videos in eight different chat rooms.

(From Tr-Cam)

A man nicknamed "Baksa" (Korean for Doctor) operated these chatrooms. He offered part-time, high-paying modeling jobs on SNS, and when women agreed to take the job, he collected their private information before paying their fee. Then, he blackmailed these women by threatening to send the explicit material to their family and friends if they would not send videos of what he wants. "Baksa" later distributed these visual materials in chat rooms. People can then enter the chat room by paying money. Once in the chat room, these participants called girls and women "slaves" and forced them to send explicit pictures or videos of what they wanted. All the more shocking, many of the participants (victims and perpetrators alike) were teenagers. The participants have left indelible scars on victims' minds through their unspeakable words and actions. As if to rub salt into the wound, similar atrocities have also appeared in other countries across the globe like China, showing the severity of the problem.

Many of the participants (victims and perpetrators alike) were teenagers

From the start of this case, Korean president Moon said he agreed with the citizens' anger and kicked off investigations for all "Nth Room" cases. As a response to this announcement, the phrase "Telegram withdrawal" was searched by many teenagers, becoming a Naver keyword. Some of them even asked online users whether they would be punished if they deleted the Telegram account. The fact that many fearful teenagers tried to withdraw from Telegram shows that many teens were involved in the sex crimes. This indicates the seriousness of the social problem because there is a high possibility for these teens to become sex criminals in the future. Moreover, these young adults who lack ethical awareness and judgment will have an unhealthy impact on the nation when they integrate into society in the future.

Unless we can evoke a sense of guilt in the minds of these sex criminals and cut off the roots of the problem, these terrible incidents will inevitably reemerge, and victims will suffer forever. One victim of the Nth room case recently attempted suicide. The psychological aftermath will persist for decades, some for their whole lifetime. The sad reality is many perpetrators can easily return to normal life, while innocent victims hide as if they are sinners.

While the Nth room case reveals deep social problems, current citizens' engagement with this issue uncovers a spark of hope. Alongside everyday Korean netizens, a lot of Korean celebrities also posted petition sites about Nth room on their SNS like Instagram and Twitter. Since they are influencers with many Korean and foreign followers, such behaviors can raise awareness for people around the whole globe. Furthermore, more than five million citizens participated in the petition—requesting the releasing identities of suspects of the Nth room case. As a response to these petitions, President Moon agreed that all people involved in this case should be investigated and promised this problem would be actively dealt with by investigative agencies such as the FBI, HSI, and NSA alongside global IT companies such as Google and Twitter.