Sexual Violence and Censorship in Contemporary Korea: Examining the Debate Surrounding the Digital Sexual Violence Prevention Law

Abstract: In 2019, South Korea was rocked by a mass-scale sex crime nicknamed by the media as the "Nth Room Incident." While not the first case of digital sex crime to garner media attention in the country, it was groundbreaking in its scale and in the swift response it garnered from the government. Responding to public outcry regarding digital sex crime, the government offered various amendments to existing censorship laws to make them more stringent. The amendments were intended to prevent further damage to individuals who have already been victimized by preventing further dissemination of their images online and preventing potential victimization of the rest of the population. This article examines the amendments to censorship laws implemented after the Nth Room Incident. I suggest that the censorship only achieves limited success in its objective to prevent further harm to the victims because it reaffirms the preexisting gendered sexual citizenship. In that regard, I suggest that censorship is an extension of national paternalism.