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Even as the government pushes forward with sweeping measures against digital sex crimes, harm continues to spread faster than enforcement can keep up. This is because the crime's multi-faceted nature — spanning telecommunications regulation, international cooperation, and victim protection — leaves responsibilities fragmented across separate ministries. Even with an integrated body launched to coordinate agencies, critics say a temporary organization cannot deliver a fundamental fix.

According to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MOGEF) on the 4th, 10,637 victims received support from the Digital Sex Crime Victim Support Center last year, up 3.2% from the previous year. Over the same period, the number of cases rose about 5%, from 16,833 to 17,629. Actual harm is likely even greater — domestic telecom operators voluntarily removed or blocked 140,000 pieces of digital sex crime-related content last year under self-regulation, suggesting far more unreported or undetected cases exist beyond what victims and the government are aware of.

While the scale of harm keeps growing, the government's response remains slow. Digital sex crime response is currently split among MOGEF, which handles victim support and protection; police, who conduct criminal investigations; the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), which regulates and requests cooperation from telecom operators; and the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC), which reviews posts and sites. When an initial report is filed with police or MOGEF, the KCSC reviews the case at their request. The results are then passed to the KCC, which requests that the operator actually remove or block the content. Self-directed monitoring is carried out by MOGEF's support center. Resolving a single case requires passing through four separate agencies.

Because responsibilities are fragmented across ministries, it takes at least a week for a single post to actually be removed — and far longer when cooperation from overseas operators is required, since that rarely happens immediately. MOGEF sent 38,468 official requests last year asking overseas site operators and hosting companies to remove footage, but nearly 30% went unanswered.

In one actual case, a site distributing more than 2,400 pieces of illegal footage in Korea was reviewed on May 18 and blocked eight days later, on the 26th — only to reappear just two days after that. As digital sex crimes grow more sophisticated, the spread of harm has, by simple arithmetic, outpaced enforcement roughly fourfold.

What's more, if even one agency fails to perform its role, the entire response can grind to a halt. A prime example was the period from June of last year, when the KCSC chair position sat vacant, until the KCSC was reconstituted in March of this year — during which virtually all content review came to a standstill. Since review authority rests solely with the KCSC, victims received no protection whatsoever for 10 months.

In response, MOGEF, the KCC, and the National Police Agency launched the "Cross-Government Integrated Support Group for Digital Sex Crime Victims" in May. However, the group has limits, since it does not immediately change the existing division of responsibilities. There are also concerns it could amount to only a temporary fix, given that it was established under a Prime Minister's directive with a two-year validity period.

A MOGEF official said the integrated support group is meant to serve as a control tower for the response to digital sex crimes, adding that as criminal methods evolve rapidly alongside technology, information sharing and joint response among agencies are essential.

                                                                                                          Kim Hong-chan