Police Officer Indicted Over AI-Generated Sexual Images of Acquaintances

An active-duty police officer has been detained and sent to trial on charges of using artificial intelligence to create fake sexual images and of possessing child sexual exploitation material and illegally filmed footage.

The Busan District Public Prosecution Office said on the 6th that it had indicted and detained the officer, identified only as A, on six counts including violations of the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes, which covers the editing of fake video material.

According to prosecutors, A is accused of using AI to create about 400 sexually explicit fake images from photographs of acquaintances between March 2022 and August this year, and of distributing or providing about 50 of them to others. A is also accused of filming and producing about 10 illegally recorded videos on a mobile phone.

The illegal sexual exploitation material in A's possession totaled about 5,600 files. These included about 1,600 pieces of child sexual exploitation material, about 2,600 fake videos and about 1,300 illegally filmed videos.

A had also received a suspended indictment on illegal filming charges before joining the police. In 2021, A received a suspended indictment conditional on completing an education program for filming using cameras or similar devices under the sexual violence punishment law, but resumed the offenses the following year and continued them even after being appointed as a police officer in April 2024, investigators found.

A is also believed to have collected and stored photographs of victims' faces for use in the fake images over an extended period. Prosecutors said that based on the persistence and repetition of the offenses and the way the related material was stored, they had identified circumstances indicating that a desire to sexually exploit images of women and children lay behind the crimes.

The Busan District Public Prosecution Office said it would "respond sternly to digital sex crimes such as the production and distribution of fake video material through the misuse of AI technology, and do everything possible to maintain the prosecution so that a sentence commensurate with the gravity of the offense can be handed down."