Laws to tighten on adult web contents

A stricter regulation will be placed on Internet adult Webcasters, which have been under heavy criticism for their offering of borderline pornography.

"With the ever-growing number of Internet adult Webcasters adding to the demoralization of the Internet and with the revelation that underage Internet surfers are tuning to these Webcasts, we are working on a stricter regulation," a spokesperson for the Ministry of Information and Communication announced on August 6.

As a first step, the ministry has changed the optional registration requirement to a mandatory one for the Webcasters. They now must be registered with the ministry prior to their going online. The ministry also will clarify the somewhat vague regulation of "contents of virtuous goodness and non-detrimental to social order.¡±

In addition, the ministry will attempt to block underage Web surfers from using their parents` citizen identification numbers and credit cards to subscribe to adult sites by enforcing an online registration system for subscribing to adult sites. To achieve this, the ministry is seeking an Internet content rating system for sites offering adult material.

Sites that do not adhere to the requests made by the Information and Communication Ethical Commission will be targets of criminal charges. According to the current laws for the protection of young men and women, distributors of pornography to minors could receive a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a fine of 20 million won. A similar law is in effect for individuals convicted of sexual crimes and for the protection of sex-crime victims.