South Korea: The deepfake crisis engulfing hundreds of schools

South Korean journalist Ko Narin uncovered dozens of chat groups on Telegram where users were sharing photos of women they knew and using AI software to convert them into fake pornographic images.

Ms Ko discovered these groups were not just targeting university students, but there were rooms dedicated to specific high schools and even middle schools.

Police announced they were considering opening an investigation into Telegram , following the lead of authorities in France .

Seoul National Police Agency announced it would look to investigate Telegram over its role in enabling fake pornographic images of children to be distributed.

The app’s founder, Pavel Durov , was charged in France last week with being complicit in a number of crimes related to the app, including enabling the sharing of child pornography.

In 2019 , it emerged that a sex ring was using Telegram to coerce women and children into creating and sharing sexually explicit images of themselves.

Such anxiety has spread to almost every teenage girl and young woman in South Korea . Ah-eun, the university student, said it had made her suspicious of her male acquaintances. “I now can’t be certain people won’t commit these crimes behind my back, without me knowing,” she said. “I’ve become hyper-vigilant in all my interactions with people, which can’t be good.” Additional reporting by Hosu Lee and Sunwook Lee .