Co-founder of S. Korean ‘spycam’ porn site jailed

SEOUL: The female co-founder of South Korea’s largest porn site has been jailed following months of mounting public fury over the spread of secretly filmed spycam pornography.

Tens of thousands of women have rallied in recent months against the growing phenomenon of spycam videos, known in Korean as “molka”, which mostly involve men filming women without their consent in toilets, changing rooms and in public.

Soranet, which had more than a million users until it was shut down in 2016 amid outrage, carried thousands of such clips among other X-rated content.

Producing and circulating pornography is illegal in South Korea.

The site’s owner, surnamed Song, 45, was sentenced to four years’ jail and fined 1.4 billion won (RM5.1 million) on Wednesday for aiding and abetting the distribution of obscene material, including sex videos featuring minors.

Song, who founded Soranet in 1999 with her husband and two others, “seriously damaged and distorted people’s universal dignity and value”, said a court statement, adding that she “enjoyed huge profit” from the site.

Song lived as a fugitive in New Zealand for years, but was arrested in June when she returned to Seoul after authorities annulled her passport. Her husband and another couple known to be the site’s co-owners, who all have Australian citizenship or permanent residency, remain overseas.