Urgent Need for Awareness as Half of Students View Deepfake Crimes as 'Just a Joke'

A recent survey revealed that nearly half of students believe that deepfake sexual crimes occurring in schools are merely 'pranks.' Alarmingly, 10% of respondents even placed the blame for such incidents on the victims, highlighting a critical need for improved awareness and education on this issue.

On November 11, the Ministry of Education released findings from a survey titled 'Youth Awareness Survey on Illegal Deepfake Videos in Schools,' which included responses from 2,145 middle and high school students in their first and second years. The survey allowed for multiple responses to each question.

When asked why they felt uneasy about the potential for deepfake crimes, 76% of students expressed concern that they could unknowingly become victims, while 45.4% feared that someone close to them could be the perpetrator. Additionally, 29.7% admitted they were unsure how to respond if they became victims. Following a surge in public attention to deepfake crimes in August, 34.9% of students reported making their social media accounts private, 32.1% deleted personal photos, and 4.1% chose to deactivate their accounts altogether.

Regarding the causes of deepfake crimes in schools, 54.8% of students attributed them to 'pranks,' while 49.3% cited 'sexual curiosity,' 44.1% believed it was due to a perception that they wouldn't get caught, 38.2% thought the penalties were too lenient, and 31.4% did not see it as a serious wrongdoing.

Only 4.7% of students reported having seen deepfake videos. When asked who should be held responsible for the spread of such content, 92% blamed the creators of the fake images or videos, and 75.9% pointed to weak penalties as a problem. However, a concerning 13.6% of students still felt that the victims bore some responsibility.

In terms of support needed when deepfake incidents occur, 85% of students indicated that assistance in removing victimized videos is essential. Other priorities included 'swift investigation and resolution of cases' (74.2%) and 'removal and protection of personal information' (71.9%). Over half of the students (51.6%) reported having received education related to deepfakes, while 22.8% had not, and 25.6% could not recall.

In response to these findings, the Ministry of Education plans to implement special educational weeks across various regional education offices by November 20, focusing on preventing deepfake sexual crimes. They aim to distribute teaching materials, educational videos, and infographics to schools within the month.

Park Sung-min, the head of the Ministry's Planning and Coordination Office, stated, 'Students identified pranks and curiosity as the main causes of deepfake sexual crimes. We will focus on preventive education to help them understand that creating deepfake images or videos using friends' photos is a crime.'

Additionally, the survey also assessed students' smartphone usage habits. On average, students spend 4 hours and 17 minutes on their smartphones (including tablets) on weekdays, excluding study time, and 6 hours and 40 minutes on weekends. The primary purpose for usage was watching 'short-form' videos on platforms like YouTube (74.8%), followed by communication (59.1%) and consuming video content on services like Netflix (33.8%). Notably, 36.8% of students reported that their smartphone or social media usage interfered with their daily lives, while 22.1% felt anxious or restless when unable to use their devices.