A person in his 20s who participated in the 'Real Prosecutor Challenge' following a notice from the management of the Telegram 'Dr. Bang', which distributed sexual exploitation of minors, was acquitted in the appeals court. This is the result of overturning the first trial conviction. The real-time search challenge is to rank a portal site's real-time trending search terms, and the doctor's room management has instructed the victim's name to be searched as a keyword to rank for search terms.
The 4-1 Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court acquitted defendant A, who was indicted on charges of violating the Act on Sexual Protection of Children and Adolescents (distributing and displaying pornography for children and adolescents) in December last year.
According to the court, Mr. A followed the instructions of the doctor's room operator Jo Joo-bin and others for the 'real-examination challenge' in order to attract an unspecified number of people to the doctor's room. Mr. A searched the victim's name at a specific time, ranked it as a real-time trending search term on the portal site, and facilitated the distribution and display of pornography for children and adolescents.
At the time, the doctor's room management ordered the promotion of the real test challenge and link for promotional purposes. It is known that the participants participated to achieve the target number of cumulative chats, and Mr. A also searched related keywords several times. Defendant A denied the charges, saying that all he had done was search the doctor's room's Real Exam Challenge keyword a few times and that he had not contributed to the event.
The court ruled in favor of defendant A. The court said, "The evidence presented by the prosecutor alone is insufficient to evaluate that the defendant's act of searching the victim's name in the search box of an Internet portal site made a realistic contribution to the chat room and the promotion, distribution and display of pornography using children and adolescents about the victim."
The prosecution immediately appealed to the Supreme Court. The prosecution argued that there was a clear causal relationship between the defendant's search actions and the criminals' actions of distributing sexually exploitative materials. On the other hand, defendant A's position is that "there is no causal relationship between the act of entering search terms and the distribution acts of regular criminals," and "since it was not ranked in the actual search ranking, it is not related to the increase in participation in the doctor's room."
Representing Mr. A
Daeryun Law Firm (Limited)claimed, "It cannot be said that the defendant's act of entering search terms was promoted to an unspecified number of people or was introduced into the doctor's room," and "It cannot be said that the criminals' determination to commit crimes regarding the distribution and display of pornography using children and adolescents has been strengthened."
Meanwhile, whether or not to recognize the causal relationship is up to the Supreme Court. In particular, after the Doctor's Room incident and the N Room incident, it was revised to sentence only imprisonment without a fine for producing, distributing, purchasing, possessing, or viewing sexually exploitative materials targeting children and adolescents. Therefore, this ruling is attracting attention.
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