Suwon Attorney | Assisted a Middle School Student Booked on a Charge of Violation of the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth against Sexual Abuse, Non-Prosecution

The client agreed with a person of unknown identity, with whom the client had been talking on an online chat application, to share obscene material through Instagram DM and sent it.

After receiving the video material from the client, the person of unknown identity blocked the client, a so-called ‘grab and run.’

However, Instagram, having discovered this, immediately blocked the client’s account and then reported it to the police.

The client was still young and was in a situation where the client could not judge that the video was wrongful.

Together with a guardian, the client sought out a Suwon attorney for legal response.

Being booked on a charge of violating the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth against Sexual Abuse without intending to, as in the client's case, can be bewildering.

In particular, if minors exchanged obscene material among themselves, a charge of 🔗obscenity via telecommunication media involving a minor may also be established, so particular caution is needed.

If a minor faces the risk of punishment on a sexual offense charge, it is necessary to build a strategy suited to the matter by proving that there was no sexual purpose or by showing an attitude of remorse.

To this end, Law Firm Daeryun forms one team of criminal defense attorneys who specialize in criminal cases involving minors, together with numerous legal experts, and responds strategically.

At the time the client downloaded the obscene video, the client was a sixth-grade elementary school student and did not recognize the fact that a child or youth appeared in it.

This was because the video showed a young woman masturbating and did not appear to contain a school uniform or other content that would clearly identify the person as a child or youth.

A ‘person or depiction that can be recognized as a child or youth’ refers to a depiction that, viewed objectively from the standpoint of an average member of society, can clearly be recognized as a youth

In addition, the client was a middle school student whose sexual values and judgment had not yet sufficiently formed, and so fell into a case of lacking the ability to exercise sexual self-determination and to protect oneself.

Therefore, it was difficult to find that the client had the intellectual, mental, and personal capacity to make decisions and act on the basis of reasonable thought and judgment.

That is, it appeared difficult for the client to recognize that downloading, viewing, and distributing the obscene material was an unlawful act.

<🔗Violation of the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth against Sexual Abuse punishment statute>

<🔗child and youth sexual exploitation material sexual conduct>

▷ Admitted wrongdoing not only for possessing the obscene material but also for sharing it with others

▷ Submitted a handwritten letter of reflection and a guardian's petition

▷ The client does not fall within the ‘sex offender’ that the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth against Sexual Abuse seeks to punish

▷ Mechanically imposing criminal punishment on the client under the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth against Sexual Abuse and the like does not accord with the legislative purpose

▷ A matter requiring appropriate education and guidance

▷ Submission of the school record and the homeroom teacher's petition

▷ Argued that the client generally maintained amicable relationships with peers