Gunsan Attorney Consultation | Assisting a Client Charged With Obscenity via Telecommunication Media and Insult to a Non-Referral

The client, who resides in Gunsan, ended up being accused of the 🔗crime of obscenity via telecommunication media and 🔗insult over messages he sent in a group message room with friends.

In the group message room, in response to a sexually explicit text message a friend had sent to the friend's girlfriend, the client, without giving it any thought, made remarks mixed with sexual jokes in order to keep the conversation going.

About a month later, the complainant, the friend's girlfriend, learned that there was a group message room in which sexual messages had been exchanged about her, and after reviewing the contents, she came to file this complaint.

The client, having thought it was simply something shared among friends, was very flustered by the complaint.

The client looked for an attorney who had handled many obscenity via telecommunication media cases and requested the assistance of the Gunsan attorney at Daeryun Law Firm.

The crime of obscenity via telecommunication media refers to the offense of causing words, sounds, writing, images, video, or objects that arouse a sense of sexual shame or aversion to reach another person against that person's will, through a telephone, mail, a computer, or other telecommunication media, for the purpose of arousing or satisfying sexual desire.

It is one of the sexual offenses provided for in the Act on Special Cases concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes. It is the crime of using telecommunication media, for the purpose of arousing or satisfying one's own or another person's sexual desire, to cause information that arouses a sense of sexual shame or aversion to reach another person.

If the crime of obscenity via telecommunication media is recognized, it may be punished by imprisonment for not more than two years or a fine not exceeding 20 million won.

The crime of insult is committed when a person publicly engages in insulting words or conduct that may lower another person's social reputation.

For the crime of insult to be established, three elements must be met: ▲identifiability, ▲publicity, and ▲intent.

∙Identifiability: whether the target of the insulting remark can be identified as a specific person.

Even if a real name is not mentioned, if anyone can identify who the person is through a nickname, a chat name, or an ID, the identifiability requirement for the crime of insult is met.

If others cannot determine who I am from a nickname alone, identifiability is not established.

∙Publicity: publicity refers to the possibility of dissemination, meaning a state in which an unspecified or large number of people can become aware.

That is, it is established when there is the person who made the insulting remark, the person against whom the insulting remark was directed, and other people who heard it.

∙Intent: the conduct must be a remark that specifically scorns or demeans another person, or abusive language, rather than a vague opinion or criticism.

If the crime of insult is recognized, the offender is subject to imprisonment for not more than one year, imprisonment without labor, or a fine not exceeding 2 million won.

The crime of obscenity via telecommunication media targets for punishment 'a person who causes writing or other material that arouses a sense of sexual shame to reach another person.'

The Gunsan attorney argued that, in this case, the conversation took place only within a group message chat, so it had never been made to reach the victim.

In this case, the chat was an extremely private one belonging only to friends, and it was not a chat in which the messages were expected to be seen by the complainant.

The complainant's taking the phone and viewing it without permission cannot be regarded as having 'directly delivered this in substance.'

The Gunsan attorney pursued the above defense strategy and emphasized that the crime of obscenity via telecommunication media could not be established.

The Gunsan attorney argued that the client fully admitted the suspected facts relating to the insult in this case and sincerely apologized to the victim.

The victim accepted the client's apology and prepared a withdrawal of complaint and a statement of no desire for punishment.

The Gunsan attorney emphasized that, due to the complainant's withdrawal, there was no right to prosecute.