The previous record was 229 in the 2009 public vote. Adult leaders are also unique in business and politics in Japan, which is ranked 118 out of 146 in the 2024 World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap statement. Ishiba’s 20-strong government includes only two girls. However, the government has setContinue Reading
BBCPeople in China are concerned and eagerly watching the US vote. They worry that whoever wins the White House will have an effect on a number of aspects of daily life, both domestically and abroad.
As the park’s music reaches a chorus and a local dance gracefully spins his lover,” None of us wants to see a war,” says Mr. Xiang.
He has traveled to Ritan Park to study dancing with another seniors.
Just a few hundred meters from the American embassy in China’s residence in Beijing, they often gather around.
The upcoming US vote is also on their heads, along with fresh dance moves.
It comes at a key time between the two nations, with tensions over Taiwan, business and global interests running high.
” I am worried that Sino-US connections are getting tense”, says Mr Xiang who’s in his seventies. Harmony is what we want, he adds.
A group has gathered to listen to this talk. The majority of people in countries where it is acceptable to speak about the US senator are reluctant to give their full names, but being important of their own head was put them in trouble.
They claim to be concerned about war, not just a fight between Washington and Beijing but an increase of the Middle East and Ukraine.
That is why Mr Meng, in his 70s, hopes Donald Trump will win the vote.
He says,” He does not want to begin or fight a combat, despite imposing economic sanctions on China. Mr. Biden starts more war, making more and more people in the general like him. Mr. Biden is the one who backs Ukraine’s battle, and both Russia and Ukraine suffer significant losses as a result,” he said.
Some aunts who are making party routines for their social media pages chip in. One commentator claims that Donald Trump promised to end the conflict in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office.
” About Harris, I know much about her; we believe she goes the same way as President Biden, who supports battle,” he said.
Their viewpoints echoe a significant information being broadcast on Chinese state media.
China has repeatedly urged the international community to reach a peace in Gaza while aligning itself with what it refers to as its” Muslim boys” in the Middle East. It has also been quick to blame the US for its unwavering support of Israel.
Regarding Ukraine, Wang Yi, the foreign secretary, claimed that China was “playing a productive part” when he accused Washington of “exploiting the scenario for selfish obtain.”
Some experts agree that Kamala Harris is a hidden gem to the Chinese individuals and the country’s officials despite the fact that the majority of researchers believe Beijing does not have a favorite candidate for the White House.
However, some think that when it comes to one of the biggest international disputes between China and the US, Taiwan, she will be more secure than Trump.
” I do n’t like Trump. I do n’t think there is a good future between the US and China– there are too many problems, the global economy, and also the Taiwan problem”, says a father of a four-year-old boy in the park for a family day out.
He fears that turmoil may develop as a result of their disagreements over Taiwan.
” I do n’t want it. I do n’t want my son to go to the military”, he says as the young boy pleads to go back on the slide.
Taiwan, the self-governing island that China claims to be its own, is a country that, according to President Xi, “reunification is inevitable” and pledges to reclaim it by force if necessary.
The US maintains established relations with Beijing and acknowledges it as the only Chinese state under its” One China plan,” but it also continues to be Taiwan’s most significant global admirer.
Joe Biden has stated that the US would defend Taiwan diplomatically, breaking with a position known as corporate confusion, and that Washington is required by law to provide Taiwan with defensive arms.
Harris has certainly made that much of a difference. Otherwise, when asked about it in a new meeting, she stated that she was committed to” security and prosperity for all countries.”
Donald Trump is rather focused on a offer- not politics. He has called on Taiwan to pay for its defense.
Taiwan stole our device company from us. I mean, how terrible are we? They’re exceedingly wealthy”, he said in a new interview. ” Taiwan should compensate us for military”.
One of their biggest concerns about the former US president is that he has also made it clear that he intends to establish 60 % tariffs on Chinese products.
Due to the country’s efforts to produce sufficient products to import itself out of an economic slump, this is the last thing many businesses in China want at the moment.
US-led business tariffs, which Donald Trump initially imposed, annoy Chinese ministers with disdain.
Additionally, President Biden has imposed tariffs on solar panel and Chinese-made electrical goods. Beijing believes that these actions are an attempt to slow down its fall as a worldwide economic power.
Getty ImagesAccording to Mr. Xiang,” I do n’t think it will benefit China in any way by imposing tariffs on it,” which is in line with the sentiments of many of the people we met. The taxes will hit the US persons, he adds, and raise costs for regular people.
Many of the the younger generation, while patriotic, even look towards the US for trends and tradition- and that, perhaps more than any political vision, has power also.
In the garden, Lily and Anna, aged 20 and 22, who get their information from TikTok, echo some of the national information of delight spread by Chinese state advertising when it comes to this dynamic partnership.
” Our nation is a very profitable and powerful state”, they say, dressed in their national outfits. They love China, they said, although they also love the Avengers and especially Captain America.
Taylor Swift is also available on other people’s songs.
People like 17-year-old Lucy promise to research in America one day.
She has a dream about going to Universal Studios one moment after graduating, and she cycles on an exercise bike that is freshly installed in the area.
Lucy claims she is enthralled to learn that there is a sexual member. ” Harris’s election marks an important step forward for female justice, and it’s encouraging to see her as a political candidate”.
There is never a adult leader in the People’s Republic of China, and there is not a single person on the 24-member Politburo, which includes the most top associates of the Chinese Communist Party.
Lucy worries about the severe competition between the two nations, and she thinks that having more people-to-people exchangesit would be the best way for China and the Uned States to strengthen their marriage.
Both parties have pledged to work toward this, but there are still only 800 US individuals studying in China, down from around 15, 000 in 2011.
In the next five years, Xi hopes to welcome 50 000 American pupils to China. However, Nicholas Burns, the US ambassador to China, claimed some parts of the Chinese government did n’t take this commitment really in a recent discussion with the BBC.
He claimed that dozens of times, Chinese people have been prevented from participating in US-run public politics by the security causes or a state government.
On the other hand, US border officials have reported unfair treatment of Taiwanese academics and students.
Lucy, however, remains positive that she will be able to travel to America one morning, to promote Chinese culture. And, as the songs strikes up outside, she urges Americans to explore and practice China.
As she heads off to visit her family, she says,” We may be a little reserved a little bit reserved and not as cheerful or optimist as US individuals, but we are welcoming.”
Xiqing Wang’s BBC photos
BBC correspondents from different parts of the world will become researching how people are reacting to this White House race between now and the election on November 5.
It was n’t meant to be like this.
In her 2022 study of Anthony Albanese, Katharine Murphy describes a prime minister who thought he’d be efficiently managing an optimistic, creative and positive “new politics” that would prefer the Green independents rather than Dutton’s Liberals.
Albanese sounded assured that Labor would have a protracted term in office. He appeared to approve of her research despite afterwards adding Murphy to his communications team.
But, even at the moment Murphy’s Lone Wolf: Albanese and the New Politics was published, several critics, including myself, queried the “new politicians” situation. Although the Greys does represent a new political, it is obvious that we still have a lot of the same old Progressive politics, which was one of cultural wars and opposition to Labor’s economic and climate change policies.
Labor and the Liberals are now neck-and-neck in some elections, with minority government ( or worse ) potentially looming for Labor. However, Gareth Evans and Bill Kelty, key statistics from the Hawke/Keating time, have excoriated the Albanese government’s reportedly mediocre performance.
How did it all go so bad?
Some of the causes can be attributed to problems in implementing Labor’s 2022 election strategy’s unrealistic expectations.
Albanese went to the 2022 poll with a “new elections”, collaborative-style , agenda , that sought to bring all Australians, including company, workers, Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, up. It was a small-target plan based on expected common passions, kindness and compassion rather than partisanship.
As a result, Labor successfully countered Scott Morrison’s nationalist, “us versus them” promotion strategy. But, Labor’s approach was to show easier to implement as an election plan than in state, as three cases show.
Second, Albanese channeled Bob Hawke when it came to bringing business and labor up. However, the Hawke government’s reconciliation with company was based on business being able to pay lower wages, because workers had been compensated by a government-funded” cultural income” in the form of benefits and entitlements.
In contrast, the Albanese government pledged to finish the Democratic years ‘ wage stagnation and boost wages in general. A lot of effort was put in place to raise the salaries of low-paid female staff. In the process, Labor tackled issues that arose from Keating’s weak, neoliberal-influenced, business negotiations design.
But, important business organizations criticized Labor’s resulting business relations measures, including multi-employer negotiations, increases in the least pay, and measures designed to address vulnerable and contract job. Business criticisms have largely prevailed over the Liberals.
Second, Labor’s attempts to bring Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians together, via the Voice referendum, fell victim to a divisive, populist campaign by Dutton and others. The Voice proposal, according to Dutton, is an elite” Canberra voice” that would grant Indigenous Australians special rights that other people have been denied, not as a result of a significant national gathering of Indigenous representatives.
Furthermore, he argued that government was so focused on elite “woke” issues such as the Voice, it was neglecting Australian workers ‘ cost-of-living crisis. Labor’s strategy for countering right-wing populism was in disarray.
Albanese’s response to the Voice loss was to go even more” small target” in ways that alienated progressive supporters. He gave up on important commitments, including protecting LGBTQI teachers and students from being fired from religious institutions, including the Treaty and Truth-telling process under the Indigenous Makarrata commission. Another outcome was the controversy over including gender identity questions in the census.
Third, international events and other parties ‘ politicization of them have impeded the government’s attempts at social cohesion. The Albanese government is accused of abandoning support for Israel by the Liberals and the Murdoch press, while the Greens and pro-Palestinian groups are also accused of being” complicit in Israel’s genocide” because the Middle East’s developments have polarized Australian politics.
The government has struggled when it comes to telling a clear narrative about itself because its original mission of bringing Australians together has been increasingly undermined. By contrast, Dutton’s relentless, focused and simply expressed negativity has been cutting through.
Dutton’s failure to stop them from being able to control them is a part of Labor’s problem.
For example, Dutton’s claim the government has been too distracted by so-called “woke” issues to address the cost-of-living crisis has been particularly electorally damaging for Labor. So do his claims that Labor’s policies on renewable energy are raising inflation and increasing living costs further.
The government argues it has been providing extensive cost-of-living relief in the form of tax cuts, energy bill relief, rental assistance, wage increases, cheaper medicines and reduced childcare costs. However, the problem is that such government measures are being continually undercut by inflation, price increases, high interest rates, and the housing affordability and supply crisis.
However, decades of poor housing policy that predates the Albanese government have made the affordability and supply crisis worse. Furthermore, Labor’s attempts to address it are currently being stymied by a combination of Coalition and Greens opposition, once again sandwiching Labor.
Meanwhile, the Coalition contends that government spending is aggravated by high interest rates and inflation. Even the independent Reserve Bank, which sets cash interest rates and is critical of government spending, has drawn attention to several international factors that contribute to inflation. Some businesses ‘ price increases, which they use to increase their profits, have exacerbated the issue.
Furthermore, Treasurer Jim Chalmers , argues , that existing government spending levels have been essential to preventing Australia from sliding into recession while still enabling a budget surplus.
In the same way that Keating’s messages did, Chalmers has struggled to get through. However, Keating benefited from the Coalition largely agreeing with his neoliberal-influenced “reform” agenda, despite arguing it was n’t going far enough. By contrast, Chalmers has been facing a fundamentally hostile opposition, unsympathetic to key influences on his thought, such as Mariana Mazzucato.
Labor has also had trouble selling the government’s accomplishments because, as I’ve mentioned in a recent book, some of the Albanese government’s most effective reform initiatives have been focused on gender equality ( although much more still needs to be done ). In what is still a male-defined political culture, reforms that affect women tend to be undervalued despite women accounting for more than half of the population.
Furthermore, the working class is often conceived in terms of blue-collar male employment, so benefits for women workers are not being adequately recognized. This is particularly the case in Dutton’s hyper-masculine, strongman discourse.
Mobilizing gendered leadership stereotypes has been central to Dutton’s populist “us” versus” them” politics. On issues ranging from addressing the cost-of-living crisis to holding asylum seekers who have been released by a High Court decision and supporting Israel, Dutton consistently portrays Albanese as an emasculated “weak” leader.
Dutton is contrasted with the strong leader who will defend the rights of ordinary Australians who have been allegedly abandoned by Labor and the so-called elites.
This does not look like a “new politics” at all and it is a divisive, populist terrain that Labor is finding very difficult to negotiate.
Carol Johnson is emerita professor, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Adelaide
This article was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Deepfake porn, a damaging AI byproduct that has been used to target anyone from Taylor Swift to American school girls, is a topic that is difficult to discuss.
However, a recent report from startup Security Heroes revealed that 53 % of the 95 % of deepfake porn videos analyzed from various sources featured South Korean singers and actresses, which suggests this group is disproportionately targeted.
But, what’s behind South Korea’s algorithmic issue? And what can be done in this regard?
Deepfakes are online altered voice, video, or photo files that convincingly show anyone saying or acting in a way that they never would have otherwise. Deepfakes are becoming increasingly popular among South Asian teenagers, making them so popular that some even see it as a joke. And they do n’t just target celebrities.
On Telegram, team messages have been made for the specific purpose of engaging in image-based sexual abuse of women, including middle-school and high-school students, teachers and family members. People who have their photos on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and KakaoTalk are also generally targeted.
The culprits use AI machines to create the false pictures, which is then sold and/or blindly disseminated, along with victims ‘ social media accounts, telephone numbers and KakaoTalk usernames. One Telegram party attracted some 220, 000 people, according to a Guardian statement.
Despite the fact that victims of gender-based murder in South Korea are seriously harmed, there is still not enough attention about the problem.
South Korea has experienced rapid technological advancement in recent years. It has the highest internet connectivity and is cited as having the best laptop ownership in the world. Some jobs, including those in eateries, manufacturing and public transportation, are being quickly replaced by robots and AI.
However, as Human Rights Watch points out, the nation’s efforts to achieve gender equality and another human rights standards have not kept up with the development of technology. Additionally, research has demonstrated that technological advancement can really make gender-based crime more prevalent.
Digital sex crimes against children and adolescents in South Korea have been a serious problem since the” Nth Room” case, in particular. Around 260, 000 participants participated in sharing exploitative and coercive intimate content in this case, which included hundreds of young victims ( many of whom were minors ).
The event sparked a lot of outcry and calls for more security. It also led to the development of more stringent problems in the 2020 Act on Special Circumstances Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes.
However, according to the Supreme Prosecutors ‘ Office, only 28 % of the total 17, 495 digital sex offenders indicted in 2021, which highlights the ongoing difficulties in addressing digital sex crimes.
In 2020, the Ministry of Justice’s Digital Sexual Crimes Task Force proposed about 60 constitutional provisions, which have still not been accepted. The organization was disbanded soon after Yoon Suk Yeol’s government sacked in 2022.
During the 2022 national competition, Yoon said,” there is no fundamental sex bias” in South Korea and pledged to dismantle the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the main department responsible for preventing gender-based crime. This position has n’t been filled since February of this year.
However, South Korea provides evidence that AI is not always dangerous. A digital sexual violence support center run by the Seoul Metropolitan Government created a tool that is continuously track, archive, and discard photoshopped images and videos.
The 2024 UN Public Administration Prize-winning technology has reduced the time it takes to get deepfakes from two days to three minutes on average. But while such efforts can help minimize further damage from deepfakes, they are unlikely to be an exhaustive answers, as results on victims can be frequent.
The state needs to hold service companies, such as social media platforms and messaging software, accountable for ensuring consumer protection in order for significant change to occur.
The South Korean government made a press release on August 30th about plans to push for legislation to make the sale, order, and browsing of deepfakes illegal in the country.
Until deepfakes in South Korea are recognized as a harmful form of gender-based crime, studies and testing may continue to fall small. A varied approach may be needed to address the photoshopped problem, including stronger laws, reform and training.
In addition to raising awareness of gender-based murder, South Korean officials had put a focus on supporting victims as well as creating proactive guidelines and educational programs to stop violence in its tracks.
Sungshin ( Luna ) Bae, a PhD student and special public officer for gender equality at the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office in South Korea, is a graduate student at Monash University.
This content was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original content.
When you think of modern, oil-rich Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates ( UAE), you may picture a life of luxury. However, there is a worrying fact hidden beneath the images of breathtaking skyscrapers and stunning great malls: women are frequently forgotten about.
Even though birthrates seem standard, with approximately 96 baby ladies born for every 100 infant kids, a dramatic change occurs in adulthood. For every 100 people in the Gulf, there are only 58 people. Qatar presents the most extraordinary situation, with only 38 people per every 100 people.
This disparity is largely brought on by an international worker flow. In certain Gulf states, foreign workers make up as much as 95 % of the workforce, and most of these are men.
Amartya Sen, a Nobel laureate and economist, coined the phrase “missing people” in 1990 to define populations where ladies are socioeconomically underrepresented. Our estimates, which use data from the World Bank on the world average sex ratios, suggest that about 13 million women are “missing” in full from the Gulf states.
The origins of this sex imbalance are seriously entangled in the country’s cultural traditions. Despite recent reforms, some Gulf nations also have guardianship laws that require women to get adult consent before obtaining important rights, such as getting married, starting a business, or taking a flight.
Additionally, social conventions frequently confine women to household chores, which severely limits their chances of finding employment.
This does not mean that all people in the Gulf have jobs; 40 % of women in the workforce do so right now. However, those that are in employment generally receive smaller wages than their female acquaintances, primarily because they are not expected to remain breadwinners.
Additionally, research has revealed that women are generally unable to access in-person education. Some employers in the area are unwilling to support women’s professional development because they fear they may leave their jobs for family reasons.
Millions of women are kept from the work for a significant financial cost. According to a 2013 study, removing barriers to women’s employment was substantially increase growth in southern Mediterranean nations.
A higher percentage of workers may increase the wage gap, which makes it easier for companies to export their goods worldwide. Additionally, having more people at work leads to more money spent and more firm investments.
However, a review from 2015 by British consulting firm McKinsey &, Company found that improving women’s justice may include an , estimated US$ 600 billion to annual GDP in the Middle East and North Africa region by 2025, compared with a business-as-usual scenario.
Gulf nations are denying themselves new insights that are essential for diversifying beyond crude by sidelining educated women. New research in the Gulf place suggests that having more gender diversity at work makes for better financial decisions.
And the Gulf’s heavy emphasis on foreigners is made even more dire by the restrictions on female work. Workers return a significant portion of their income house, which is a significant drain on Gulf economy. Remittances from Gulf states amounted to$ 669 billion in 2023, according to the World Bank.
Despite the deep-rooted obstacles that lady experience, change is on the horizon. The UAE, for instance, has achieved gender fairness at the political level. Saudi Arabia also lifted its long-standing ban on women driving in 2019, which may improve their flexibility and potential employment prospects.
Many Gulf nations are appointing women to top government jobs, giving clear examples of feminine accomplishment. For example, Shihana Alazzaz was appointed deputy secretary-general of the council of ministers in Saudi Arabia in 2022, becoming the first woman to hold the place.
Women in the Gulf are now home to the majority of university students in the area, creating a powerful talent network.
Both Bahrain and Qatar allow women to serve as magistrates, which is also changing the criminal system. Additionally, the private sector is beginning efforts to motivate people and provide more flexible employment options.
As Gulf nations grapple with the need to expand their markets beyond oil, financial need did undoubtedly speed up the pace of shift. However, these advancements are still insufficient due to the ingrained social norms and persistent legal obstacles that continue to prevent women from engaging in full economic activity.
A dedicated and thorough strategy is required to bring the missing women into the workforce. Legitimate reforms may replace the care regulations that still exist in the workplace. And education and training programs need to align children’s skills with market needs, as well as providing qualified growth possibilities.
A broader social change is also necessary, challenging traditional gender roles through the media, education and open discourse. Additionally, office plans need to be updated to include family-friendly practices and open career development opportunities for women.
This change may be accelerated by financial incentives like government grants or tax breaks for businesses that meet gender diversity goals.
Gulf places ‘ towering skyscrapers are a sign of rapid development. Real progress should not be measured in the benefits that are available to all citizens, but rather in the opportunities that are available to them. The key is today to create societies that harness the potential of both sexes for development, growth, and cultural development.
At Sheffield Hallam University, Amr Saber Algarhi is the head of finance, and Konstantinos Lagos is the head of business and economics.
The Conversation has republished this essay under a Creative Commons license. Read the original post.
Yoon is best. The effects of this kind of digital sexual abuse can be devastating for victims because this is n’t just a prank.
Given that the incident is raging while Pavel Durov, the product’s CEO, has been arrested and charged in France for allegedly colluding with children, is the subject of a lot of blame, particularly given how well the platform is being held accountable, especially now that the platform’s CEO has been charged with child pornography. Korean officials claimed that Telegram is cooperating with the research and that it has received requests to delete articles.
However, Yoon’s words may seem dull to some given that he came to power in 2022 to win over young female voters and proposed to abolish the female equality ministry, which he claimed treated men like “potential sex criminals.”
He added that South Korea does not practice structural sex discrimination and that he made the claim that feminist was to blame for the government’s low birth rate. However, women earn some 30 per cent less than their adult counterparts, marking the highest gender wage gap in the developed world. Yet in dual-income families, people bear the brunt of housekeeping and childcare responsibilities.
Prior to the development of AI tools, advocacy organizations had been highlighting a rash of modern sex crimes, with the majority involving secret cameras or intimate photos.
There are a number of reasons why North Korean women choose not to have children, including rising child labor force participation and the uneven burden of raising children, like their counterparts in other developed nations. This hill of incredibly disturbing data might be more important to examine than to blame feminism. Surprisingly, there were 227, 000 people of one of the main Letter groups that distributed these images, which is roughly on par with the number of babies born next year.
BBCLast Saturday, a Telegram text popped up on Heejin’s telephone from an unidentified receiver. Your photos and private data have been leaked, the statement read. Come discuss”.
As the college student entered the chatroom to read the message, she received a picture of herself taken a few years ago while she was still in college. It was followed by a second photograph using the same image, only this one was biologically explicit, and false.
Terrified, Heejin, which is not her real label, did not respond, but the graphics kept coming. Her face was attached to a brain engaged in a sexual act in all of them, using cutting-edge algorithmic technology.
Deepfakes, the majority of which combine a true woman’s face with a fake, sexually explicit figure, are increasingly being generated using artificial intelligence.
” I was petrified, I felt but alone”, Heejin told the BBC.
But she was not only.
Ko Narin, a North Korean journalist, had just published what would turn out to be the biggest shovel of her career two days prior. At two of the state’s top universities, it had just been revealed that police were looking into deep-fake video, and Ms Ko agreed that more must be done.
She began searching social media and discovered dozens of chat groups on the messaging apps Telegram where people shared photos of trusted people and used AI to instantly turn them into false pornographic images.
Every second, persons were sharing photos of women they knew and threatening to turn them into deepfakes, Ms Ko said.
Mr Ko discovered that these organizations were targeting college students as well. There were even areas set aside for particular middle schools and high schools. She might even be given her own area if a lot of the information was made using pictures of a certain student. Broadly labelled “humiliation areas” or “friend of friend bedrooms”, they often come with tight passage words.
South Korea has been shocked by Ms. Ko’s record in the Hankyoreh news. Following the advice of authorities in France who lately charged Telegram’s Russian leader with offences relating to the game, police announced on Monday that they were considering launching an investigation into the company. The president has called for younger people to get better educated, and the government has vowed to impose tougher sanctions on those responsible.
The BBC reached out to Telegram for reply, and while it has not yet responded to this specific situation, it has recently stated that it actively searches its website for improper activity, including child sexual abuse. It said unknown action was taken against 45, 000 parties worldwide, in August only.
The BBC has looked over the information of a number of these chatrooms. One requestes that users post more than four photos of people, along with their names, ages, and hometown.
” I was shocked at how organized and comprehensive the procedure was,” said Ms. Ko. The most gruesome factor I found was a group of young students at a school with more than 2, 000 members.
In the weeks after Ms Ko’s article was published, women’s rights activists started to peruse Telegram to, and follow leads.
More than 500 institutions had been identified as target by the week’s finish. The exact number impacted, and the number of subjects, is still to be established, but many are believed to be under 16, which is South Korea’s age of consent. Teens themselves make up the majority of the suspects.
Heejin claimed that becoming more concerned about how many persons might have seen her deepfakes had she learned about the magnitude of the issue. Immediately she blamed herself. Should I have been more cautious if I had been posting my photos on social media and could n’t stop thinking that this had happened?
Numerous women and youth across the nation have since deactivated their balances immediately or removed their photos from social media, fearing that their exploitation will follow.
One college student, Ah-eun, whose contemporaries have been targeted, said,” We are frustrated and angry that we are having to judge our behavior and our use of social media when we have done nothing wrong.
One target at her school was told by officers not to bother looking into her case because it would be too difficult to find the killer and because it was” not really a violence” because” the pictures were fake,” according to Ah-eun.
News 1The messaging apps Telegram is at the center of this incident. Unlike people sites, which the regulators can obtain quickly, and then request for images get removed, Telegram is a private, encrypted messaging software.
People are often private, areas can be set to” secret” style, and their contents swiftly deleted without a trace. This has made it a perfect location for criminal activity to flourish.
Lawmakers and the officers retaliated past year with a powerful statement, promising to look into these crimes and prosecute the offenders.
Seoul National Police Agency announced on Monday that it would look into Telegram’s involvement in making available false pornographic pictures of babies.
The app’s founder, Pavel Durov, was charged in France last week with being complicit in a number of crimes related to the app, including enabling the sharing of child pornography.
Because Korea has previously experienced this crisis, women’s rights activists claim that the government in South Korea has allowed sexual abuse to continue unchecked for too long. In 2019, it became clear that a sex ring was coercing women and children into sharing sexually explicit images of themselves using Telegram.
Police at the time asked Telegram for help with their investigation, but the app ignored all seven of their requests. No action was taken against the platform because of censorship, despite the ringleader’s eventual sentence of more than 40 years in prison.
” They sentenced the main actors but otherwise neglected the situation, and I think this has exacerbated the situation”, said Ms Ko.
Park Jihyun, who, as a young student journalist, uncovered the Nth room sex-ring back in 2019, has since become a political advocate for victims of digital sex crimes. She claimed that since the deepfake scandal broke, she has been contacted by students and parents several times a day in tears.
They are terrified because they saw their school listed on a social media list.
In South Korea, Ms. Park has been leading calls for the government to regulate or even outlaw the app. The state must regulate these tech companies to protect its citizens, she said.” If these tech companies will not cooperate with law enforcement agencies, then the state must regulate them.”
Prior to this most recent crisis, South Korea’s Advocacy Centre for Online Sexual Abuse victims (ACOSAV ) was already aware of a significant increase in the number of underage victims of deepfake porn.
In 2023 they counselled 86 victims. Without counting the final seven days, that number increased to 238 in just the first eight months of this year.
One of the centre’s leaders, Park Seonghye, said over the past week her staff had been inundated with calls and were working around the clock. ” It’s been a full scale emergency for us, like a wartime situation”, she said.
There is now so much more footage than there was before thanks to the most recent deepfake technology, and we’re worried that it will only go up.
The center works with online platforms to remove harmful content and assists victims in counseling them. According to Ms. Park, there have been instances where Telegram has removed content at users ‘ request. ” So it’s not impossible”, she noted.
Women’s rights organizations claim that this is just the most recent instance of misogyny to occur online in South Korea despite the fact that new AI technology is allowing for easier victim exploitation.
First women were the target of numerous verbal abuse online. Then came the spy cam craze, where people were allegedly secretly filmed using restrooms and changing rooms.
” The root cause of this is structural sexism and the solution is gender equality”, read a statement signed by 84 women’s groups.
Yoon Suk Yeol, the president of the nation, has denied structural sexism, cut funding for victim support groups, and reinstituted the government’s gender equality ministry.
Getty ImagesLee Myung-hwa, who treats young sex offenders, agreed that although the outbreak of deepfake abuse might seem sudden, it had long been lurking under the surface. ” For teenagers, deepfakes have become part of their culture, they’re seen as a game or a prank”, said the counsellor, who runs the Aha Seoul Youth Cultural Centre.
Ms. Lee argued that it was important to educate young men, citing research that found that when you expose what constitutes sexual abuse, offenders become more aware of what constitutes sexual abuse, which prevents them from reoffending.
Meanwhile, the government has announced that it will punish those who publish deepfake images and punish those who view the porn. It will also increase the criminal sentences for those who publish deepfake images.
It comes in response to criticism that not enough criminals were punished. One of the issues is that the majority of offenders are teenagers, who are typically tried in youth courts and receive more lenient sentences.
Many of the chatrooms have been shut down since the first ones were discovered, but brand-new ones are almost certain to follow. The journalists reporting on this story have already been set up in a humiliation room. Ms Ko, who broke the news, said this had given her sleepless nights. ” I keep checking the room to see if my photo has been uploaded”, she said.
In South Korea, almost every teenage girl and young woman has experienced this type of anxiety. Ah-eun, the university student, said it had made her suspicious of her male acquaintances.
” I now ca n’t be certain people wo n’t commit these crimes behind my back, without me knowing”, she said. ” I’ve become hyper-vigilant in all my interactions with people, which ca n’t be good”.
Hosu Lee and Sunwook Lee provide additional reporting.
Apparently, offenders apparently used social media platforms like Instagram to save or screen-capture images of subjects, which were later used to produce fake pornographic images. The biggest problem with website physical abuse is that it’s very challenging to remove. Victims usually suffer without even being conscious of it”, Bae Bok-joo,Continue Reading
Instructions IN POLITICS In addition to military education, BPLA volunteers undergo social education. A brief tear after dawn drills allows for rest or reflection on recent political training. Following dinner, all gets in the bamboo-constructed council house. The BPLA emblem hangs above the board. Powered by a machine, bright lightsContinue Reading
Still, there is reason for optimism.
How parents deal with their job and caregiving obligations has changed as a result of a similar shared parental leave scheme that was introduced in the UK. Moms who took the left frequently transition from traditional “breadwinner” functions to more engaged caregiving ones, which results in a more evenly distributed load on domestic responsibilities.
It also sparked and lasted long conversations about work and care, highlighting the potential for these plans to change societal objectives where open debate and shared obligations in families are the norm.
In Sweden, “daddy restrictions” marked a pivotal time in parental leave plan. It began by granting parents a 30-day leave of absence that would be lost if left unnecessarily.
The fathers who took any parental leave rose from 44 % to 77 % after the introduction of this policy, which highlights the success of the quota in promoting gender equality. Since then, this limit has been increased to 90 times.
Closer to home, Japan, usually steeped in profoundly rooted gender roles, has even made notable achievements. The share of fathers taking childcare leave has increased significantly from 17 % in 2022 to 30 % in 2023 after extensive public awareness campaigns and system changes.
Societal norms are not eternal, they can be reshaped with dedication, friendly policies, and a shared commitment to alter.
