Incheon, South Korea: teenager sentenced to up to two years for AI deepfake sexual images of five teachers and six students, distributed on Telegram with the victims' names and schools

The Incheon District Court (Criminal Division 1, Judge Lee Chang-gyeong) sentenced the defendant, identified in reporting only as 'A' or 'ㄱ', a teenager, on 16 September 2026. The charges were brought under the Act on Special Cases concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes (editing and distributing false sexual images). Because he is under 19, the sentence is an indeterminate juvenile term: two years maximum, one year six months minimum. The court also ordered 40 hours of a sexual-violence treatment programme and a five-year ban on employment at child and youth institutions, and detained him in court citing a flight risk.

According to the reporting of the indictment, in 2024, while a middle-school student in Incheon, he used AI deepfake technology to composite teachers' and students' faces onto nude photographs and videos and distributed them on social media. Munhwa Ilbo reports that he obtained his homeroom teacher's photographs by telling her that his contacts and photos had been deleted, and that he made 35 composites of 11 people in all: five teachers and female middle- and high-school students who attended the same taekwondo academy. He distributed them in Telegram chat rooms themed on 'acquaintance humiliation'; Hankyoreh reports that some were supplied to a room operator and that he made images of another female middle-school student in order to join such a room. Newsis reports the prosecution's charge sheet as referring to about twenty people; the court reporting counts eleven.

The judge said the distributed images of the five teachers showed their faces with their real names, ages, schools and subjects (Hankyoreh), and their phone numbers (Munhwa Ilbo); that the offence degraded teachers into tools for distorted desire; and that the victims are suffering considerable trauma and receiving long-term psychological treatment. In mitigation the court cited his admission, his age of 16 to 17 at the time, the participants' apparent knowledge that the images were composites, his withdrawal from school and his lack of a record. A victim teacher told the court that she had loved children more than anyone but now suspected her students, and that even a small camera-shutter sound or the word 'deepfake' made her heart sink (Munhwa Ilbo). The teachers learned of the images only in January 2026.

He withdrew from school a week before the regional teachers'-rights protection committee met and so received no school discipline. Incheon's superintendent of education attended the sentencing and pledged legal and psychological support for the victims and stronger prevention education. The Incheon Teachers' Union said the sentence fell below the prosecution's request of 3 years 6 months to 2 years, itself lower than in a similar case finalised the previous year, and that digital crimes cannot be fully erased so the harm can last a lifetime.

Five teachers and six students had their faces composited by AI onto nude images and videos that were distributed on Telegram with their real names, ages, schools, subjects and phone numbers; the court found the teachers are suffering considerable trauma and receiving long-term psychological treatment.

Incheon District Court (Criminal Division 1, single judge), 16 September 2026: indeterminate sentence of 2 years maximum / 1 year 6 months minimum (a juvenile sentence under the Juvenile Act) for violations of the Act on Special Cases concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes (editing and distributing false sexual images); 40 hours of a sexual-violence treatment programme; five-year employment ban at child and youth institutions; detained in court. The prosecution had sought 3 years 6 months / 2 years. First-instance judgment; any appeal is not reported in the inspected sources. Follow-up (22 September 2026, Kyeonggi Ilbo and Hankook Ilbo): the Incheon Teachers' Union said two of the victim teachers, who had transferred schools without disclosing the reason, were pressed by their new schools (high schools, per Hankook Ilbo) to join graduation-album photo sessions and took the photographs rather than explain; the union asked the education office to make staff photographs voluntary with reasons for refusal kept private; an Incheon education office official told Kyeonggi Ilbo the office would devise measures to ensure thorough consent procedures and prevent a coercive atmosphere.