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Disclaimer: This article does not include all the details of the harms that the victims were forced to endure due to this article being targeted for school.
The “Nth Room” refers to the various group chats in Telegram, an online media and communication platform similar to WeChat and WhatsApp. These group chats are used for the illegal exchange of explicit and pornographic material of young women, often in forms of webcams and video clips in South Korea. These clips include highly explicit and inappropriate content—starting from clips of girls raped by assigned males, to girls inserting sharp objects such as scissors into their genitals—to satisfy group members. Different rooms are owned and controlled by different individual men, who sell these content to group members. Female victims are also forced to carve the words “sex slave” on their body with a knife. As of now, 74 women have spoken up as victims of the Nth Room, with 16 of them minor, or under 19 years old. It is estimated that these group chats have over 260 thousand users and participants, who are now referred to as perpetrators, even if they did not physically commit the crime of sexual slavery and human trafficking.
How did this all start? Nth room group chats were made far back in 2019, starting with eight in the beginning. These group chats consisted of perpetrator men posting explicit videos and photos of women, or the victims who are also referred to as “slaves” by both the male audiences and owners of these group chats. In addition to uploading and exchanging these ridiculous materials of victims in the group chats, the admins also exposed the victims’ private information, hindering them from reporting their situations to the police in fear of their videos being exposed to their family and friends. Women were also enticed by admins of group chats into working normal part-time jobs for these admins, only to realize shortly after that their personal information had been leaked and used to threaten them into taking explicit videos of themselves. These victims were constantly being threatened into filming and posting bizarre videos of themselves that went beyond just being nude, and extended to self-harm as they were afraid that their personal information and videos would be exposed to their friends, family, and the public. However, the initial eight group chats disappeared in the same year, and soon after, new male individuals claimed authority and started their own communities in Telegram—the most infamous being a man referred to as “Doctor.”
To enter these group chats, men had to pay from approximately $200 to $1250, with different price points enabling them into different group chats with different videos.
“Doctor” was caught by the Korean police for committing the crime for sexual exploitation and violence, which includes human trafficking and sexual slavery. South Korean citizens are now demanding for the exposure of “Doctor’s” face, which is accomplished by the petition held called “The Demand of the Reveal of Telegram Nth Room Members,” and through the “#RevealDoctor’sFace” hashtag on media platforms. Fortunately, following the petition, “Doctor’s” identity was revealed to the public by the press, as Jo Ju Bin, a 25-year-old man. He stated that in addition to threatening victims by assigning others to rape them, he also tried to release clips of famous Korean celebrities in their bedrooms with hidden cameras he implemented in their residences.
Aside from the public being extremely furious towards all the perpetrators, many are exerting anger on Korean publications and news media outlets for not reporting this incident earlier. News reports regarding the “Nth Room” were “hidden” and “buried” by executives to maintain the positive reputation that South Korea earned regarding how they reacted to the coronavirus outbreak.
It was surprising that in such an advanced and developed country, human trafficking and sexual slavery still occurred. With the rising popularity of Korean culture including K-Pop, South Korea has earned a favorable reputation by the world. It is especially heartbreaking for this news to be put in the spotlight now, with the world and media focusing on Coronavirus. For more information, please visit Instagram and search for the hashtag #NthRoom.
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