👩🍳 How we use AI at Tech in Asia, thoughtfully and responsibly.
🧔♂️ A friendly human may check it before it goes live. More news here
🧔♂️ A friendly human may check it before it goes live. More news here
South Korea urges X to protect minors from Grok deepfakes
South Korea’s Korea Media and Communications Commission (KMCC) has asked X to implement measures protecting minors from sexual content generated by its AI chatbot Grok.
South Korean law requires social network operators like X to appoint a minor protection officer and submit annual reports.
The KMCC noted that creating or sharing non-consensual sexual deepfakes is a criminal offense in the country.
The regulator said it will consider new regulations and policies for AI service providers to prevent illegal content and protect minors.
🔗 Source: Yonhap
🧠 Food for thought
Implications, context, and why it matters.
South Korea already enforces deepfake rules
- The Information and Communications Network Act (the Network Act) requires platforms like X to name a youth protection officer and submit annual operation data to regulators, so the Grok request enforces existing law rather than sets a new precedent 1. Korean law criminalizes non-consensual sexual deepfakes in creation and distribution as well as possession or viewing 1. Prosecutors can pursue individuals, while platforms must meet separate duties under the Network Act.
- In 2020, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) fined TikTok 186 million won (about 3% of its South Korea sales) for mishandling children’s data 2. This history puts X at financial and operational risk if it skips youth protection for Grok, and the KCC has pledged to ‘impose youth protection obligations’ on AI platforms 1.
Operators serving Korean users should plan for age checks and content filters
- AI operators can plug into Korea’s existing checks including mobile numbers, credit cards, and government ID verification used by Naver (the country’s dominant search and portal platform) 3. Services with AI features should expect rules like Netflix’s annual age check in place since 2016 3.
- Korean vendors sell age verification APIs that link to government identity systems and deepfake detection that scans for non-consensual sexual content. The KCC 2023 plan foreshadows broader user protections and amendments that promote platform self-regulation, creating a short window to launch controls before tougher enforcement 4.
