KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

In this study, we investigate the current situation of online human rights infringement on women and suggest measures to eradicate it. We categorize online human rights infringement into four types: online stalking, online sexual violence, online defamation and insult/slandering, and dissemination of pictures and videos of others without their permission. Online stalking refers to the acts of surveying or collecting information of others, demanding chatting or meeting, or repeatedly threatening, attacking or criticizing others through online communication. Online sexual violence constitutes of conveying unwanted sexual language, information(including medical information and ads), obscene visual(including pornography) or remarks on others’ body, sexual interests or acts, or demanding sexual dialogue, threatening with sexual harrassment, or suggesting sexual intercourse or prostitution. Online defamation legally constitutes of mainly those behaviors of slandering and disseminating falsity.

The methodologies of the research are online survey, interviews and analysis of court cases on online human rights violation. The online survey attempts to reveal the state of online human rights infringement by asking women and men of their experiences of suffering or inflicting human rights violation and delineating gender differences. To further investigate the mechanisms of human rights violation occurrences, interviews with the sufferers and inflictors of online human rights violation were performed. The court cases related to online human rights violation were analyzed in terms of the laws applied and the degree of punishment.

The survey shows that those who answered positive as to the experience of suffering human rights violation comprised a majority of 85%. The younger they are, the higher is the probability of experiencing human rights violation. The interviews reveal that when women face human rights infringement, they are emotionally shattered and do not know how to react appropriately and that experience results in reducing their online activities. The court case analysis attests that online human rights violations alone without coexistence of offline violence do not sufficiently attract legal attention and only rarely get punished despite the existence of laws dealing with online human rights violation.

Based on the findings of the research, we propose measures for improving this situation on the part of the government, internet business sector, and the civil society. The government should clearly define online sexual violence as a subject of police investigation and legal prosecution and expand consulting and supporting service of offline sexual violence to online sexual violence. As for the online business companies, they are required to establish user friendly reporting system for online human rights violence. Finally, civil society sector should launch campaigns to form online culture that recognizes others’ human rights and individual users should support it with voluntary efforts to monitor online human rights violence and mobilize fellow citizens for that cause.