In South Korea, there is a group of 16 people who watch online porn the whole day—but not for the reasons you might think.

These 16 people are members of a task force set up to target and curb the epidemic of illegal porn proliferating in the nation.

Hunting down illicit videos

Set up earlier this year, the digital sex crime monitoring unit falls under the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC), and as of last month, operated 24/7.

The unit trawls through the internet hunting down illicit videos posted without consent, with a particular focus on spycam porn, reported AFP.

Also known as molka, these videos are usually posted by men using spycams, or hidden cameras, planted in areas such as schools, public toilets and changing rooms.

Aside from spycam videos, the task force also hunts down "revenge porn", private sex videos filmed and shared without women's consent. These materials are often used as a form of blackmail, or to ruin the reputation of the materials' subject.

Effects on mental health

The task force, consisting of four women and 12 men, has been pretty effective—in October, they took action an average of 82 times per day. Eight times higher than the original regulator did four years ago.

One member of the task force and head of the monitoring team, Lee Yong-dae, told AFP how the nature of his job had changed his perception of women.

He said: "When I went outside, I could not look at women around me because pictures I saw in the office overlapped in my mind’s eye. I had to keep my head down."

Another 27-year-old member, An Hyeon-cheol, said that during his first days on the job, "it was difficult to maintain [his] composure", as he "saw many provocative pictures of a kind that [he] had never seen before in [his] life".

An "epidemic" in South Korea

The production and dissemination of commercial porn is banned in South Korea—which could explain the country's recent grapple with the proliferation of spycam videos, in what has been described as an "epidemic".

Some of these hidden cameras can be as small as 1mm, and can even be installed in areas such as televisions, hairdryer sockets and holders in hotels.

In 2018, 6,800 cases of illicit filming were reported to South Korean police.

And the number is only growing, perpetuated by the increasing usage of smartphones and social media, reported The Independent.

The "epidemic" has even involved well-known celebrities, with popular Kpop singer-songwriter Jung Joon-young arrested in March 2019 over charges of non-consensually filming and sharing videos of at least 10 women he had sexual encounters with.

Such incidents have been so widespread, that tens of thousands of South Korean women took to the streets to protest and demand action by the government, in a movement dubbed "My Life Is Not Your Porn".

And while arrests have been made, the nature of the arrests left some with a bad taste in their mouth.

For instance, while a female model was arrested for allegedly filming a colleague naked without consent, many felt that swift action was taken only due to the gender of the accused.

As the BBC reported, via the daily JoongAng:

"Just because the victim is a man and the suspect is a woman this time, the country is investigating the case differently," wrote one signatory to a petition sent to the president.

Top photo from Ed Jones via Getty Images /AFP and 부산경찰 / YouTube