[No. 24-45 RISE #11]
1. What is school violence?
⚡️What is school violence? School violence means acts, inside or outside school, that harm a student’s body or mind or take a student’s money. School violence is defined in the Act on the Prevention of and Countermeasures against Violence in Schools (Article 2).
⚡️Types of school violence Physical violence includes hitting, injuring, confining, and forcibly taking someone away. Even if it is meant as a joke, pinching or pushing is violence if the other person dislikes it. Spreading bad rumors, cursing, and threatening with frightening words are also violence. Even if you do not say such words directly, posting them on the internet or social media can also be violence. Taking money or belongings, not returning borrowed items, or deliberately damaging them is the same.
2. Deepfake sexual crimes as school violence
Recently, digital sex crimes using “deepfake” technology have become a serious problem. In particular, deepfake sex crimes cause harm centered on schools, so they need attention as a new form of school violence.
🚨What are deepfake sex crimes?
A deepfake sex crime is a crime that causes shame by altering another person’s face, body, voice, and so on, by combining them with sexual photos or videos. Illegal sexually explicit composite material combines the victim’s face with pornography and makes it look as if it were real, which causes the victim serious psychological pain. As deepfake technology is misused, the forms of digital sex crimes are becoming more diverse. In particular, making deepfake pornography targeting students or sending it to others is being treated as a major problem.
🚨Examples of harm – Videos targeting school friends or classmates: By combining students’ faces with sexual images or videos and spreading them online, the victim student suffers extreme shame and mental pain. – Threats and demands for money and goods: There are also cases of using deepfake pornography to threaten someone or to demand money or goods. This makes it difficult for the victim student to continue school life normally.
🚨How to respond If you find a deepfake photo or video, or if you have been harmed, report it immediately. Do not worry alone; report it to a reliable support organization and ask for the material to be deleted. To delete the recorded material, use an organization run by the government or by a specialized sexual violence organization rather than a privately run company. → This is to prevent secondary harm, such as the material being spread online again.
3. Responding to harm from school violence and signs of perpetrators
🚧Let us respond to school violence
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Do not ignore it when a friend is being bullied. Teasing or excluding a friend is bad behavior and a crime. When friends bully or exclude one friend, do not just pass by; help that friend. You must help that friend or tell a teacher or your parents right away.
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Do not worry alone; ask for help. Do not think it is your fault that friends are bullying you. If you have been bullied, or have seen a friend being bullied, do not endure it alone; ask for help from a teacher, your parents, the police, a counseling organization, and so on.
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Do not fight back with violence. If you respond with violence to a friend who is bullying you because you are angry, you will end up fighting each other and the problem can get bigger.
👀How school violence appears to parents
A student who has experienced violence: is often late or absent, and grades suddenly drop or gradually get worse. The student looks unwell and has less energy than usual.
A student who has experienced cyber violence: is anxious, often checks the phone or computer, and reacts sensitively. The student is the only one who repeatedly hears harsh words in a group chat room. The student looks flustered or distressed after seeing messages online.
A student who is the perpetrator: is defiant or easily angered. The student comes home late or at irregular times. The student hits other friends or is seen tormenting animals.
🦺How parents prevent and respond to school violence
Talk often with your child about school life. Every day, talk with your child about what happened at school and about friendships. Say often, “If anything happens, be sure to tell Mom and Dad. We are always on your side.”
Communicate often with the school. Take an active part in school violence prevention education for parents. Talk regularly with your child’s homeroom teacher and take an interest in your child’s school life.
📌Communicate by using interpretation and translation. When communication is difficult because your Korean is not fluent, use interpretation and translation to explain the situation well and express your opinion. When you need to fill out documents, you can ask for translated documents or write them in your mother tongue. Documents written in your mother tongue are translated and used by the school.
4. How and where to report school violence
📞 Organizations that can provide counseling in foreign languages
School – Teacher in charge, homeroom teacher, school police officer (SPO)
Foundation for Supporting Youth with a Migrant Background 02-722-2585 – Counseling is available in Chinese, Vietnamese, Russian, Mongolian, and Arabic * Counseling is scheduled to resume in February 2025
Police 112 (English and Chinese interpretation available 24 hours) – For languages other than English and Chinese, interpretation is provided through other organizations. Therefore, for languages other than English and Chinese, availability at the time of the report may vary depending on the interpretation situation at other organizations.
Seoul Migrant Women’s Counseling Center 02-733-0120 You can use it even if you are not in Seoul. Counseling is available every day in Korean, Chinese, English, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Mongolian. Cambodian is available on Tuesdays, and Uzbek and Russian on Fridays. Arabic, Bangladeshi, Lao, Japanese, Spanish, Indonesian, Nepali, and Kazakh counseling is available on request.
Seoul Digital Sex Crime Support Center for Safety At first, you receive counseling in the KakaoTalk open chat room [Jiji Companion 0382]. After that, counseling in English is available at [Digital Sex Crime SOS].
Seoul Digital Sex Crime Victim Support Center 02-815-0382 or counseling through the KakaoTalk open chat room [Deepfake SOS Dedicated Window]. If you request interpretation, it is provided through other organizations.
📞 Organizations that offer counseling in Korean only
School Violence Report Center 117
Blue Tree Foundation National School Violence Counseling Hotline 1588-9128
Foundation for Supporting Youth with a Migrant Background, Rainbow Youth Center 02-733-7587
Sources
– Guidebook for Handling School Violence Cases, 2024, Ministry of Education and the School Violence Prevention Research Institute at Ewha Womans University
– Doran-Doran School Violence Prevention Education, Korea Education and Research Information Service, Another School Edunet T-clear, date accessed: 2024.10.16
– New Digital School Violence, “Deepfakes and Digital Sex Crimes: Illegal Sexually Explicit Composite Material,” Jeonbuk State Office of Education