A 30-year-old South Korean man was recently given a four-year prison term for creating and storing content that was sexually exploitative of youngsters that he had lured onto the metaverse.
According to local media sources, the man, whose identity was kept a secret, had persuaded minor victims to record and submit pictures and videos of their bodies between December of last year and March of this year.
The attacker met the teenage victims on a South Korean metaverse platform, where he utilized an avatar to falsify his age and gave presents to lure in the victims to have a dialogue with him, which was often in an indecent manner.
In addition to serving time in prison, the offender must complete 80 hours of sex offender treatment programs and is prohibited from working for seven years in any organization that supports children or people with disabilities.
The defendant was sentenced based on his targeting of defenseless children, even though the exploitative material was not produced or circulated for financial gain.
A bill to criminalize sexual offenses in the metaverse was championed by Shin Hyun-young, a lawmaker from the opposition Democratic Party, in June.
The scientific ministry of South Korea published a list of moral guidelines for the metaverse last month to safeguard children.
