South Korean Bill on AI-Generated Fictional Sexual Content Enters Detailed Review
South Korea's National Assembly sent a bill targeting AI-generated sexually explicit depictions of realistic fictional people to a legislative subcommittee on July 27. The proposal would criminalize creation, distribution, possession and viewing, with penalties reaching seven years in prison for production or distribution; it remains a bill under review, not current law.
South Korea's National Assembly moved a bill covering AI-generated sexually explicit depictions of realistic fictional people into detailed review on July 27, 2026. The official legislative record says Bill 2212918 was placed on the agenda of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, debated and referred to a subcommittee. That procedural step advances scrutiny of the proposal, but it does not enact it.
What the proposal would cover
Rep. Huh Young and nine other Democratic Party lawmakers introduced the amendment on September 11, 2025. The official summary says it would add provisions to the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes for AI-generated sexual material regardless of whether the depicted person is real.
The Korea Times reports that the text targets a fictional person or representation that could reasonably be mistaken for a real individual. Creating, editing, combining or processing such material, as well as distributing or publicly displaying it, could carry up to seven years in prison or a fine of 50 million won. Possessing, purchasing, storing or viewing it could carry up to three years in prison or a fine of 30 million won. Those are proposed maximum penalties, not current convictions or rules.
Why lawmakers say the gap matters
The government's legislative record points to a court case in which a defendant was acquitted after prosecutors could not establish that an AI-generated depicted person was real. The sponsors argue that a rule tied only to an identifiable real victim leaves a gap as synthetic imagery becomes harder to distinguish from photography.
The Korea Times, citing the Korean Women's Development Institute, reports that recorded digital sex crimes rose from 9,385 cases in 2015 to 15,612 in 2024. Within that total, reported deepfake sex-crime cases increased from 31 in 2020 to 550 in 2024. Those figures provide policy context; they do not show how many cases would fall within this bill's proposed fictional-person standard.
What practitioners should watch
The central implementation question is scope. A standard based on whether a fictional depiction could be perceived as a real person may require clearer definitions before platforms can translate it into moderation rules, generation safeguards and evidence-retention workflows.
Teams operating image or video generation services in South Korea should monitor the subcommittee text for changes to covered conduct, knowledge or intent requirements, and platform responsibilities. Until the National Assembly passes a final version and it enters into force, this remains a legislative proposal rather than an enforceable new prohibition.
Key Points
- 1Bill 2212918 was referred to a National Assembly subcommittee on July 27, 2026; it has not become law.
- 2The proposal would extend criminal penalties to AI-generated sexual depictions of realistic fictional people, with maximum proposed penalties of seven years for creation or distribution and three years for possession or viewing.
- 3Product and safety teams should monitor how lawmakers define realistic fictional depictions, intent and platform responsibilities before treating the proposal as an operational requirement.
Scoring Rationale
The proposal could materially expand criminal exposure around AI-generated sexual imagery in South Korea and affect generation and moderation systems, but it remains under legislative review and its final scope is unresolved.
Sources
Primary source and supporting public references used for this report.
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