Probably almost everyone has heard the word ‘pornography’ at least once. There is still a pervasive atmosphere in our society that is reluctant to mention the word pornography. And pornography is illegal in Korea. Ironically, however, it is hard to find anyone who has not encountered it. Regulations on pornography have not been fully implemented, as you can see the so-called “sex crime videos” such as revenge pornography being circulated, mixed with general commercial pornography. Despite this situation, no formal discussion of pornography has been made at all. Now our society needs to establish the concept of "legal commercial pornography" through official discussions. 

          Korea has regulations for "obscene materials" through Article 243 and 244 of the Criminal Act and Article 44 of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, Etc. However, the important thing is that the current law does not clearly define the concept of "obscene materials." Similarly, the current law does not clearly stipulate the concept of 'pornography'. In 1997, the Supreme Court defined "pornography" as "a kind of obscene material," and it still relies on this judicial precedent to apply obscene material-related regulations to pornography. Pornography is illegal in Korea and the concept is still very ambiguous. Without such a clear concept, sex crime videos and general commercial pornography are still easily distributed. For example, a pornographic site “Soranet” was a huge shock to our society. It shared so-called "hidden camera" videos taken by ordinary people alongside general commercial pornography such as AV from Japan. Without establishing the concept of "legal pornography," there is also no concept of sex crime videos such as secretly filmed or videos containing children. Ultimately, surveillance and regulation of sex crime videos become very difficult. Also, the regulation of pornography in Korea is impractical. Pornography, which is "illegal" is found all around us. Currently, it is easy to access various pornographic sites just by searching on the Internet. And even if the site is blocked, bypass access is possible through various applications and programs. Meanwhile, many web hard[1] companies have formed a type of corporate collusion, called “cartels”, as they started to operate filtering companies as well. Through this, pornography grew into a black-market industry. In fact, in a MoneyToday interview, a police official said, "It is difficult to clamp down on all obscene materials by setting their distribution as the subject of punishment due to the limitations of administrative power. […] though it is realistic to regulate and punish videos that are obviously illegal such as hidden cameras.” This shows that we should establish the concept of "legal commercial pornography" through social discussions and start realistic regulations based on it.

          Pornography is still clearly illegal in Korea, but even its concept is not clearly established and paradoxically, is too easy to find around us. The need for social discussions on pornography has been raised since the past, but no serious discussion has been made. Also, sex crime videos have been mixed with general commercial pornography, causing additional problems. Our society must distinguish the concept of pornography from obscene materials in the law and establish the concept of "legal commercial pornography." It is time for a new consensus, reflecting the social flow, getting out of the negative perception that pornography should only be dealt with in shaded places.