Seoul: The government announced plans on Wednesday to broaden undercover investigations into deepfake sex crimes to include adult victims. The Office for Government Policy Coordination revealed this initiative as part of a comprehensive strategy, developed in coordination with relevant ministries, to address an increase in digital sex crimes involving deepfake technologies. According to Yonhap News Agency, current legislation limits undercover operations to cases involving minors. However, the government intends to propose amendments to extend these investigations to adult-targeted offenses. The data indicates a significant number of both victims and offenders in recent crimes fall within the 10 to 19-year-old age range. The new policy framework also proposes empowering platforms that host deepfake content to preemptively block such material, pending evaluation by the state media regulator. Revised regulations would mandate platforms to remove illegal content within 24 hours upon the regulator's request. S outh Korea has enacted several measures recently to combat the surge in digital sex crimes. Notably, in September, the National Assembly amended the sexual crimes punishment law, imposing penalties of up to three years imprisonment or a fine of 30 million won (approximately US$22,500) for individuals found in possession, purchase, storage, or viewing of deepfake sexual materials and other doctored videos.