메타버스 내에서의 디지털 성범죄 유형과 입법적 대응

Abstract

Recently, as the Metaverse platform has become more diverse and people's activities have expanded into the virtual world, digital sex crimes in the Metaverse have been attracting attention. According to foreign cases, voluntary risk mitigation measures are generally pursued through technical measures of OPS from a crime prevention perspective. I agree with the need. However, due to the limitations of non-legal measures in controlling reality, the need to directly regulate digital sex crimes with efficient norms has been raised. Therefore, in this article, the author reviewed whether current laws, such as the Criminal Act or Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes, can be applied to non-contact sexual crimes targeting avatars. As a result of the review, there is a concern that applying the current law to digital sex crimes may violate “Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege”. In addition, the need for new legislation was raised based on the fact that freedom of expression in virtual space could be excessively restricted. In this article, it was argued that the government's introduction of the concept of sexual personality rights is of no practical benefit, based on the fact that the Supreme Court is expanding the scope of sexual freedom and that the general concept of personality rights can supplement the shortcomings of legal interests. Meanwhile, based on the fact that non-contact sexual crimes in the metaverse generally occur in the form of sexual harassment, the need to criminalize sexual harassment in the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes was raised. Next, problems with the Ministry of Justice's recommendations were analyzed and alternatives were presented. In this article, after confirming that a sexual crime is a crime that violates sexual freedom against the victim's will, an illegal sign was presented that normatively restricts the requirement of sexual speech and behavior in the Ministry of Justice's recommendations. And a separate illegal sign was set up to represent the criminal's subjective tendency in sexual activity. In addition, as a way to efficiently regulate digital sex crimes that may occur in the metaverse, new punishment provisions were proposed in the Act on Promotion of Information And Communications Network Utilization And Information Protection, and a separate alternative was proposed that specifically protects the socially vulnerable, such as minors.