Child pornography suspect leaves the Seoul district court in Seoul, Thursday. He was later arrested./ Yonhap



By Kim Se-jeong



Police in Seoul are considering revealing the identity of a man who convinced minors to record pornographic videos of themselves which he then distributed using the Telegram messenger service.



The suspect was caught Monday and arrested Thursday. Since information about his actions was released, public demand has been growing for his face to be revealed.



In most cases, the law prohibits the identity of criminals from being made public in order to protect their rights, but allows for exceptions when the extent of the crime is deemed grave enough or when the police believe it would be in the public interest to disclose the identity.



On Wednesday, a petition was filed on Cheong Wa Dae's website asking the police to reveal the suspect's face and other personal information. The petition drew the support of more than 210,000 people as of Thursday.



"Please make his face known to the world. He deserves it because he ruined the lives of so many young girls," the petition stated.



According to the police, the suspect, surnamed Cho, convinced an as-yet unknown number of minors to record themselves and then shared the recordings with others on Telegram. Instead of selling the video files to individual customers, he created a group chat room and charged a fee for people who wanted access.



So far, 74 victims have come forward and the police have confiscated 130 million won in cash from Cho's residence. The police said the investigation is ongoing.



The police have been investigating child pornography on the messenger app since September last year and so far have caught 13 suspects, including Cho.



One user also operated his own chat room on Telegram but testified that Cho was the top distributor and had issued instructions on how to run the chat rooms. The police said Cho initially denied his role as chief organizer but has since admitted to the allegations.

