Internet censorship in South Korea

Internet censorship in South Korea is similar to other developed countries but contains some unique elements such as the blocking of pro-North Korea websites, which led to it being categorized as "pervasive" in the conflict/security area by OpenNet Initiative. It is also unique among developed countries to block pornography and material considered harmful to minors as they are illegal by law. However, this law is very loosely applied with many pornography websites and nudity content still freely accessible. It also does not apply to social media websites, which is a common source of "legal" pornography in South Korea.

Throughout the internet age, South Korean government’s Internet censorship policies have been transformed dramatically. According to Michael Breen, censorship in South Korea is rooted in the South Korean government's historical tendency to see themselves as "the benevolent parent of the masses". However, anonymity on the internet has undermined the system of Korean honorifics and social hierarchies, making it easier for South Koreans to subject political leaders to "humiliation". The Korean internet censorship can be broken down into three periods.

In the first period, from 1995 to 2002, the government passed the Telecommunications Business Act (TBA), which was the first internet censorship law in the world. The act created a body called Internet Communications Ethics Committee (ICEC), who monitored Internet and made recommendations for content to be removed. The ICEC pursued criminal prosecutions of those who make unlawful statements and blocked several foreign websites. In the first eight months of 1996, ICEC roughly took down 220,000 messages on Internet sites.

The second period, from 2002 to 2008, the government passed a revision of the TBA legislation. This allowed the ICEC to engage in more sophisticated internet policing and allowed other bureaucratic entities to monitor the internet for illegal speech or take down websites that violate the laws. During this time, there was a political drive to increase extensive internet censorship with large number of cases of suicide beginning to rise from online rumors. In 2007, over 200,000 incidents of cyberbullying were reported.

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