Former Kakao CEO Lee Sir-goo was indicted for allegedly neglecting his duty to block sexually explicit content from being circulated via the company’s social network service Kakao Group, the state prosecution said Wednesday.

According to investigators, he was accused of violating the country’s Youth Protection Law by not taking action to block or prevent the spread of pornography from reaching young people.

Lee resigned in August, but remains at the company in a supporting role for new CEO Rim Ji-hoon.

It is the first time the prosecution has held an online portal operator responsible for teenagers having access to adult pictures and videos.

Kakao immediately refuted, saying the company was taking “all possible technological measures” for prevention even though there are no clear government guidelines.

“We are censoring word searches and receiving reports from users. We cannot directly monitor user activities because of privacy concerns,” the company said in a statement.

“Under these tricky circumstances, it is unprecedented to indict an individual to take responsibility.”

The company said it would take legal action to resolve all allegations.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)