More than 1,200 teenagers have fallen victim to online sex crimes so far this year, an 11-fold jump from 2018, government data showed. 

The number of teenage victims rose sharply from 111 in 2018 to 1,268 this year, according to the Gender Ministry data released by Rep. Yang Kum-hee of the main opposition People Power Party. The ministry tallied the number based on data from the state-run Women’s Human Rights Institute of Korea.

Digital sex crime victims totaled 14,070 between April 2018 and September this year, jumping from 1,315 in 2018 to 2,087 in 2019 and 4,973 in 2020. This year, 5,695 victims had already been identified as of September. 

By age, those in their 20s were exposed the most to online sex predators at 21.3 percent of cases reported, followed by teenagers at 20.6 percent and those in their 30s at 7 percent. The ages of more than 46 percent of the total were unknown. (Yonhap)