In South Korea, hidden camera sex crimes have increased by 540% in the last 8 years. Secretly filmed videos showing nude body parts of women, or women engaging in sexual acts are circulated online every day. These victims endure great suffering, some of them even resorting to suicide. But in South Korea, the law only penalizes those filming the videos, not the ones watching them. So those who watch the voyeur videos do so without guilt. Was there no way to save the women who were exposed and suffering?

The police made fake voyeur videos and circulated them online. In the end, the woman in the video suddenly turns into a ghost-like character, scaring the viewer. The police went undercover and uploaded various fake voyeur videos onto 23 file-sharing sites – 170 videos per day, 3,500 videos in total.

During those 2 months, 51,399 Peeping Toms downloaded the fake videos. The fear of the police watching curbed downloads, and the circulation of illegal voyeur videos decreased by up to 21%. The campaign was featured in all major news channels nationwide and in over 100 media channels globally. Through these various media outlets, it reached over 5 million people.

This campaign spread social awareness of the fact that watching these voyeur videos was harming the female victims by pushing them to suicide. A ruling party lawmaker as well as the South Korean government on their official blog also expressed their support of the campaign.

The Stop Downloadkill Campaign took place from Oct.17 to Dec.17, 2017, and in November 2017, a bill to strengthen punishment for voyeur crimes was proposed in the National Assembly.

Even after December 17, 2017, when the videos were no longer being uploaded, the Stop Downloadkill Campaign continued to exert influence on the law and the awareness of people, bringing changes upon the Korean society in the long run.

In January of 2018, a ruling party lawmaker who was in support of the campaign motioned a bill demanding stricter regulation of the sales of disguise cameras, which was then brought before the National Assembly. Between March and October 2018, 9 different public news outlets, such as KBS and The Herald, ran specials on the issue of hidden camera sex crimes that are pervasive in Korea. And in November 2018, the CEO of a major Korean file sharing site that had been one of the targets of the Busan Police, was arrested.