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South Korean lawmakers on Thursday passed a bill that criminalises possessing or watching sexually explicit deepfake images and videos, with penalties set to include prison terms and fines.

There has been an outcry in South Korea over Telegram group chats where sexually explicit and illegal deepfakes were created and widely shared, prompting calls for tougher punishment.

Anyone purchasing, saving or watching such material could face up to three years in jail or be fined up to 30 million won ($22,600), according to the bill.

Currently, making sexually explicit deepfakes with the intention of distributing them is punishable by five years in prison or a fine of 50 million won under the Sexual Violence Prevention and Victims Protection Act.

When the new law takes effect, the maximum sentence for such crimes will also increase to seven years regardless of the intention.

The bill will now need the approval of President Yoon Suk Yeol in order to be enacted.

South Korean police have so far handled more than 800 deepfake sex crime cases this year, the Yonhap news agency reported on Thursday. That compares with 156 for all of 2021, when data was first collated.

Most victims and perpetrators are teenagers, police say.

Earlier this month, police launched an investigation into Telegram that will look at whether the encrypted messaging app has been complicit in the distribution of sexually explicit deepfake content.

Countries around the world are grappling with how to respond to the proliferation of deepfake material.

The US Congress is debating several pieces of legislation including one that would allow victims of nonconsensual sexual deepfakes to sue, and one that would criminalise the publication of such imagery and make tech companies remove it.

Earlier this year, social media platform X blocked users from searching for Taylor Swift after fake sexually explicit images of the pop singer proliferated on social media.