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A man in his 20s who was sentenced to imprisonment in the first trial for uploading sexual exploitation of juveniles to social networking services (SNS) was reduced to a fine in the appeals trial.



The Ulsan District Court's Criminal Case Division 1 (Chief Judge Kim Hyun-jin) broke the original sentence of suspended sentence of imprisonment and sentenced a man in his 20s who was handed over to trial for violating the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth with a fine of 5 million won today (5 day) said.



In May 2020, Mr. A posted 5 pornography on SNS with his mobile phone at an army base dormitory in Gangwon-do.



At the time, Mr. A posted a lewd video and listed words that mean teenage students such as 'high school' and 'school uniform' in the hashtag.



The first trial judge took note of these hashtag words.



A was sentenced to 6 months in prison and 2 years of probation, saying that the public can clearly recognize that the video contains children and adolescents.



However, the Court of Appeals decided otherwise.



According to the video capture photos submitted as evidence, the characters in the video turned their backs or their faces were mosaiced, making it impossible to determine their age.



In addition, since users can specify and write SNS hashtags at will, even if they use words such as 'school uniform', it is difficult to conclude that the character is actually a student.



The court of appeals said, "The pornography in this case does not apply to cases where the average general public clearly perceives children and young people as appearing." He admitted it and sentenced him to a fine.”