Supreme Court rules bank transfer memos count as communication media for sex crimes

The Supreme Court ruled on March 12 that sexually explicit messages sent through the memo field of a bank transfer constitute a crime under South Korea's special law on sexual violence, overturning a lower court's acquittal.

The decision clarifies Article 13 of the Act on Special Cases Concerning Sexual Crimes, which penalizes using phones, mail, computers or other communication media to deliver offensive content. The court defined a communication medium broadly as any object generally recognized for delivering information, regardless of whether it allows two-way interaction. This interpretation aims to protect an individual's right not to encounter sexual humiliation against their will, safeguarding sexual self-determination and general personality rights.

In the case reviewed, the defendant transferred one won into a victim's account on multiple occasions with messages such as "your penis is 3cm," "penis grow bigger" and vulgar insults. The lower court had acquitted the defendant, reasoning that transfer memos are solely for managing transaction records and lack bilateral communication features.

The Supreme Court rejected this interpretation, noting the memo function is used to convey specific information from the sender to the recipient, including the purpose of the transaction or the sender's identity. The justices found that writing such messages and transmitting them via the banking app satisfied the legal elements of the crime.