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The number of reports of violence against students has more than doubled from 2020 to 2024, with over 9,000 cases related to sexual or online abuse.

Education authorities received 58,502 reports of possible school violence in 2024, up from 25,903 in 2020, according to Ministry of Education data revealed by Rep. Jin Sun-mi of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea on Sunday. Sexual violence and cyber violence between students reached 4,588 and 4,534 reported cases, respectively, last year.

Reports have indicated that teenage violence is slowly transitioning away from physical abuse toward emotional forms of abuse, such as defamation, libel and sexual abuse using deepfake technology. Last week's report by the National Police Agency showed that physical violence by teens had decreased from 1,586 cases in 2015 to 1,286 in 2024, but sexual crimes using deepfake technology skyrocketed in the same period from 192 to 709 cases.

Further NPA data revealed last week showed that 626 teens were subject to police investigation for dating violence, up each year from 280 cases in 2020. Data shows that a growing number of students are being accused of sex and relationship crimes, likely indicating that more students are being victimized by such crimes than before.

Sunday's report showed that 27,835 school violence cases last year were subject to the official school violence committee, which was triple the 8,357 in 2020.

School principals are authorized to handle school violence incidents that inflict minor damage, but severe cases are subject to deliberation of committees installed at regional education offices. The number of student violence cases that necessitated intervention of the authorities surged significantly between 2020 and 2024.

Litigation related to school violence has also showed an upward trend. Lawsuits filed by suspected perpetrators of school violence jumped from 202 in 2021 to 444, while those filed by the victims went from 53 to 96.

Students and parents of those involved in school violence can choose to either accept the decision of educational authorities or challenge the ruling at the administrative court. Data indicates growing numbers of students — both those accused of violence and the victims — expressing doubts at the authorities' handling of school violence.


minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com