New Netflix Documentary Uncovers Shocking Chat Room ‘Abuse’ In South Korea

Yet another Netflix true-crime documentary is set to be released and if the recently dropped trailer is anything to go by, it promises to be as stomach-turning as its title suggests. 

Set to hit the streaming giant on 18 May, Cyber Hell: Exposing an Internet Horror will explore the online sexual abuse ring that shook South Korea between 2018 and 2020.

The recently released trailer features snippets of conversations with investigators and journalists alongside sinister imagery and footage of Cho Ju-bin, the 26-year-old leader of one of the online networks.

Take a look below:

Aside from Ju-bin’s crimes, Netflix’s doc will delve into the inner workings of the infamous ‘Nth Room’, an online group run by Moon Hyung-Wook that hosted sexually exploitative pornography.

Ju-bin was sentenced to 40 years in prison for his crimes in 2020. He conducted his chat room atrocities on the app Telegram and targeted both women and underage girls.

He used the name ‘baska’ online - which means doctor in Korean - resulting in his crime being dubbed ‘doctor’s room’.

While running the online network, Ju-bin lured women and girls into what was branded as ‘virtual enslavement’, blackmailing victims into sending sexual images of themselves. 

Netflix

In 2020, a Seoul court found him guilty of targeting at least 74 women, including 16 minors. 

The judge in Ju-bin’s case accused him of inflicting ‘irrecoverable damage’ on victims, according to The Guardian.

“The defendant lured and threatened multiple victims in various ways to produce pornography and distributed it for a long time to many people,” said the judge. 

“He in particular inflicted irrecoverable damage to many victims by publishing their identities.”

When he was taken into custody, Ju-bin apologised to his victims and in a court admitted to ‘cheating’ women into filming videos. He denied blackmail or coercion. 

Alamy

Cyber Hell: Exposing an Internet Horror was directed by Choi Jin-sung, who promises audiences that by watching his documentary, they’ll realise just how little they know about South Korea’s cyber crimes. 

He told KBIZoom: “Any Korean audience would know at least a little about the ‘Nth Room’ case. However, after seeing this documentary, I think they will realise that ‘the truth’ that they think they know of this case is just the tip of the iceberg.

“Their methods of crime were much more complicated and subtle than what we already knew of. The pursues of the case were also much fiercer and hotter than we knew.”

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact The Survivor’s Trust for free on 08088 010 818, or through their website thesurvivorstrust.org