The Welcome to Video case involved the investigation and prosecution of a child pornography ring which traded videos through the South Korean website Welcome to Video, owned and operated by Son Jung-woo (or Jeong-woo). Authorities estimated about 360,000 downloads had been made through the website, which had roughly 1.2 million members, 4,000 of which were paid members, from 38 countries. Through international cooperation and investigations, 337 people were arrested on charges of possessing child pornography.
Offenses
Son purchased the website Welcome to Video in July 2015, operating a server from his home in Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea, until March 2018. During this time, he distributed about 220,000 sexually exploitative videos featuring children. Many of these videos were purchased from the website using cryptocurrency, totaling , roughly million.
Son downloaded videos of child sexual exploitation from child sexual abuse material distribution site AVSNOO and re-uploaded them to his own server. Users download videos using points purchased with bitcoin and could trade video uploads for points, encouraging them to add their own material. Forty-five percent of the videos on the site had not been encountered previously by investigators.
Investigations and trials
Start of international cooperation investigation
The first organization to investigate Welcome To Video was the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which found transactions made with cryptocurrency on pornography sharing sites, and asked the US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) for cooperation in their work. Investigators found that the Welcome to Video servers were poorly secured, allowing them to identify and trace bitcoin payments to those who made them and to determine the location of the server. This collaboration revealed the website was operating from South Korea. HSI delivered related information to the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA), leading to the arrest of Son.
Prosecution of Son Jung-woo
First trial
Son was arrested in March 2018 and charged in May. His charges included receiving about million in cryptocurrency from 4,000 paid members and providing them with 3,055 articles of child pornography. In addition, 156 Korean citizens were charged with possession of child pornography (). Many of those charged were unmarried men in their 20s, including office workers and college students; others included doctors, civil servants, and school teachers. One user had a history of child sex crimes and had access to roughly 48,000 articles of child pornography.
Son reportedly appointed seven lawyers through a law firm. The first trial court found Son violated the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth Against Sex Offenses and Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, etc. and sentenced him to two years in prison and three years of probation. However, the sentence was suspended. Judge Choi Mi-bok, of the Seoul Central District Court, said in a ruling: "the defendant's crimes are harmful to society" adding "he is young and has no criminal history, and he is reflecting on himself." As a mitigating factor in the sentencing, she noted Son wasn't alone in posting pornography to the Welcome to Video site and other members were also culpable.
Second trial and sentence confirmed
As a result of the first trial, Son left the detention center after six months. He was represented by a public defender during the second trial. In April 2019, in the midst of this trial, he registered his marriage and appealed to the court that he had a family to support. In May 2019, the second trial court sentenced him to one and a half years in prison, stating "Acts such as selling child pornography for a large profit for a long time can distort the perception of children sexually." Authorities also seized the revenues from the website.
Examination of US extradition warrant
In October 2019, when authorities publicly announced the international investigation, US prosecutors indicted Son on nine charges, including conspiracy to post child pornography. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) requested his extradition from South Korea. In April 2020, South Korea's Ministry of Justice requested a criminal extradition warrant for Son. On 27 April, the expiration date of Son's sentence, the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office executed this warrant, resulting in his continued confinement at the Seoul Detention Center.