サイバー暴力とサイバー侮辱罪(<特集>情報倫理)

抄録

In Korea, with the rapid spread of the Internet, "cyber violence" has been a social problem such as the spread of a falsehood, revealing of a real name and personal information on the Net. The suicide of a famous actress in October 2008 caused by cyber violence led the Korean government to propose "a cyber contempt charge" that imposed a severe punishment of a slander on the Internet. In this paper, based on the investigation of socio-cultural background of cyber violence in Korea and the trend of law development by the Korean government, the author examines the propriety of the cyber contempt charge. Furthermore, on the basis of consideration of the recent court cases of libel on the Internet in Japan, the author proposes a recommendation of the method for protecting the freedom of speech on the Net from the viewpoint of "information ethics".