The Potential Virus: No Viewer Is Innocent

By Odelette Wang

According to the investigation of the Nth Room Scandal, more than 260,000 people in South Korea had watched these videos, and more than 10,000 women had been treated as sexual slaves. There’s an analogy that there are about 260,000 taxis in Korea, meeting a Nth room member is as frequent as seeing a taxi on the street.

The audience is not innocent. If they do not regularly upload their own pornographic video, they will be kicked out of the chat room. Some chat rooms will charge viewers up to 1.5 million won for the viewing fee. In the meantime, the personal information of the victims, including their schools and work places, will also be made known to the viewers as membership bonus. It can be said that these viewers are like potential viruses. In the beginning, they watch videos out of curiosity. After receiving the victims’ information, which could trigger their animal nature, they are likely to become rapists in real life. Among the 260,000 members who entered the Nth room, there are community service workers, policemen and senior officials who are obliged to secure people’s lives and safety.

It was alarming that when the Nth Room Scandal came to light, the disgusting devils who regard women as playthings felt that they are vilified. Even now, a multitude of people excuse those perverted acts in terms of “I watch whatever I want” or “protect subculture”. Of course, there’s no shame in meeting physical needs. The shame lies in is that countless rapes and sexual abuses in the Nth Room are targeted at teenagers or even infants; it is a sex crime. It is a pity that until now many people have not realized the essence of the Nth Room. Instead, they promoted victim-blaming, kept slut-shaming to those women, and insisted that viewers are innocent. Silent onlooking is already a crime, not to mention that they constantly upload crime videos in order to stay in the chat room. Once entering the Nth Room, they are not only the audience, but have become active bloodthirsty beasts. They are the next GodGod, the next Watchman, and the next Doctor. In this extremely secretive transmission, not a specific woman is persecuted, but all women have been discriminated.

In addition to those 260,000 viewers, the opinions from the outside are thought-provoking. Apart from the distortion of the organizer’s human nature, the indifference of the netizens indicates that there’s something wrong with the whole society. If you enter the keyword “the Nth Room” on Weibo, there will be a bunch of people jump out, claiming that they have relevant video clips. It seems that while most people cry out against the criminals, there are still a few people vying to be one of the 260,000. This is just ironic! In this patriarchal society, women are always being judged, objectified, and treated as prey the dark desire of men, while men are always being covered up, forgiven, and win the compromise from women.

If these cold-blooded viewers are not exposed one by one, it will be cruel to the victims and it will also have an extremely negative influence on the public. A lenient sentence is an encouragement for the next crime. The Nth Room is only one step away.