What was the Nth room? Netflix documentary Cyber Hell explores South Korea scandal in detail

The puzzling and horrifying cybercrime incident (the Nth room incident) that took place in South Korea has been the subject of Netflix's most recent true-crime documentary Cyber Hell: Exposing an Internet Horror, which dropped on the platform on May 18, 2022.

It was discovered in 2020 that a set of chat rooms on the instant messaging platform Telegram, known as the Nth Room, were exposed for having s*xually graphic footage of underage girls along with torturous videos.

Not only does Cyber Hell delve into this particular instance of the Nth Room, but it also sheds light on the alarmingly underreported issue of online s*x crimes as well.

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What was the Nth room?

Women and underage girls were coerced into sharing increasingly demeaning and violent photographs and videos of themselves online as part of a s*xual slavery ring known as the Nth room. The name was used to encompass all eight rooms that were a part of the operation.

To intimidate the victim, the harassers would get access to their private images and social media accounts and use that information to threaten the victim by disclosing their private information to their close ones.

Other individuals were targeted, enticed, and groomed with the prospect of employment, and urged to do innocuous activities for money. Victims would then be compelled by the harassers to record themselves performing s*xual activities or acts of violence.

The following is what one of the victims told CBS Radio in Korea:

"I developed bipolar disorder and depression. I felt like I was being stalked. I couldn’t let anyone recognise me so I bundled up my whole face and body whenever I went outside, even in summer. It drives me nuts, thinking I could wake up to tens of thousands of messages the next morning with my video spread all over social media."

All the videos were broadcast in several different rooms on Telegram, which were then sold in the Nth Room, which was operated by a user called GodGod, and the Doctor's Room run by the user called the Doctor.

More than 100 women, including 26 kids, were coerced into s*xual slavery as part of an organised cybercrime ring, with 260,000 individuals paying up to £1,200 to view this abusive pornography.

Cho Ju-bin and Moon Hyung-wook were the two men responsible for planning and executing the scheme to run a network of illicit and dismal chat rooms. Thousands of victims were tricked and blackmailed into performing s*xual acts, which were subsequently posted to one of the two men's many chat rooms.

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Cyber Hell narrates the story of all these victims and tells the world about the crimes of the accused. The true-cyber crime documentary is now available to stream on Netflix.