South Korea has been enacting more stringent punishments for violent sexual crimes which appear to be on the rise in the country.  As the government is recommending castration as a possible solution one citizen is doing his part to prevent these awful crimes.

His name is Hong Gwang Ui, a 43 year-old father of a four year old son, and using his knowledge as an engineer for the military he crafted a simple device which sets off an alarm if within 30 meters of a convicted sex offender.

Mr. Hong said he invented the machine because “as a father of a four year-old son, every time I hear a news story about a heinous sexual crime the anger swells up inside.  After thinking over ways to help prevent these crimes, I developed this device.”

He explained that the way it works is simple but you can probably figure it out by the name; the Electronic Ankle Bracelet Detector (EABD).

A few years ago South Korea passed a controversial law forcing people with prior sexual offenses to wear ankle bracelets which tracked their location. Some argue that this type of electronic tagging is a violation of human rights.

The ankle bracelets emit a signal on a specific frequency to the control center every 6 seconds providing the authorities with the person’s location.  Mr. Hong’s EABD simply beeps when this signal is detected within 30m.

He received the go-ahead from the Ministry of Justice to start selling these devices online from next month.  To avoid further human rights issues, Mr. Hong only plans to sell to fixed locations like schools and playgrounds.

Mr. Hong said “I wanted to help prevent sexual crime even if it’s just a little bit.” No one can argue that he’s doing his part.

Source: dongA (Japanese)
Image: dongA (Korean)