Minors Should Not Debut in Kpop
Author: Brenda Loza
A highschool senior and K-pop fan.
With the recent debut of new girl group VCHA and member Kaylee who is 13 years old, JYP along with other major Korean entertainment companies have been under heavy criticism for debuting such young idols. Although minors debuting in K-pop is nothing new, it seems to be a trend that fans have been noticing with groups like New Jeans, Lesserifm, Nmixx, Enhypen, etc. Hybe Entertainment’s new girl group project “Are You Next” garnered attention for the maknae (meaning the youngest member), Ena, being 12 years old (yes, she was born in 2011).
Equally concerning is the case of Hybe’s girl group New Jeans who debuted in 2022 under the Ador label. They faced backlash for the debut of a 14-year-old and the mismanagement on the part of their director and current CEO Min Hee-Jin. Fans were quick to point out Min Hee-Jin’s Instagram posts which were flooded with lolitia tropes and themes. The posts contained pictures of the rock band Kiss with a Baby groupie, actresses Brooke Shields and Olivia Hussey as teenagers, and other media acts associated with pedophilia and grooming. It did not help when shortly after New Jeans released their single “Cookie” which was full of sexual innuendos with lyrics like “made a little cookie”, and “Take it, don’t break it, I wanna see you taste it, Sugar, got sugar.”
In another instance, Hybe’s girl group under the sub-label Source Music, Lesserifim, also faced backlash for 16-year-old ex-member Garam Kim’s bullying scandal. She received many hate messages to the point of having her terminated from the group. In the end, the bullying accusations turned out to be untrue and fabricated. Kim described an argument with another student in a statement containing four screenshots that depicted an obscene photo of Kim’s friend. She said she was disciplined for addressing the accuser, which resulted in their bullying charges.
Even amidst the clear issues with minors in K-pop, Hybe is not the only one guilty of debuting minors, in fact, YG Entertainment has also been involved in the strong controversy surrounding their upcoming group Baby Monster. In this pre-debut group, the oldest is 21 years old while the youngest Chiquita is 14. Fans were also unsettled by Chiquita’s stage name, which means “little girl” in Spanish. To top it off the CEO of YG Entertainment Yang Hyun-suk met his wife Lee Eun-ju when she was in her second year of middle school and waited until she was in her 20s to date her and eventually marry her. The actions taken by YG Entertainment and their tendency to employ preteens were quite alarming and distributing for K-pop fans. Consequently, the company received a fair amount of backlash.
Admittedly there may be a reason for debuting K-pop idols young in attempts to lengthen their “lifespan” in the industry. Having working minors in entertainment is nothing new in Western media like in Disney with young stars or even Billie Eilish with her meteoric rise in 2015. With parental consent, it should be okay to debut minors in the K-pop industry since that is when they can learn the most. Others may mention BTS and other successful groups who debuted with 15-year-olds and 14-year-olds and are doing just fine. It is possible to argue that groups become the family of these minors and they can enjoy success at a younger age.
However, how young an idol or artist is does not correspond to how long they remain relevant in the industry or even how popular they are. Take Mamamoo, Aespa, or Blackpink for example, or BTS member Jin who debuted when he was 20 in 2013. In reality, two to three years will not matter in the lifespan of an artist and I believe is a small price for the safety of minors. Just because minors are launched into the eyes of the media and public at such a young age doesn’t mean that should be the standard. In fact, minors being exposed and exploited for corporate profit should not sit well with any of us, but it seems to be a trend for fourth-generation K-pop groups.
Euodias (a former K-pop trainee) experienced firsthand the practices of the K-pop industry. At the age of 10, Euodias auditioned for various entertainment companies in hopes of being signed to a label. While in Korea she passed an audition and signed under a contract that required her to leave her family and move to South Korea. If Euodias “chose to leave before the contract was up, [she] would have to repay the full cost of [her] training, which would run into thousands of dollars.” Upon signing the contract, Euodias’s relationship with her mother soured and her life became much more restrictive in her new home. She described her new home as an unhealthy competitive environment where they were told that “everything [they] experienced was part of learning the discipline needed to be a K-pop idol. So [they] just accepted everything.” The trainees were also not permitted to use their own names and were each given a number and a stage name to stay true to a character the company picked.
Euodias recalled weight as a “constant obsession of everyone there. Everyone was required to be no heavier than 47kg (7st 6lb or 104lb) regardless of their age or height.” She admitted that most of the girls (ages ranging from 9 to 17) had eating disorders and would often pass out from exhaustion and dehydration.
Minors in the K-pop industry inevitably have to deal with the well-known “skinny culture” praised in Korean media. In Buzzfeed.News’s article relating to eating disorders in K-pop, psychologist Ashley McHan states that “the higher the celebrity worship, the lower the body image. Those who value these K-pop superstars are already primed to have a lower body image. Then you put in that the celebrities that they’re worshiping are [pro-anorexia] and it’s like gasoline on a fire.” It is also alarming how invested fans become in the idol’s physique by documenting their weights and diets.
Eventually, these pressures and comments make it back to the idol with great influence. This was the case for F(x) member Sulli who faced media scrutiny and was publicly body-shamed by an audience member on a talk show. She tragically committed suicide in 2019 after dealing with mental health issues for a few years.
The influence K-pop has on its listeners is unquestionable. As a teenage girl who loves listening to K-pop and has been an active listener for years, I have seen advertisements encouraging young 13 to 17-year-olds to audition for a chance to become a K-pop star. The dark reality of being a K-pop trainee is kept under the rug many times until groups like Loona who have been in the industry for 10 years speak out about the mistreatment and lack of pay that comes with their career. The luxury clothes that idols wear and the fancy Instagram posts controlled by their management fabricate a very different story from what reality is. It is difficult enough to advocate for yourself as an adult, imagine doing it as a teenager.
Loona member Chuu spoke out on the show Dr. Oh’s Golden Clinic on her lack of income received in 2021 and stated how she only ate one meal a day due to cost. BlockBerry Creative faced backlash shortly after this occurrence and Chuu ended up taking legal action against the company. On November 25, 2022, Chuu was withdrawn from Loona on “violent language and misuse of power towards staff” allegations from her company.
The remaining eleven members followed suit and took legal means in hopes of terminating their contracts with their company BlockBerry Creative. Unfortunately, only 4 of them have won their lawsuits so far. This goes to show how corrupt and shady companies can be towards their idols by mistreating them and giving them unfair contracts. It is important to consider that many of these idols were most likely teenagers or even preteens at the time of signing their contracts.
According to South Korean news site Yonhap, the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports, and Tourism Committee passed the “Popular Culture and Arts Industry Development Act ‘’. This recent change allows entertainers under the age of 12 to work up to 25 hours per week, or 6 hours per day. Those aged 12 to 15 are permitted to work 30 hours per week, while those beyond the age of 15 are permitted to work 35 hours per week; both age groups are limited to 7 hours each day. Furthermore, according to Yonhap, the statute outlaws any violation of juvenile entertainers’ educational rights by forcing them to be absent or drop out of school. In the past, entertainers under the age of 15 were permitted to work up to 35 hours per week, while those beyond the age of 15 could work up to 40 hours per week.
As expected the Korean entertainment industry was not happy following the passing of this law. They should not be debuting minors to begin with, but they show no intention to stop, no matter how unethical and damaging it is for the minors in their care. Regardless, this bill is a step in the right direction for the well-being of our youth and for the much-needed regulation of large corporations. We should take steps to implement more regulatory laws to protect minors from exploitation and abuse in an industry so volatile as Entertainment.