The Korean Entertainment Industry: How Young is Too Young?
On January 1st, YG Entertainment - one of the big three companies in the kpop industry - released the members of their soon-to-debut girl group, Baby Monster. Despite everyone’s excitement for a new YG girl group after Blackpink’s tremendous success, the ages of some of the members were rather alarming. While the oldest was born in 2002, a reasonable age to debut, the youngest member is only 14 years old. This raises the question of whether debuting children in the Korean industry is truly ethical. Although every industry has its own customs, the Korean entertainment industry is on another level. From unhealthy Korean beauty standards to toxic knetizens (Korean online fans), the dynamics of the Korean entertainment industry are extremely unhealthy, especially for minors.
This isn’t the first time that young trainees have debuted in the industry. In 2007, Sunmi debuted under JYP Entertainment in the group Wonder Girls at the age of 14; her colleague, Suzy Bae, debuted in 2010 with Miss A at the age of 15. While the recommended daily calorie intake is 2,000 calories, Suzy Bae’s diet consisted of only 900 calories a day, a diet that is not sufficient for a growing teenager. Not only were these young children subjected to unrealistic body images, but sexualization of young celebrities is sadly a common practice amongst fans. The kpop industry builds upon the idea of unhealthy relationships between fans and celebrities; fans often believe themselves to be in parasocial relationships with their idols, causing real-life relationships within the industry to become scandals that could potentially result in idols getting kicked out of their companies. For example, rapper Dawn from the boy group Pentagon was kicked out of Cube Entertainment for dating Hyuna, a member of girl group 4Minute.
From an economic standpoint, debuting younger idols would be more profitable for the company because they’re able to stay in the industry and continue working for longer. However, from a moral standpoint, the companies are pushing minors into a toxic work environment knowing the potential risks and consequences. Knetizens are known to nitpick and cyberbully celebrities when given the chance. A controversy erupted when Irene, of the girl group Red Velvet, was subject to hate from many of her Korean fans after telling a fan that she enjoyed the book Kim Ji-young, Born 1982, a feminist book about the everyday sexism that the protagonist encounters at a young age. This created a huge scandal, as many of Irene’s fans are men. Many of them criticized her for promoting Korean feminism and burned her merchandise in retaliation. Because South Korea is a relatively conservative country, idols are often subject to cyber attacks for little “mistakes,” which can ultimately have huge tolls on their mental health. There are also several situations where knetizens have spread hate regarding an idol’s weight. For example, despite Jiwoo and Ningning, two kpop idols, being at perfectly healthy weights, knetizens photoshopped their photos to make them appear more “idol-like” and skinnier. Overall, subjecting minors to unhealthy environments pushed by knetizens and international fans is definitely something that companies should take into consideration when debuting celebrities at impressionable ages.
Similarly, South Korea also has a problem with obsessive fans, known as “sasaengs.” These fans will go anywhere from finding idol’s phone numbers to attempting to kidnap them. There are also extreme cases such as a case with Ok Tacyeon from 2PM, where sasaengs wrote notes to celebrities written in their own blood spelling out the words “You can’t live without me.” By debuting minors, companies are knowingly putting their employees at risk for profit. Although it is never okay for fans to stalk their favorite celebrities even if they’re adults, putting minors at risk in an environment with much older sasaeng fans is immoral and should be rethought.
Normalizing children in the industry is definitely something that needs to be changed. On idol survival shows, 20-year-old trainees often feel insecure about their age, as they believe they’ve passed the ideal age that agencies are looking for. As more and more groups—especially girl groups—debut, the maknae (youngest member) gets younger and younger. When New Jeans – a girl group under ADOR and Hybe Labels – debuted, fans were taken aback when the youngest member was born in 2008. Despite all the members being minors, New Jeans released a song “Cookie” that was extremely controversial due to the potential sexual interpretation of the lyrics. Although ADOR responded by stating that those weren’t their original intentions, fans are still wary of companies trying to profit off their idols by creating opportunities for parasocial relationships to form. Although many companies are following the trend of debuting younger idols (Ex: YG’s new group Babymonster), I was impressed by SM Entertainment when the girl group Aespa debuted in 2020. Although SM hasn’t always been the most moral company, they deserve praise for waiting until the girls were at appropriate ages before they debuted.
Overall, it isn’t only the fault of the company, but the fault of the normalized toxic environment these celebrities are being pushed into. From toxic beauty standards such as weighing less than 100 pounds and blatant colorism to the inevitable and extreme cyberbullying online, what needs to be changed isn’t as simple as debuting idols at older ages, but changing the entire Korean entertainment industry as a whole.
by VIVIAN LIN