Seo Hye-jin revealed her position on the conflict with MBN.

On the afternoon of the 25th, an emergency production briefing session for MBN‘s new entertainment program ‘Under Fifteen’ was held at the Grand Ballroom on the 2nd floor of the Stanford Hotel Korea in Sangam-gu, Seoul. The event was attended by Hwang In-young, CEO of Crea Studio, Seo Hye-jin, and PD Yong Seok-in.

‘Under Fifteen’ is a ‘K-POP prodigy discovery project for those under 15 years old’ and is an audition program to train a 5th generation girl group with skills and talent that surpass their age. However, before the broadcast, it was embroiled in a ‘controversy over the sexual commercialization of minors’. In particular, several civic groups pointed out that young children are being treated as tools for commercial gain.

In response, MBN is taking seriously the concerns of all walks of life in our society regarding “‘Under Fifteen’. Regarding this, MBN said, “We will comprehensively review the details of the program as well as whether or not to air it, and we will announce our position soon.”

Regarding this, CEO Seo Hye-jin said, “We have done various programs with MBN, but we do not receive production costs from MBN. MBN is just a platform. It is not that we have differences of opinion with MBN. MBN felt responsible as a platform and used the expression ‘review.’ MBN internally reviewed the first episode and decided that there were no problems. We have already sent it to the Korea Communications Standards Commission and the Korea Communications Standards Commission.” She added, “If you really want to protest, just come to Crea Studio and do it. MBN has nothing to do with this issue.”

Meanwhile, ‘Under Fifteen’ was originally scheduled to premiere at 9:10 p.m. on the 31st, but MBN said that they will reexamine the programming.

Hong Se-young, Donga.com Reporter projecthong@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.