CEO Seo Hye-jin explained the controversy over the barcode in her profile picture.

On the afternoon of the 25th, an emergency production briefing 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 Seo Hye-jin, and PD Yong Seok-in of Crea Studio.

‘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 defy 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 were being treated as tools for commercial gain.

Regarding the barcode-style profile picture, CEO Seo Hye-jin disclosed mobile messenger conversations and explained that it was an image of a student ID card found on a search site.

Seo Hye-jin said, “I want to say that the barcode controversy is a huge misunderstanding. It was produced with the concept of a student ID. We were also very surprised that they were converting this into some kind of sexual meaning.” She added, “I was very surprised that they were using the concept of a student ID to talk about the prostitution of a 9-year-old girl and something sexual. Also, the production team was female. 90% of the production team on site are women. You shouldn’t think that female workers have low sexual awareness. I hope people recognize that the people who produced this on site were women.”

Meanwhile, ‘Under Fifteen’ was originally scheduled to premiere at 9:10 p.m. on the 31st, but MBN announced that it would reexamine the programming. MBN is taking concerns from all walks of life in our society regarding ‘‘Under Fifteen’ seriously. Regarding this, MBN said, “We will comprehensively review the details of the program as well as whether or not to air it, and will announce our position soon.”

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.