‘Under Fifteen’ has been canceled from MBN.

On the 28th, the production team of ‘Under Fifteen’ released an official statement, saying, “After much deliberation and discussion, we decided that canceling the broadcast scheduled for the 31st and protecting the cast and reorganizing would be the best option. “We will not be airing it on MBN.”.

They added, “We will produce it so that the essence of the program and the sincerity of the participants will not be damaged in the future. Thank you for your interest.”.

‘Under Fifteen’ was previously embroiled in a controversy over child sexual objectification. Because of this, MBN, which had planned to air it on the 31st, suddenly announced on the 21st that it would reconsider its broadcast. MBN said, “We are taking the concerns from all walks of life in our society regarding ‘Under Fifteen’ very seriously. Regarding this, MBN will comprehensively reexamine the details of the program as well as whether or not to air it, and will announce our position soon.”

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


On this day, CEO Hwang In-young and CEO Seo Hye-jin gave a tearful explanation regarding the child sexual objectification controversy of ‘Under Fifteen’.

CEO Hwang In-young said, “I am sorry and regretful for causing concern. When producing a show, you can get caught up in unexpected controversies, and sometimes it can become an opportunity to develop in unexpected ways. However, the unexpected aspects are being expanded as if they were true,” and said, “The staff who risked their pride to help have suffered a great blow to their honor. I thought about ‘how can we end this situation?’ and decided to hold this unusual event. If possible, we would like to urgently clarify any differences in our thoughts here,” he said, explaining the reason for holding an emergency production briefing.

CEO Hwang In-young said, “I learned that those who create broadcasts are evaluated by their content rather than their words, and that they should be recognized by the public for that. This made me want to protect everyone who works with us.”

Regarding the controversy over the barcodes in the participants’ profile photos, CEO 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 card. We were also very surprised that they were using this to refer to sexual meanings,” and added, “I was very surprised that they were using the concept of a student ID card 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. We should not think that female workers have low sexual awareness. I hope you realize that it is a woman who is producing this on site.”

CEO Seo Hye-jin said, “I bow my head and beg you. Our intention is not to sexually objectify children.” She continued, “We are not trying to force the broadcast, but are trying to adjust the broadcast date by taking into account various opinions. We are not trying to go with a ‘strong versus strong’ approach. We created this opportunity to explain that that is absolutely not our intention.” She repeatedly begged for people to stop viewing the program with distorted views. CEO Hwang In-young even shed tears during the Q&A session. CEO Seo Hye-jin also shed tears.


Regarding the programming, she said, “We have done various programs with MBN so far, but we do not receive production fees from MBN. MBN is just a platform. It is not that we have differences of opinion with MBN. MBN felt a responsibility as a platform and used the expression ‘reconsideration.’ If you really want to protest, you can come to the front of Crea Studio and do so. MBN and this issue have nothing to do with each other.” In particular, CEO Seo Hye-jin said, “We submitted the completed broadcast to the Korea Communications Commission and the Korea Communications Standards Commission two weeks ago, and an internal review was conducted that found no problems.” However, that statement was false.

After the event, the Korea Communications Standards Commission (hereinafter referred to as the BSC) released an explanatory statement, stating, “In accordance with Article 21 of the ‘Act on the Establishment and Operation of the Korea Communications Commission’ and Article 32 of the ‘Broadcasting Act’, the BSC conducts ‘post-deliberation’ on programs that have already been broadcast to determine whether or not the deliberation regulations have been violated.” The statement continued, “The claim that we did not receive the completed program before broadcast and that we reviewed it and conveyed our opinion on whether or not the deliberation regulations were violated is not true. We have strongly protested to Crea Studios, which made false claims in a public setting.”

In response, Crea Studios admitted that the statement was incorrect. And in the end, the program arrangement was canceled.


● Here is the official statement

Hello. This is the production team of ‘Under Fifteen’.

After much deliberation and discussion, we have decided that the best way to proceed is to cancel the broadcast scheduled for March 31st and to protect and reorganize the cast.

Therefore, it will not be arranged on MBN.

We will continue to produce the program so that the essence of the program and the sincerity of the participants are not damaged.

Thank you for your interest.

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.