Ban on overexposure

Girl group 4Minute perform for a television program recording earlier this year. The country’s censorship authorities are moving to strengthen restrictions on revealing attire worn by teen stars on television due to increasing concerns on the country’s over-sexualized culture. (Photo : The Korea Times)

Teen sexualization on TV faces stronger censorship

Television censorship authorities will strengthen moves to prevent teenage pop stars appearing in revealing clothing amid growing concerns about the media’s portrayal of young women as sex objects.

Entertainment companies have been facing criticism that they are driving the sexualization of young girls in society as they become zealous to cash in on the popularity of K-pop. Awareness of an over-sexulalized culture has increased as rape and murder cases have hogged headlines in recent months.

Government officials had maintained a laissez-faire approach on how music producers present their underage stars in eagerness to promote K-pop as an export industry alongside cheap cars, mobile phones and kimchi. It bears further watching how the firms and pop fans react to the decision by the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KOCSC) that young girls should show less flesh on television.

The decision by the censorship agency is in line with an earlier move by the Fair Trade Commission (FTC), which last year announced a renewed guideline for standard contract terms between production companies and artists. The terms included preventing underage singers from dressing in excessively sexually-provocative clothing, being deprived of the chance to attend school and protecting them from long working hours.

“There have been social problems created by programs describing children and underage celebrities as sex objects. There were real concerns that these shows could have harmful effects spiritually and socially on young people,’’ said a KOCSC official.

“Under the revised rules, minors should not appear on programs in excessively revealing clothing and should not be asked to act in overly suggestive ways.’’

The KOCSC also plans to strengthen the monitoring of profanity and other “inappropriate’’ language on television programs featuring young celebrities.

The popularity of boy bands and girl groups has been driving the rapid growth of Korea’s pop industry, which enjoys immense popularity in Asia and is now setting its sights on the United States and Europe. However, the boom has also been accompanied by mounting concern over the sexualization of young girls.

Influential French daily Le Monde observed last year that K-pop stars are groomed as export items with support from a Korean government that is desperate to promote a young and dynamic image of its country. The newspaper also noted that Korean management companies haven’t been shy about having their young stars undergo plastic surgery.

It could be said that the debate over sexualizing young stars is connected with the critical question facing K-pop: Is it for real or a colossal fluke?

While it’s difficult to underestimate an annual $3.2 billion industry that has doubled its global sales in each of the past three years, even the production companies admit to concerns that their strength in highly manufactured music is beginning to be duplicated by others.

Another criticism of K-pop is related to the way entertainment firms treat their young artists, often signed to notoriously long deals as trainees and enduring long working hours with little financial reward.

Perhaps the global success of chubby rapper Psy, who sparked an invisible horse riding craze with hit single “Gangnam Style,” doubles as a jab at K-pop’s business model. Fans will respond more to originality than one-size-fits-all music performed by pretty people with slick dance moves.

Just ask JYP, the entertainment company backing groups like 2PM and Wonder Girls, which has little to show for its Herculean effort to matter in U.S. music charts. <The Korea Times/Kim Tong-hyung>

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