‘Under 15’ producers emotionally defend their creation as MBN announces broadcast review

Following teasers being released for MBN’s creepy survival show Under 15, there was understandable public backlash to the idea, not just from netizens but organizations and unions as well. That led to the network announcing that it was reviewing the broadcast, potentially leading to a cancellation.

Following that review, the producers of Under 15 released a statement defending the show.

After MBN announced it would review the broadcast, the show’s production team released a statement Thursday saying, “The participants’ desire to participate was checked and they applied with the consent of their parents. Throughout the filming process, the production team strictly adhered to guidelines to protect minors.”
Regarding the controversial costumes and styling choices, the team stated, “Decisions were made through active discussions with the participants’ guardians,” and added, “Practice hours during recording weeks were capped at 35 hours, with both guardians and production staff providing transportation and constant supervision in the practice rooms.”
The team further clarified that “to ensure the right to education during weekday recordings, unreasonable schedules were avoided and filming was adjusted in compliance with legal regulations.”

More than anything, that just seems to make the parents culpable more than being any real justification for the show existing.

Regardless, Seo Hye Jin (CEO of Crea Studio, the production company), Hwang In Young (co-CEO), and Yong Seok In (producer) held a press conference to emotionally defend their creation.

While the producers opened the news conference with an apology, they focused more on the public’s reaction than the show’s concept. They described the program as a platform for giving young talent a chance to shine on a stage and get advice from high-quality trainers, especially children who hadn’t had a chance to prove themselves at K-pop agencies’ auditions.

They then sort of tried to reverse things, suggesting the criticism was more harmful to the kids than the show itself.

“We did think that there could be some concerns, but we spent a whole year making this show and we optimistically thought that people would be touched once they actually saw the show,” said Crea Studio co-CEO Hwang In-young. “All of us, not just the staff, but also the contestants and their guardians, thought, ‘Why is the show being criticized for being something it’s not?’”
At one point, Hwang broke down in tears, expressing disbelief that the show was being accused of exploitation.

They did say they’re re-editing the show, though it certainly sounds like they plan to push ahead.

“We are currently trying to get in contact with a K-pop agency that understands our ideas,” Seo said. “We are discussing debut and agency issues. And we are re-editing the show. We will run it through with all the related teams at MBN and figure out a schedule.”

Not sure why one has to re-edit if you’re certain there’s no issue with its presentation, but alright.

Seo — who has a successful producing career but was also removed as producer of one show for plagiarization and paid a contract worker with gift cards once — basically uses the “you’re weird for seeing this sexually” defense and says the staff aren’t pedos.

“I think the problem becomes clear when you see it from a different perspective,” Seo said, tearing up. “Do you really think that the 100 staff members of ‘Under 15’ are working to sexualize children? Are they making sexual exploitation content of children? I think not.”

Again, while there’s questions about why this was even an idea to begin with, which likely traces its problem back to the K-pop system at large, the problem is putting kids as young as eight in front of a wide audience. Regardless of their intent, that opens them up to public consumption which inevitably comes with all the downsides associated with that. Even if we could rule out sexualization, I’m not sure how you can see the way older teenage stars are treated online and want to jump at the chance to expose an eight-year-old to that.

I guess this is basically fighting uphill, though. Once I read they had already done filming and what not, it was basically inevitable that the show would be broadcast since I figure there’s no way the network is just going to eat that cost for nothing. If so, mostly I hope that they don’t end up benefitting from this story going viral, and that a lack of viewership could at least send a little message to networks of a line drawn in the sand (well, ideally to regulators, like with GP Basic).