After several tragic news regarding the death of many young and talented artists due to depression, fans have made a change.org petition that demands better treatment for Korean pop culture artists. A lot of idols and trainees also recently came out saying they've been mistreated by their agencies and this has worried the fans.
The petition, as of the moment, only requires 1,500 signatures. After this goal is reached, it will be forwarded to the Korean Entertainment Management Association and Korea's Fair Trade Commission. The change.org petition is aimed to improve the idols' and trainees' overall health.
The campaign states:
"Four young K-pop Idols have taken their own lives in less than two years. Let's join together to prevent another death and honor the lives of Jonghyun, Sulli, Goo Hara, and Cha In-ha.
K-pop is a music industry from Korea notorious for its gorgeous performers, synchronized dance routines, and catchy music production. However, the industry is far less appealing behind the camera. In 2019, young boys from the group TRNCG sued their company, TS Entertainment, for child abuse after a choreography beat a member with a metal chair. Sulli from f(x) took her own life after years of receiving hateful comments online.
Trainees and idols often lead difficult lives full of intense training and little autonomy. We ask you to call for the more humane treatment of these performers by both their company and fandoms. This petition will support solutions for three issues: physical health, mental health, and workers' rights.
PHYSICAL HEALTH: Kpop companies overwork their idols and trainees, sometimes to unconsciousness, and put idols on strict diets that create serious health risks. Our solution is requiring idols and trainees to complete medical evaluations each month by professionals. We also believe no trainees or idols should have a Body Mass Index lower than 18 BMI (considered underweight) unless there are special circumstances.
WORKERS RIGHTS: Kpop idols and trainees have very little control over their own lives. They have cited abuse, sign 7-year “slave contracts,” are banned from dating, work up to 16 hours a day, and many begin as young as 9 years old. At the same time, toxic fans criticize their every action and sometimes even invade their lives. Our solution is to raise the minimum age of trainees to 13 years old, strong background checks on employees, a bi-annual discussion of the contract by the performers, strongly enforcing Korea's 52-hour work-week, and offering a way for trainees and idols to anonymously report incidents of abuse to the management. We should also encourage idols to push lawsuits on people who post damaging comments.
MENTAL HEALTH: Imagine growing up in a country with extremely high suicide rates and also having the pressures of being a young celebrity. This is what idols face on a daily basis. Furthermore, very few companies have quality mental health services for their performers. Our solution is to require psychiatric health exams every month for trainees and idols, provide performers with a therapist and psychiatric care if they are suffering from mental health issues, and encourage policies that take legal action against particularly malicious incidents of cyberbullying.
The Korea Foundation estimates that there are over 35 million fans worldwide! Let's get at least 1 million signatures! If fans hope to prevent more suicides by idols, then the Kpop industry must fundamentally change. Please join us!"
