Girl groups under fire for illegally employing minors

With more and more celebrities debuting at young ages, it has recently been revealed that any company employing a child under the age of 15 must now be issued a document authorizing the employment to make it legal.
According to the National Assembly’s Committee on Culture, Sports, Tourism, Broadcasting & Communications, “There is a Labor Standards Act that forces any company that employs a child younger than 13~15 in their girl group to be issued a document that authorizes the employment, but some girl groups are currently promoting without such authorizations.”
According to GNP (Grand National Party) spokesperson Ahn Hyung Hwan, f(x)’s Sulli, KARA’s Kang Jiyoung, both born in 1994, and GP Basic’s Hannah, born in 1996, and Janey, born in 1998, all performed on stage without the proper authorizations.

The Labor Standards Act states, “Any one under the age of 15 cannot be employed as a worker unless certain standards are met as set by the president and an authorization document issued by the Ministry of Employment and Labor.”
A representative of the Ministry of Employment and Labor spoke with Newsen on the 10th and stated, “Any job that requires the employment and paying of a person under the age of 15 must be authorized by the Ministry of Employment and Labor. Should this be violated, they will be met with the appropriate penalties and/or imprisonment.”
According to the Ministry, after the law was enacted in 2007, only three authorizations were given in 2008, 14 in 2009, and only one as of July 2010.

But this applies to not only girl groups, but child actors as well. Why is Ahn Hyung Hwan criticizing girl groups only? Ahn Hyung Hwan answered through Newsen and stated, “Despite the law being enacted in 2007, there are not a lot of people that know about it because of the lack of promotions. With sexually suggestive controversies surrounding girl groups these days, we are attempting to bring the issue to spotlight in order to raise the alarm.”
Source: Newsen
via :: allkpop