NewJeans and the New age problem

An opinion

With two members of 17 years old, one 18, one 16, and the youngest 14 years old, NewJeans presents a newly rising problem in K-Pop: the age limit.

Comprised of members Hanni, Haerin, Minji, Danielle and Hyein, NewJeans debuted just yesterday, with the title “Cookie”. The long-awaited rookies were formed under ADOR entertainment, which is one of the subsidiaries of HYBE entertainment; famously home to artists such as BTS, SEVENTEEN, TXT, ENHYPHEN and more.

Before their official debut, NewJeans presented pre-releases like “Attention”, “Hype Boy” and “Hurt”, which garnered much popularity on various social media apps like Tiktok. Despite the ever-increasing attention, many K-Pop fans and netizens raised their voices in concern for how young the members were.

With members that are all minors, some audiences frowned upon outfits that the girls donned in their music videos that seemed to be more revealing than expected. Although it is not uncommon for female idols to be fitted in clothing that shows more than a little skin, with members as young as 14, many fans did not feel comfortable.

Some listeners even accused the CEO of ADOR, Min Hee Jin, of putting the members at pedophilic risk and that Min may also be at fault for pedophilic behavior. Min had formerly been positioned as the Creative Director at SM entertainment, with multiple accusations of creating seemingly over-sexualized concepts for groups like F(x) or Shinee.

Unfortunately, whether or not the accusations are true, it is a visible truth and a rising controversy that the ages for idols are decreasing every single year. CLASS:Y, another rookie group of 2022, includes three 14-year-old members and one 15-year-old member. The culture of sexualization in K-Pop, begs the question of whether there should be hard limits and standards for the ages of K-Pop idols.

For K-Pop companies and the industry, having younger idols is a definite benefit. The companies want kids at ages at which they could promote music actively for longer periods of time. In a society where competition is so fierce and celebrities are canceled for absolutely nothing at all, many concerns are raised about the level of maturity required for being in such an industry.

Although the idols choose to put themselves through long years of difficult training, only to struggle to survive through the competition in the K-Pop world, many people think that they are completely unprepared for the world out there.

Scandals, canceling, ‘sasaengs’, problematic groups. Are the younger singers of the 4th-generation idols ready to face the cruelties of the hate-filled world, or should they simply be stopped?