The drama adaptation of the webtoon 'I Love Elementary School Students,' embroiled in controversy for glorifying grooming crimes and sexualizing children, has ultimately been halted. With strong backlash and criticism from teachers nationwide spreading like wildfire, the production company bowed its head within a week.
The production company MetaNewLine announced on the 4th through its official website, "We have seriously taken the various concerns raised socially and decided to halt the planning and production of the drama based on the webtoon 'I Love Elementary School Students.'" It added, "We sincerely apologize to the author for causing new burdens even to the original work produced in 2015." The company also noted, "We will accept the changing social sensibilities and trends with humility and will strive to create healthy and meaningful content with a more cautious and responsible attitude in the future."
This work depicts the story of elementary school teacher Im Cheong-ah developing feelings for a male character 'Gosu' she met in an online game, only to discover that he is actually her student Im Dang-su. However, this premise has faced criticism for allegedly packaging grooming crimes as romance.
At the center of the criticism was the education sector. On the 1st, the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations (KFTA) stated in a declaration, "Teachers are entities that must build trust based on high morality and ethics," adding, "Packaging a narrative that shares private feelings with underage students as romance is nothing but glorification of crime." It further criticized, "This drama is likely to trivialize real grooming crimes, and child actors who must perform in it may also be exposed to psychological harm. Putting children at risk for commercial gain is another form of violence."
The following day, on the 2nd, the National Teachers Union (Jeongyojo) Elementary Committee also urged, "Elementary school teachers nationwide are engulfed in shock and anger, and we demand an immediate halt to the drama's production." Jeongyojo pointed out, "If expressions such as 'emotional turmoil' or 'comfort' between adult teachers and elementary school students are misinterpreted as romance, it will result in a direct violation of educational ethics."
Ultimately, the production company raised a white flag in less than a week. However, the public and education sector's reactions were lukewarm. Criticism followed: "I can't even understand why they wanted to adapt this into a drama in the first place," "In a normal planning system, the content would never pass in the initial planning meeting," and "The very decision to bring such a narrative to broadcast is shocking."
An internet user remarked, "In a society where child protection should be considered an absolute value, the fact that such content made it to the planning stage under the guise of 'romance' is itself a problem," adding, "This incident reminds us once again of how important the ethical responsibility of content creators is."
[OSEN]