(Source: Bridget Colla; CC BY-SA 2.0)
The Ministry for Health, Welfare, and Family Affairs can certainly be misguided in the “protection” it provides to youngsters sometimes (see #2 here). But given Korean television’s propensity for highlighting dull, vacuous company-endorsed public “campaigns” in commercial breaks, then it deserves kudos for its simple but effective message in this one:
For those of you that are interested, here is the full text seen in the book (repeated by the voice over):
허루평균 2.7 명 아동성폭력 피해
On average, everyday 2.7 children suffer from sexual abuse.
성폭력 피해 아동 편균 연령 9.4세
The average age of victims is 9.4
2007년 아동 성폭력 1,081건 발생
In 2007, there were 1,081 cases of sexual abuse against children
아동 성폭력 , 당신의 관심만이 사전에 막을 수 있습니다
Only your concern can prevent this
모든아이가 내아이입니다
All children are my children(?)
보건복지가족부
Ministry for Health, Welfare, and Family Affairs
And for further reading I highly recommend this semi-introduction to the topic by Gord Sellar, prompted by his witnessing a mother pouring water over her son’s head to punish him for not liking his food. Alternatively, for more statistics and analysis, then I recommend most of the posts in the “youth” section of Gusts of Popular Feeling here, and Brian in Jeollanam-do has also written a lot about specific cases.
And last but not least, there is also the English section of the Ministry’s website itself, which is actually not all that bad.
The Grand Narrative 
So foreigners aren’t the only ones molesting children? Or am I the only one that repeatedly gets told that we are the ones corrupting Korean society?
…….just a question.
LikeLike
“모든 아이가 내 아이입니다” means “You should regard all childeren as my children.”
LikeLike
Thanks for the clarification.
LikeLike
The Let Go…Let Peace Come In Foundation is a newly formed nonprofit with a mission to help heal and support adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse worldwide. We are actively seeking adult survivors who would be willing to post a childhood photo and caption, their story, or their creative expressions to our website http://www.letgoletpeacecomein.org. We need to “show” the world that we will no longer be silenced and that there are enough of us to make a difference. By uniting survivors from across the globe we can help provide a stronger and more powerful voice to those survivors who have not yet found the courage to speak out. Together we can; together we should; together we NEED to stand up and be counted. Please visit our site for more details on how you can send us your submissions.
Thank you for everything you do!
Pooja Mehta
Administrative Director
Let Go…Let Peace Come In Foundation
630 W. Germantown Pike, Suite 180
Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462
LikeLike