By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
A Korean soap opera shows an average of 1.3 drinking scenes per episode, according to recent research by the Government Youth Commission and the Korean Public Health Association.
Seven out of the 30 dramas researched had scenes where youths drank.
The commission monitored 30 soap operas aired by three main terrestrial broadcasters of KBS, MBC and SBS between July and November 2006. An episode of the soap operas had an average 1.3 scenes in which main characters drank.
Among them, 13 episodes in seven dramas showed minors drinking.
KBS' ``Husbands and Wives: Love or War'' topped the ranking with 89 scenes of drinking, followed by 144 scenes in three MBC's dramas, ``One Fine Day,'' ``Hello, Fox,'' and ``90 Days to Love,'' and 33 scenes in KBS' Drama City.
Compared to the commission's previous research on dramas during the first half of 2006, the number of drinking scenes per episode increased from 0.15 to 1.3, and that of episodes featuring youths drinking also rose from nine to 13.
According to the Broadcasting Act and Regulations, broadcasters should not depict scenes in which children and teenagers smoke or drink. If such scenes are essential to the context, they should take a cautious attitude.
``Soap operas broadcast on national media are very influential in people's lives. Thus, drinking scenes on television can encourage youth to drink. It was also reported that youth develop positive associations with drinking when their favorite stars drink in movies or dramas,'' Jeon Sang-hyuk, official of the commission said.
``The ratio of youths who drink is rapidly increasing, along with a growing number of accidents involving drunken students. Selling alcohol to minors is also banned. In this situation, it is wrong for broadcasters, especially public broadcasting companies KBS and MBC, to present scenes of youths drinking continuously,'' he said.
While civic groups urge broadcasters not to air scenes of youths drinking, a member of the Korean Broadcasting Commission's content review and evaluation department said most such scenes are shown as they are necessary in the whole context.
``For example, soap operas about teenagers sometimes need to show such scenes when describing students' delinquency. If those scenes have gone too far, they would have become a social issue. But so far, there haven't been such cases,'' he said.