By Kang Seung-woo
The government is set to ban online video advertising of mail order brides that have been under fire for violating the human rights of foreign women.
Most of the nation's matchmaking firms broker marriages between Korean men with women from Southeast Asian countries.
According to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Monday, it will initiate an inspection of all types of video advertising by brokers that are posted on YouTube, blogs and internet cafes as well as their own websites by July 20.
The ministry will check whether ads possibly discriminate or create prejudice against foreign women, depending on nationality, race, gender, age and jobs; whether they may lead to human trafficking or infringe on human rights; and whether they observe the relevant laws banning applicants' personal information from being circulated online without their consent.
The government action comes as critics claim that local marriage brokers are promoting their business, describing women as if they are sexual objects, disclosing excessive personal information of foreign women and using discriminative and misogynistic expressions -- all of which infringes on the human rights of the women.
The ministry had previously instructed matchmakers to make the appropriate changes, and the upcoming inspection is a follow-up measure to ensure they complied.
So far, the government had mainly been monitoring the websites of the brokers, but now all online video advertising by them will be under review.
The ministry intends to order matchmaking firms whose online ads violate the law to delete them immediately, otherwise, it will revoke their registration and file criminal charges against them.
“The international marriage brokers' illegal video advertising is heavily damaging the nation's reputation and creating negative perceptions about multicultural families, with the latter causing problems in the community, so we have stepped up efforts to check and correct them,” said an official of the gender equality ministry.
“In the future, the ministry plans to inspect online video ads of international marriage brokers on a regular basis and educate them on how to make appropriate ones.”
According to government data, interracial marriages fell 8 percent year-on-year to 21,700 in 2016.
They accounted for 7.7 percent of the country's total marriages of 281,000, slightly up from the 7.4 percent tallied in the previous year.