Public shaming of a child over ice cream ends in fine

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In a public shaming case in which the owner of an unmanned shop posted blurred images of an elementary school student accused of taking an ice cream without paying, a South Korean appeals court has imposed a fine on the owner.

The Incheon District Court’s Criminal Appeals Division 5-3 overturned a lower court ruling and imposed a fine of 2 million won ($1,500) on the 46-year-old shop owner, identified only by the surname Z. The court found Z guilty of child abuse under the Child Welfare Act as well as defamation.

The case stemmed from an incident on April 23, 2023, when an 8-year-old boy took a single ice cream from an unmanned store in Incheon without payment. In response, Z displayed four still images captured from closed-circuit television footage inside the shop.

The images, with the child’s face blurred, were accompanied by messages urging customers to “be people with a conscience,” according to court records.

The posting came to the child’s attention after another customer recognized him and asked whether the images depicted him. The boy then informed his parents, who paid for the ice cream on May 4.

Under South Korean law, children under the age of 10 are exempt from criminal responsibility. However, Z again posted the child’s images in the store between July and September of the same year.

In reversing the acquittal at first instance, the appellate panel concluded that the child could still have been identified by people familiar with him, noting that the store was located next to his school.

“The harm was not negligible, given the psychological distress the child later experienced, including anxiety symptoms and an adjustment disorder,” the judges said.

At the same time, the court took into account the pressures faced by operators of unmanned stores and the fact that the images were partially obscured in determining the penalty.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.