Korea remains unhappy country for children

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

National

Sun, October 1, 2023 | 03:33

Society

Korea remains unhappy country for children

Posted : 2022-05-05 08:55

Updated : 2022-05-05 16:52

A child points at messages written by students at Boramae Elementary School during a class event at the school in Dongjak District, Seoul, Wednesday, a day before the 100th anniversary of Children's Day. Yonhap

By Nam Hyun-woo

Korea is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of Children's Day in the country, Thursday, but it appears that children here are not as happy as adults.

National Human Rights Commission of Korea Chairperson Song Doo-hwan issued a statement on Wednesday and criticized the quality of life and lack of happiness of Korean children.

"Korea has been commemorating Children's Day for a century but the quality of life and happiness felt by children remains at a worrisome level," Song said. "One of the reasons behind this is the lack of social awareness that children are independent individuals like adults."

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According to a survey by the Korea Bang Jeong-hwan Foundation, Korean children's subjective happiness index stood at 79.5 points last year, being placed at the bottom of 22 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Leading the pack were the children of the Netherland scoring 115.21 points.

In a 2018 Ministry of Health and Welfare survey on children's life satisfaction, Korea scored 6.57 points out of 10, which was the lowest among all OECD members.

In the report, 70.4 percent of surveyed children and teenagers aged between 9 and 17 said they "always lack time because of school assignments and other studies." Of them, 16 percent said "they feel a great deal of stress every day," citing homework and tests as reasons.

A woman walks past photos of Jung-in, a 16-month-old baby girl who was killed in 2020 as a result of abuse by her adoptive mother, near the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office in Seoul, April 28. Yonhap

Along with hardships from daily life, the surge in crimes targeting children is also lowering children's quality of life here.

A separate report by the welfare ministry showed that the number of child abuse cases in the country stood at 30,905 in 2020, growing nearly two-fold from 18,700 in 2016. The number of crime suspects who face charges relating to distributing child pornography also more than doubled to 2,851 in 2020 from 1,143 in 2018.

In recent years, hideous crimes against children have shocked the country, including the case of Jung-in, a 16-month-old baby who was abused and finally killed by her adoptive parents.

The Supreme Court upheld a 35-year prison term for the adoptive mother, which was eased from a district court's life sentence ruling. While handing down the eased sentence, the top court noted that "society is also responsible for this inhumane crime."

To counter child abuse, the incoming Yoon Suk-yeol government plans to set up unified family courts which will be in charge of hearing cases of child abuse, juvenile crimes and other family issues, pledging staunch punishments for perpetrators.

However, calls are growing that harsher punitive measures may not be enough to protect children from abuse and crime if society's overall awareness of children's rights does not improve.

"Children's Day was proclaimed to reaffirm that children should be respected as independent human beings," Song said. "We should remember the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which stated children should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding."

Korea has been celebrating Children's Day since 1922, when Bang Jeong-hwan, a children's rights activist, first proclaimed May 1 as Children's Day. Since Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, the country has been celebrating May 5 as Children's Day.

namhw@koreatimes.co.kr