After many tragic new articles the past few years of artists taking their lives, and with news of mistreatment in the industry, fans have taken action into their own hands to demand better treatment for Korean idols and trainees.

Currently the petition is looking for at least 100 signatures, and is aimed to be sent to Korea Entertainment Management Association, and the Korea Fair Trade Commission. The petitions claims to be fighting for physical health, mental health, and workers rights for all idols and trainees.

You can find the petition here and read the full petition claim below.

"Four young K-pop Idols have taken their own lives in less than two years. Let's join together to prevent another death and honor the lives of Jonghyun, Sulli, Goo Hara, and Cha In-ha.

K-pop is a music industry from Korea notorious for its gorgeous performers, synchronized dance routines, and catchy music production. However, the industry is far less appealing behind the camera. In 2019, young boys from the group TRNCG sued their company, TS Entertainment, for child abuse after a choreography beat a member with a metal chair.

Trainees and idols often lead difficult lives full of intense training and little autonomy. We ask you (fans or people concerned for young people's wellbeing) to call for the more humane treatment of these performers. This petition will support solutions for three issues: physical health, mental health, and workers' rights.

PHYSICAL HEALTH: Kpop companies overwork their idols and trainees, sometimes to unconsciousness, and put idols on strict diets that create serious health risks. Our solution is requiring idols and trainees to complete medical evaluations each month by professionals. We also believe no trainees or idols should have a healthy Body Mass Index lower than 18 BMI (considered underweight).

WORKERS RIGHTS: Kpop idols and trainees have very little control over their own lives. They have cited abuse, sign 7-year “slave contracts,” are banned from dating, work up to 16 hours a day, and many start as young as 9 years old. Our solution is to raise the minimum age of trainees to 13 years old, strong background checks on employees, a bi-annual discussion of the contract by the performers, strongly enforcing Korea's 52-hour work-week, and offering a way for trainees and idols to anonymously report incidents of abuse to the management.

MENTAL HEALTH: Imagine growing up in a country with extremely high suicide rates and also having the pressures of being a young celebrity. This is what idols face on a daily basis. Furthermore, very few companies have quality mental health services for their performers. Our solution is to require psychiatric health exams every month for trainees and idols, provide performers with a therapist and psychiatric care if they are suffering from mental health issues, and encourage policies that take legal action against particularly malicious incidents of cyberbullying.

Lack of mental health services, physical mistreatment, and slave-like management are all factors contributing to the rising number of suicides by Kpop idols. If fans hope to prevent more suicides by idols, then the Kpop industry must fundamentally change. 

Please join us!"

What are your thoughts on this petition?