[C/W - Content Warning]
The MBC program 'Oh Eun Young's Report Season 2: Marriage Hell' (from hereon 'Marriage Hell') decided to delete controversial scenes from their 20th episode.
According to Xports News on December 20, MBC's 'Marriage Hell' has removed the controversial scenes from the 20th episode from OTT platforms where viewers can rewatch the show.
In the 20th episode that aired on December 19, a couple appeared on the show concerned about the growing conflict over raising their 7-year-old daughter. The wife, who had a 7-year-old daughter with her ex-husband, remarried and started a family with her current husband. Her daughter was seen still calling her stepdad "Uncle."
The problematic scenes were the ones that showed excessive body contact between the stepfather and the stepdaughter. In one scene, the stepfather is seen playing with the stepdaughter by hugging and tickling her and poking her butt while playing "doctor" and pretending to give her a shot.
In the scenes, the daughter is heard clearly expressing that she does not want to engage in physical play, but the stepfather is seen continuing to touch his stepdaughter.
On top of that, the wife even reported her husband for child abuse and explained, "It's really agonizing for me. People might think it's just playing, but it really makes me distressed to hear my child saying, 'Mom, help me.'"
After seeing the interaction between the stepfather and stepdaughter, Dr. Oh Eun Young explained, "I always teach children not to touch other people in areas around their underwear or show what's underneath their underwear. I advise parents not to directly touch the genitals of children of the opposite sex when they are over the age of five, as this symbolically demonstrates respect for the child."
Nevertheless, many viewers expressed their discomfort, and MBC decided to take down the scenes. Netizens criticized that it is child abuse since the child clearly expressed that she did not want to engage in physical play.
Netizens commented, "They can send this episode (to the police) as evidence," "I was perplexed why he kept forcefully putting the girl between his legs even after she said she doesn't want to play anymore," "His hand is in a weird place too," "I was watching the show with my mom and younger brother yesterday, and we were all saying that man is crazy because he keeps touching the girl's body when she doesn't like it," "Who decided this was ok to broadcast?" and "It doesn't matter if the child is a girl. Because even if the child is a boy and he doesn't like being touched on his butt and the stepfather keeps touching there, it's sexual harassment."
Me starting to read the article, thinking that maybe they were just playing normally and other people were sexualizing it, but then finding out that the girl clearly didn't want to be touched by this guy and even begged her mom to step in