On June 11, SM entertainment announced that it caught a girl who spread a vicious rumor about f(x)'s Sulli. However, the girl escaped from criminal punishment because SM dropped charges against her. According to SM, Sulli wanted to do so saying, "She is a school girl of my age and please make favorable arrangements for her."
Actually, Kpop stars had struggle for a long time with vicious rumors or malicious composite photos on the Internet.
In 2012, Miss A's Suzy became unfortunate victim of sexual harassment. A man uploaded a photo which sexually insults Suzy on the far-right website. JYP entertainment accused him, but after begging for JYP and Suzy's mercy for about 2 months, he could escape from criminal punishment.
Many people praised Suzy for her broad mind, but the members of a website uploaded posts which insults Suzy over and over again even after the accusation case.
Apart from Suzy, famous Kpop idol stars such as 4minute's Hyuna and Davichi's Kang Min Kyung also were hurt by cyber crime.
So, that's why I want to say that Kpop stars need to be cold hearted to punish people who spread vicious rumors or malicious composite photos on the Internet. There needs to be an exemplary punishment.
Sulli, who was born in 1994, has just become 20 years old this year. Suzy, who was also born in 1994, has gone through a lot of distress since she was a teenager because of cyber crimes. The young idol stars are just defenseless on the Internet.
The official from one Kpop agency stated, "Kpop idol stars look gorgeous on stage, but they are no better than other young people of their ages in the ordinary way. We usually tell them not to read internet replies. They can be deeply hurt by malicious cyber crimes."
Recently, Korean entertainers look that they began to take stronger actions for cyber crimes than in the past. In the end of 2013, many female entertainers who were named to the list for prostitution suspects, filed an information against people who spread the rumor.
Entertainers invest a lot of their time and money on maintaining the right image, and in this sense, they started to show aggressive attitude to accusing the offenders.
However, as you can see in the case of Sulli, the problem is that the offenders usually escape from criminal punishment in the long run.
A Kpop industry worker stated, "Kpop idols sing for the public and they clearly want the public attention. In this reason, it is not easy to give harsh punishment to somebody."
And added, "And there are times when the offenders are teenagers and they apologize and say tey are really sorry after being caught. It makes us weak hearted."
Well, nevertheless, it does not alter the fact that an exemplary punishment is needed for human rights protections, recurrence prevention and sound Internet culture.
SM, who has experienced Sulli's case, also said, "This time's withdrawal of charges is a an exceptional case," emphasizing its intention to respond firmly to cyber crimes from now on.
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