Last January 28th, the Electrical Appliances and Consumer Products Safety Control Act(Jeon-an Law), which states that certain goods are mandated to have the Korea Certification mark (KC mark), came into effect. The Korea Certification mark is a guarantee that the products are made of harmless materials and are safe enough to maintain resilience and durability. The certification system took effect in 2009. As a result, the existing 13 different mandatory certification marks were integrated into the KC mark in 2009.
  The Jeon-an Law is the law that combines the Electric Appliances Safety Control Act and the Consumer Products Safety Control Act. Products which had been affected under each law respectively now need only one integrated certification, and no new products were added to the list.
  However, as soon as the Jeon-an Law came into effect on Jan. 28th, the enforcement of the law was postponed until next January 1st because of the strong disagreement of citizens and merchants. The reason for their disagreement was that the merchants would have to spend too much money to receive the KC mark, and if they don’t receive the mark, they would not only be forbidden to manufacture or sell, but they would also have to pay a fine of five million won. However, this delay of enforcement has also been criticized because the postponed law is applicable to only 41 kinds of products that the government has designated, and even those products will also have to go through the certification process in the long run.
  Another problem of the Jeon-an Law is the vagueness of its process of execution. The Jeon-an Law passed on Jan. 26th and was executed on Jan. 28th, but there were no public discussions or details disclosed during its progress. Even though protests of citizens and merchants were expected, there was no public hearing, so the public backlash has become strong.
  The biggest victims of the Jeon-an Law are merchants. Unlike major companies that have already been receiving the KC mark, retail dealers and petty merchants have to receive the mark individually; yet the costs are too expensive to the individuals. The certification fee for one product is about 70~80 thousand won on average, but the merchants have to certify every model and color of a product, which can cost over millions of won, so it is hard for retail dealers to afford it.
  Moreover, people who work as purchasing agents or distributors are required to pay for the certification fee. Regarding the law, Jo Sun-yeong(’16, ‘Dept. of Civil Engineering), who had managed a blog market, said, “I wonder if it is necessary to mandate a certification that threatens merchants’ livelihoods. Nowadays, the government encourages the youth to found start-ups, but I think they should consider that the Jeon-an Law can limit that kind of creation. I think that this law will increase the gap between the rich and poor.”
  Until next January 1st, improvements on Jeon-an methodology and the support of the government will be under great public scrutiny. First of all, the law should designate specific items. The other products that will be excluded from requiring the KC mark are important to merchants and consumers. In addition, stating clearly which aspect of a product needs to be certificated will ease people’s burdens. Extended support for petty merchants is required as well: it is necessary to give financial or institutional support to petty merchants who have to pay high expenses to agencies for receiving the certification, unlike major companies.
  In a bid to oppose the Jeon-an Law, some people have gathered signatures, and other movements are taking place. Before the enforcement, through discussions with citizens by holding public hearings and by complementing the details of the law, the law has to convey its meaning as well as protect the people’s well-being.





  Choi Ji-su(’15, School of Business) said, “I watch personal broadcast videos every day for 2 hours. Particularly, when I have free time and have nothing to do, I used to seek them out. I have mainly watched programs about beauty, fashion or creators’ daily lives, all of which I find interesting. Since I can kill time and learn about new things through those videos, I keep watching them. Now, I feel like something is missing if I don’t watch those videos because I’ve become accustomed to it.” She was talking about personal broadcasting, not a drama or other TV and radio programs. It was about personal broadcasting, which started in Korea in 2005 when UCC was in vogue.
  The themes of personal broadcasting are much more varied than we think, such as beauty, games and food, and the age group of the viewers is also diverse. Kim Mi-ji(’14, the Dept. of Philosophy) said, “My four-year-old niece likes watching the program ‘Carrie and Toys’, which is a YouTube channel. This program targets children aged from 3 to 9.  In the program, Carrie, a broadcaster, introduces children’s toys. My aunt also likes this video and allows her daughter to watch it.”  The viewers of personal broadcasting are not only teenagers or twentysomethings but also children. This implies that children’s toys, which are not mainstream in TV shows, also can be a theme in this medium.
  However, we should be aware that there are viewers from a wide range of ages who watch personal broadcasting. A survey, which was conducted by Nasmedia Co., Ltd., showed that 16.9% of people had watched individual broadcasting, and teenagers occupied 35.1% of the above result. According to a survey by the TV program named PD Notebook, which was broadcast in April 2016, it showed that 92.3% of adolescents know about personal broadcasting. The largest part of the individual broadcasting’s viewers is composed of teenagers. Thus, this can be a problem when adolescents watch videos about strong violence or sexuality.
  This implies that personal broadcasting needs stricter censorship. However, one manager of the AfreecaTV Corp. said on the program named PD Notebook that they try to monitor all footage, but it is difficult to monitor all videos carefully because a large amount of videos are broadcast at the same time. Even though some broadcasters who have acted more and more violently or sexually have provoked criticism, no restriction has been implemented yet.
  Cheol-gu, a famous personal broadcaster who has been caught up in several controversies, was permanently thrown out from AfreecaTV because of massive criticism over videos imitating sexual assaults. However, he returned to AfreecaTV with the help of the ‘comeback event’ held on Aug.15th. Later, he was kicked out again because of the incidents of his spraying soy sauce on two middle school students and advertising illegal private gambling in his videos. However, he returned again thanks to an event held by AfreecaTV. In addition to Cheol-gu, there are more broadcasters who were thrown out from broadcasting companies and then came back later. These events show that there aren’t enough punishments or restrictions in the personal broadcasting industry.
  We can’t deny that the personal broadcasting gives lots of benefits to the existing media culture. However, weaknesses still exist and can cause some serious problems. The Korean media industry will grow when the personal broadcasting keeps stricter censorship in accordance with the people’s needs and proper policy.