Paradox in Korea
Hundreds of restaurants, museums, cafes and other public facilities in Korea prohibit children from entering. A lawmaker is trying to wean off the policy, according to the New York Times.
South Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world, but there are hundreds of public facilities across the country designated as child ban areas.
Earlier this month, a lawmaker brought his young child to Congress and called on the government to remove policies allowing restaurants, museums, coffee shops and other facilities to prohibit children from entering.
In her speech, lawmaker Yong Hye-in of the Basic Income Party said that developing a family is getting more and more difficult in cities that ban children from certain areas. She pointed out that eliminating areas where children are prohibited and creating a society that accepts more children will help the country overcome low birth rates.
Life for a child is not easy. However, we still have to recreate a society where we can exist with our children," Yong said while holding her son in the South Korean parliament.
Last year, South Korea had a birth rate of 0.78, according to government figures. Many young couples in this country are choosing not to have children because the cost of child care and housing is increasing, there is a lack of jobs and increasingly worried about the future. For many years, the government has offered incentives such as hundreds of dollars in monthly subsidies for families with children but has not been able to properly address the demographic crisis.
There are hundreds of child- prohibited areas across South Korea. For example, the National Library of Korea prohibits anyone under 16 from entering without special permission. Recently, some other places have also sought to ban the elderly, triggering online debate.
This is the second time Ms. Yong has appeared with her son in the National Assembly of Korea. In the summer of 2021, she brought her son until he was a few weeks old. The South Korean parliament would ban anyone other than board members and authorized staff, and the parliament itself would be considered a no-child ban area.
In 2021, Ms. Yong proposed a law allowing newborns under 24 months old to enter the main premises of the legislative body. The bill has not yet been passed.
Debate is not only in Korea
The debate over where to allow children has been going on for years, not just in Korea. Angry tourists often question why airlines do not have seating areas specifically for families with young children.
Several countries, including Australia and the US, allow children into government buildings. Newborns are allowed to visit the Senate building in Washington for the first time after Sen. Tammy Duckworth arrived there to confirm a new leader of NASA in 2018. At that time, Ms. Duckworth had hugged her daughter for less than 2 weeks to a vote.
In England, Stella Creasy - a member of parliament - was fined in 2021 for taking his child to Westminster Hall in London.
Yong was born in 1990 in Bucheon, a suburb of Seoul, and became a lawmaker in 2020. In addition to eliminating areas where children are prohibited, she is also planning to propose a law allowing children and their relatives not to queue in places such as museums and amusement parks.
According to government statistics, there are nearly 3.5 million children under 10 years old in Korea and more than 11,000 public facilities designed for children to play.
The 2022 survey by Hankook Research - a Seoul-based opinion polling company - found that 73% of respondents supported child-prohibited areas while only 18% opposed and the remaining 9% of respondents had not yet decided.
Proponents of the policy say that children can cause trouble to customers. Lee Chan-hee, a technical student in Seoul who often goes to a coffee shop that prohibits children, said: I often go to the coffee shop to study, I dont want to be bothered by the crying of children.
Other reasons to support areas where children are prohibited include preventing accidents, property damage and injuries to children. Protecting the rights of small business owners is also an issue to consider.
However, efforts to remove child- prohibited areas were motivated last week when the Jeju Island Health and Welfare Commission considered abolishing child- prohibited areas across the island.
Jeju lawmakers will hold a meeting later this month to decide whether to pass the bill. If passed, it would be the first law on the subject in South Korea.
