Human Rights Commission: "Regulating ATV Experience Age Differently by Gender Is Discrimination"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] The National Human Rights Commission announced on the 6th that it recommended the improvement of operational regulations to the representative of an experience business site that sets different age limits for solo driving of all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) based on gender.

The complainant claimed that last year, while trying to experience ATV riding at a travel destination, the company restricted the age to under 65 for men and under 50 for women, preventing the experience, and filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission requesting the elimination of discrimination based on gender.

In response, the company stated, "Based on cases of incidents and accidents during business operations, we set the age limit of 65 according to the Elderly Welfare Act, and for women, we established our own standards considering average physical strength and attention awareness," adding, "From experience, the accident rate is higher among women, and since women cannot drive well, we set age and gender restrictions, so this is not gender discrimination."

However, the Human Rights Commission judged that the company did not have specific supporting data such as user status or accident occurrence numbers by gender, and when referring to ATV accident statistics, there was insufficient likelihood to consider that accidents caused by women occur particularly frequently only in leisure-type ATVs.

Furthermore, the Commission noted that the risks during the ATV experience process can be influenced by various factors such as driving environment, presence of safety devices, driver’s physical strength, and driving ability, but these are individual characteristics of the driver and cannot be regarded as essential attributes based on gender.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.