"Started for Good Communication but Gave Up"… BJ Quits Broadcasting Due to 'Verbal Abuse Terror'

Humiliation from Power Abuse Under the Guise of Sponsorship
Harboring Grudge Over 'Blocking' Leads to Family Murder

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] "It's hard to endure expressions that personally humiliate you."

A (40), who has been broadcasting game-related content on AfreecaTV. He lived as a BJ after work for over three years but eventually quit due to viewers' abusive language. He started as a BJ because he enjoyed communicating while broadcasting, but as the number of viewers increased from dozens to hundreds, some began to spew abusive language or send chats that insulted his character. He said, "There were also many cases of power harassment, such as making me eat strange food after donations and demanding refunds," adding, "The broadcasts were fun and the income was not bad, so I wanted to continue as a BJ, but it was hard to overcome the stress caused by verbal abuse like appearance insults."

BJs conducting personal internet broadcasts are suffering due to viewers' abusive language and excessive power harassment.

B (32), who has been broadcasting online for over four years, also suffered from abusive and derogatory remarks. B said, "Many people would curse as soon as they entered the broadcast or make comments that could cause shame, like saying 'your voice is not good,'" adding, "I know the perception of BJs is bad, but it's wrong to start with abusive language without any reason." Although he could forcibly remove viewers, there were many times he couldn't do so easily because others would protest, asking "Why did you remove them?"

A man in his 30s who killed a real estate agent in his 50s in Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul, and then committed suicide, was reportedly blocked after repeatedly abusing the victim's daughter, who was a game broadcaster on AfreecaTV. It was also found that he threatened to harm the family out of resentment after being blocked on other broadcasters' streams as well. Even after the incident, some viewers left posts mixing ridicule and criticism. One person even posted as if the victim's daughter was the cause of the incident, saying, "Getting kicked out is really infuriating. She unilaterally curses and kicks out viewers as a BJ. She even gave warnings."

Experts explain that improving viewing culture is necessary to reduce abusive language and power harassment toward BJs. Professor Yoo Hong-sik of the Department of Media Communication at Chung-Ang University said, "The most practical and fastest way to improve internet broadcast chat culture is to provide education on human rights respect before viewing and to display phrases that raise awareness of this," adding, "Internet broadcasting platforms also need to make additional efforts to block bad viewers through monitoring."

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