Assemblyman Lee Byung-hoon: "National Library for Children and Young Adults Contains Many Works by Child Sexual Offenders"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] It has been confirmed that the National Library for Children and Young Adults holds numerous works by authors who have committed child sexual offenses.

According to data submitted by the National Library to Lee Byung-hoon, a member of the National Assembly (Gwangju Dong-gu Nam-gu Eul), as of the 17th, there are a total of 132 works by authors convicted of child sexual offenses registered at the National Library, which are held at the National Library for Children and Young Adults under the National Library.

These are works by a certain Mr. Han, who was indicted in 2016 on charges of sexually assaulting an elementary school student he was teaching and was sentenced in the second trial last May to 2 years and 6 months in prison with a 3-year probation.

Mr. Han’s books are exposed in the Children and Young Adults Library’s book search without any restrictions. Reservations for viewing can also be made freely.

Minors are only required to be accompanied by a guardian when viewing, but this is a general measure and not a protective action due to the author’s history of child sexual offenses. Guardians also have no way of knowing during the reservation whether the book is a work by an author convicted of child sexual offenses.

Assemblyman Lee emphasized, “It is necessary to implement effective measures that allow users, including guardians, to make informed decisions, such as at least indicating minimal criminal information in the book search results,” and added, “To protect children and adolescents, who are at a very important stage of emotional development, it is necessary to conduct a full survey to identify works by authors convicted of child sexual offenses and isolate them from children and adolescents.”

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