[News Terms] 4 Years and 8 Months of Controversy Over 'Child Support Nonpayment Disclosure', 'Bad Fathers'

'Bad Fathers' is a website that publicly discloses the personal information of parents who do not pay child support. It was established with the purpose of enforcing child support payments by revealing the faces, occupations, addresses, and other personal details of these parents. The organization's management operates anonymously and privately, but for external communication, CEO Koo Bon-chang is publicly active.

Since the site's launch in July 2018, there has been significant controversy over private sanctions, but Bad Fathers has consistently disclosed the personal information of such parents, arguing that "the child's right to survival should take precedence over the parent's portrait rights." They emphasize that child support is a legal right of caregivers and that disclosing personal information is done from the perspective of the victim's right to defense.

Koo Bon-chang, CEO of Bad Fathers

The impact was substantial. Over about three years after the site’s launch, around 900 cases of unpaid child support were enforced. In July 2021, the Act on the Enforcement and Support of Child Support (Child Support Enforcement Act) was also enacted. The core of this law is the disclosure of the personal information of non-payers and the establishment of penalties allowing up to one year imprisonment or fines up to 10 million won. After the enforcement of the Child Support Enforcement Act, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family also began publicly disclosing the personal information of parents who fail to pay child support. Consequently, Bad Fathers voluntarily shut down the site in October 2021, stating that "there is no longer a justification to operate the site."

However, when the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family’s disclosure failed to achieve effectiveness, Bad Fathers changed its name to ‘People Solving Child Support’ (Yanghaedeul) in February 2022 and reopened the website.

As the site’s influence grew, controversy over private sanctions intensified. The reason was that private sanctions involving the disclosure of personal information by civilians rather than public authorities were considered undesirable. Amid these controversies, in May 2019, five individuals whose personal information was disclosed on Bad Fathers filed defamation charges against CEO Koo. The prosecution filed a summary indictment with a fine of 3 million won, citing issues such as the disclosure of real names and photos, but the court referred the case to a formal trial, stating the need to properly examine the matter.

In January 2020, the first trial, conducted as a citizen participation trial, resulted in a not guilty verdict. The trial court accepted the unanimous not guilty opinion of seven jurors, stating, "Failure to pay child support threatens the child's right to survival and has a special nature different from simple monetary debt," and "The purpose of Bad Fathers' activities can be considered for the public interest."

However, the verdict was overturned in the second trial. The appellate court stated, "It is necessary to be cautious when damaging another person's reputation as a private sanction without following legally permitted procedures." However, considering mitigating circumstances, the court suspended the imposition of a 1 million won fine.

On the 4th, the Supreme Court upheld the appellate court’s judgment, confirming the guilty verdict. While Bad Fathers contributed to public opinion formation on the public issue of unpaid child support, the Supreme Court judged that the extent of infringing the victim’s rights as a form of private sanction was significant.

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