Jo Incheol Proposes Unifying Conflicting "Korean Age" and "International Age" Standards for Movie Admission

Jo Incheol

National Assembly member Jo Incheol (Democratic Party of Korea, Gwangju Seo-gu Gap) announced on the 24th that he has sponsored a partial amendment to the Act on the Promotion of Motion Pictures and Videos. The bill seeks to integrate and adjust the age standards used for film ratings and viewing restrictions—currently based on "Korean age" for ratings and "international age" for admission—so that both are standardized to "Korean age."

Under the current law, the ratings for movies are determined based on "Korean age" and are classified as: ▲ General Audience ▲ 12 and over ▲ 15 and over ▲ Not permitted for youth ▲ Restricted screening.

However, the age criteria actually applied in theaters for admission are based on "international age."

This leads to situations where, within the same group of students in the same grade, whether a youth can watch a particular movie depends solely on the difference in their birthdays.

For example, to watch "The Man Who Lives With the King," a film rated for audiences aged 12 and over that recently surpassed 14 million viewers, a sixth-grade elementary school student who has already turned 12 according to their birthday can watch the movie alone, whereas those who have not yet had their birthday cannot do so without a guardian.

Assemblyman Jo has prepared an amendment so that those eligible to watch "12 and over" and "15 and over" rated films will include anyone who turns 12 or 15, respectively, at any point during that year, starting from January 1.

Assemblyman Jo stated, "The gap between social perceptions of age and the legal standards leads to confusion and unnecessary discrimination among peers. Through ongoing livelihood-oriented legislation, I will continue to address and improve inconveniences experienced by the public."

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