South Korea has a new thing about censoring music, because what about the children?

Every once in a while, a government somewhere decides that it needs to get to the business of censoring music to protect children from harmful things. The PMRC thing of the 1980s was such an overreaction. This, however, sounds worse.

There’s currently a bill before the South Korean government that would amend something called the Music Industry Promotion Act. Introduced by the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, it would force all music distributors to “pre-screen all tracks to determine whether they contain content harmful to minors before release.”

The bill says that if any song is judged to be harmful to kids and if the creator of the song is under 19, the distributor will be required to block the song from being released. If the creator is older than 19, there will have to be a notification that the song is “harmful.”

What’s “harmful?”

• Sexually explicit content
• Violent/criminal imagery
• Hate

Who will be the judge and jury? The Youth Protection Committee, which reports to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

Why now? A song with a questionable reputation found purchase with some elementary school students in Incheon. The public found out and freaked out.

The passing of the bill isn’t a sure thing–there’s plenty of opposition–but it’s a case worth watching.

More at the Korea Times.