Kids Cafes and PC Rooms Put Children's Health at Risk... Urgent Need for Improvement

579 Violations Detected Over 5 Years... Most Due to "Failure to Complete Hygiene Education"
Jin Jinsook: "Hygiene Blind Spots... Government and Local Authorities Must Strengthen Supervision"

Jin Jinsuk, member of the Democratic Party of Korea.

Cases of violations of the Food Sanitation Act are being repeated every year at kids cafes and PC rooms, which are major leisure spaces for children and adolescents, threatening their health. In particular, it has been revealed that the majority of violations involve operators failing to complete the mandatory hygiene education, turning spaces that should be safe for children and adolescents into hygiene blind spots.

According to data submitted by Jin Jinsook, member of the Democratic Party of Korea (Gwangju Buk-gu Eul), to the National Assembly’s audit from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on September 25, there have been a total of 579 violations of the Food Sanitation Act at kids cafes and PC rooms over the past five years.

By type of violation, at kids cafes, “failure to complete hygiene education” was the most common with 70 cases, followed by failure to conduct health checkups (15 cases), violation of operator compliance requirements (9 cases), and violation of hygienic handling standards (9 cases). At PC rooms, “failure to complete hygiene education” was overwhelmingly the most common with 293 cases, followed by failure to conduct health checkups (65 cases), violation of operator compliance requirements (51 cases), and violation of hygienic handling standards (34 cases), showing that basic hygiene management is severely lacking.

This shows that even the most basic responsibility of establishments handling food-completing hygiene education-is not being fulfilled, resulting in alarmingly low hygiene standards at these sites. The fact that basic hygiene rules are ignored in spaces where children and adolescents, who have weaker immune systems than adults, spend long hours, can directly threaten their health. This is not merely an administrative issue, but is tantamount to neglecting the health and safety of future generations.

Jin Jinsook stated, “Cases of hygiene violations are repeated every year, and the reality that even basic hygiene education is not being implemented at facilities used by children must be improved,” adding, “The government and local authorities must thoroughly manage and supervise these facilities to eliminate hygiene blind spots.”