Top court upholds ruling against operator of website exposing deadbeat parents

Social Affairs

Published: 04 Jan. 2024, 18:57 Updated: 04 Jan. 2024, 19:03

Top court upholds ruling against operator of website exposing deadbeat parents

Koo Bon-chang, operator of a website that divulges the names of parents who refuse to pay child support, responds to questions from the press after the Supreme Court sentenced him guilty of defamation on Thursday. [YONHAP]

The Supreme Court upheld a guilty sentence on the operator of the Korean website formerly known as “Bad Fathers,” which divulges the names of deadbeat parents who refuse to pay child support.

The court acknowledged that the website’s operator, 61-year-old man Koo Bon-chang, meant well but still found him guilty of defaming plaintiffs — three men and two women who sued Koo in 2019 — by revealing their faces, names, ages and addresses.

His website, established in July 2018, shows the names, faces, ages, and addresses of parents who refused to pay child support, even after court orders to do so.

The requests to share the information are made by the alleged defaulters' partners, usually divorced, who are required to submit relevant documents such as divorce papers in their applications.

The website’s operators, including Koo, would then contact the alleged child support defaulters and give them a week to respond.

According to its rules and guidelines page, the website will not post the information if the defaulters present evidence of why they cannot provide child support.

The website used to be called Bad Fathers until it was renamed “Rights of Child” in October 2021. Fathers account for 80 percent of the alleged defaulters on the website.

Screen capture of the website Rights of Child, which used to be called Bad Fathers, show the faces, names, age and other information about the alleged child support defaulters on Thursday. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

According to the website operators, the website has helped at least 237 couples resolve their child support disputes by uploading information about the defaulters.

Koo was initially pronounced innocent in his first sentence.

A seven-person jury consisting of ordinary citizens unanimously ruled Koo innocent in 2020, stating that Article 70 of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection did not apply in his case.

The article stipulates that anyone who intentionally disparages the reputation of another person by disclosing information about them online can be punished by law and sentenced to up to three years in prison or fined up to 30 million won ($22,890).

“Koo did not use any expressions intended to be derogatory or defaming toward these individuals who defaulted on their child support when he posted their information online,” reads the Suwon District Court’s ruling finding Koo innocent at the time.

The plaintiffs appealed, and the Suwon High Court overturned this decision, stating that even if no slanderous or insulting expressions were used, the act of revealing personal information about the alleged defaulters was expected to hurt their social standing, hence resulting in the same effect as defamation.

Koo appealed, but the Supreme Court upheld the high court’s ruling on Thursday.

“Social problems caused by child support defaulters are a cause of public concern, but information about specific defaulters is not a matter of public concern,” said the Supreme Court in its ruling.

It added that the website’s disclosure of photos of the alleged defaulters was deemed to be detrimental to the interests of these individuals.

It doled out a suspended 1 million won fine on Koo.

In the years that Koo fought his legal battle, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family started providing the same service without revealing the defaulters' photos. Instead, the ministry shares the defaulters' names, age, occupation, and address.

After Thursday's ruling, Koo wrote on his Naver blog that many parents were already getting in touch with him voicing their concerns about the sentence's effect on their cases.

“Now try to convince me why I should pay child support," one supposed defaulter wrote to their partner on Thursday, according to Koo.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]