The lucrative business of the K-pop entertainment industry has seen its fair share of young trainees, as intake for idol training starts as early as 14 years old. With calls for the protection of minors in the industry out of fear of being exploited, where does the line draw between artistic vision and age-appropriate content?
P Nation’s new girl group, Baby DONT Cry (베이비 돈 크라이), has sparked criticism among netizens for their new debut single “F Girl” teaser due to its sexually related themes involving the group’s underage members. Posted yesterday (19th June 2025), the 22-second teaser shows the members in a convenience store purchasing what appears to be a candy wrapper, stylised to resemble a condom.
The group consists of members Yihyun (이현, 19 years old), Kumi (쿠미, 17 years old), Mia (미아, 17 years old), and Beni (베니, 16 years old). As such, the soft play on sexual themes has sparked discourse about age-appropriate content for younger idols. Reportedly, i-dle’s Soyeon (소연) was credited to have produced, written and composed “F Girl”.
Netizens called out the teaser track with Twitter user @/hallojisso commenting, “[The] quotes saying, ‘the pervert is you’ when that candy is very obviously a condom, the song is called ‘F Girl’ and they’re using a cherry as a logo”. Despite the majority of criticism, some netizens have also come out to defend Soyeon and the Baby DONT Cry members, mentioning how the song was approved by KBS and it’s a play on feminism. Twitter user @/ane_bnh comments, “I think they’re hinting at dirty thoughts about the palace, like the song Nxde, that’s why she opened the candy and ate it, as if she’s saying, ‘I’m not what you’re thinking.’ I think the song is feminist”.
Despite not releasing the full music video yet, PSY’s first girl group is already under fire for the allegedly inappropriate concept. Could this be a marketing strategy to hype up the group’s debut single album?
Watch the full teaser here:
Sources: Youtube, Twitter, Kpop Fandom Wiki
Alyssa Gabrielle contributed to this article
