SEVENTEEN‘s Jun has received mixed reactions for a comment he made to a child that was deemed “inappropriate” during a recent video.
SEVENTEEN’s Jun | @junhui_moon/Instagram
On October 25, Jun and Wonwoo appeared in a video for ODG. In the video, they pretended to be the same age as children and chatted with them like they were friends.
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During the video, Jun asked the boy if he liked any celebrities and he replied BTS. When asked about his favorite song, the young boy explained that he liked “Dynamite.”
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After hearing his reaction, Jun responded that he preferred some of BTS’s darker songs, including “Blood, Sweat & Tears,” explaining that he liked the “sexy” feel of it.
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Trying to stay in the concept of being the same age, Jun then added, “We’re 11 years old. We can do sexy things now.”
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When the child didn’t seem to agree with Jun’s thoughts, the idol instantly apologized.
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When the account posted the video, it quickly caught the attention of fans from many fandoms and was full of negative reactions to the comment, with many netizens calling Jun out for the inappropriate comment. In particular, there were some netizens using some serious words to describe their reactions.
????? pic.twitter.com/ZsYXMrc3V1
— Mu⁷ (@130613fate) October 25, 2023
Yet, some fans wanted to share that words shouldn’t be thrown about without taking the full video into consideration.
While acknowledging that what he said might not have been appropriate, they pointed out that he did apologize, and it wouldn’t have been done in a malicious way to warrant such awful reactions.
yeah what jun said was completely inappropriate given that he was talking to a literal child and yes u obviously should never make jokes like that to an 11 year old but can we please stop throwing around the words p3do and gr00ming like that’s blowing it way out of proportion
— rae (@kentohao) October 26, 2023
i watched the whole video and not just the 35 second clip, junhui immediately realized what he did wrong and apologized right away. and if you’ve been a fan of him you’d know how he actually treats kids. he’s not the gr00mer you all want to him to be for your hate train.
— shi (@huikaw_) October 26, 2023
my two cents on this is that jun should be held accountable. what he did was wrong and although he tends to speak and ramble often forgetting to read the room this goes beyond that because it involved a child and making the kid uncomfortable. what he isn’t tho is a gr00mer that
— vee (@soobyoungs) October 26, 2023
what jun said was incredibly dumb and inappropriate and disturbing and he deserves to be called out but in no way is he a gr00mer can yall please stop throwing words around without knowing their actual meaning
— ۟ (@wonnnwoo) October 26, 2023
Was what Jun said inappropriate? No, I dont think so.
Did he have to say that? No.
Did it make the kid uncomfortable? It clearly looks like it.
Did he sense that the kid was uncomfortable? check the video
Did he apologize? check the videopic.twitter.com/kj14Kwuf33
— 𝖘;𝖈𝖔𝖚𝖙 𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪 (@ocean_oreo5806) October 26, 2023
Others also acknowledged the fact that ODG would not have released the video if there was anything said that was deemed inappropriate.
There was also a narrative that Jun might have meant something different with his wording, which might not have come across in the video with the choice of words to a native English speaker.
actually that word “섹시“ has an entirely different meaning in korean like it means “dark concept” and is commonly used on broadcasts so it has no direct sexual connotation at all.. u guys went too far for calling him names, leave him alone.
— tasha (@gyuldaen) October 26, 2023
Do u guys actually think that O D G, the channel that mainly works with children , would upload the vid on the internet if they think it was an “issue” ? https://t.co/t0QE5OZWeg
— .⑰ (@woncurlywoo) October 26, 2023
A carat on discord said that the word “seksi” in Korean has a different connotation from “sexy” in English, that’s why the production let it be broadcast, that it would mean sth opposite from “bright”, so by seksi concept would be dark +
— Thi (fan account) – Seventeenth Heaven (@Mybluekitty1) October 26, 2023
Jun is known for being nothing but a gentleman to everyone he meets. After the child’s reaction to the comment, Jun knew it was wrong and that the child did not react as positively as he wanted. Yet, netizens wanted to acknowledge that it was the wrong wording but that Jun didn’t deserve such malicious hate.
