With the Korean music industry still reeling from the TVXQ vs SM Entertainment lawsuit, there was news today that new girl group, T-ara have been barred from using their own mobile phones by their company recently.
T-ara expressed on the 10th, "After discussions with our company (Mnet Media), we have voluntarily handed in our mobile phones to them. If there's any urgent matter, we will borrow our manager's mobile phone." With mobile phones very much an essential part of a young girl's lifestyle, is the management company going too far with this action?
With regards to this, their manager said, "Not just their mobile phones, we are also restricting their time on the internet. We felt that malicious postings against them on the internet will affect their daily training." He added, "More than 80% of the comments posted by netizens are hateful remarks towards individual members. These hateful remarks does nothing useful, and will just make them feel depressed, etc. So we decided on this after consultation with all the members and got their consent."
Weeks before their debut, T-ara would hand over their mobile phones when they wake up at 6am. It will then be returned to them once training is over at night. But the company felt that text messaging by the members were affecting their sleep time, so they decided to raise the bar and take away their mobile phones for a period of time instead.
Their manager ended by saying, "This is nothing new. Others like Lee Seung Gi and F.T Island also didn't have mobile phones when they just debuted. Not just Tara, it's the same with many idol groups. There are of course some instances where certain members would secretly use their mobile phone without the company's notice. This is where I and the innocent members would start "hunting" them down."
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