04-07-2025
Is it time for Korea to outlaw leaving children home alone?
Legal expert says law needed not for punishment, but to prevent tragedies
A recent wave of deadly house fires involving children left home alone has reignited discussions in South Korea about introducing laws to prevent such tragedies.
Two young sisters, aged 8 and 6, were killed in a fire that broke out in a sixth-floor apartment in Gijang-gun, Busan, at around 10:58 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Busan Fire Services.
Authorities believe the fire began with an electrical malfunction near a standing air conditioner in the living room.
The sisters died in the fire while their parents were out working at their restaurant late at night.
The tragedy left the neighborhood in shock.
'Everyone knows the family. The parents have been running a restaurant here for years. My heart aches when I think about those little girls trapped in the fire. They were just trying to make ends meet, like any other parents,' said Kim Hyun-ok, 45, who lives in the same apartment building, in an interview with a local news outlet.
Wednesday's fire came just nine days after a similar tragedy in the same city, where two sisters, aged 10 and 7, died while sleeping alone in their apartment.
The incident occurred around 4:15 a.m. on June 24 on the fourth floor of an apartment building. Their parents, who worked as cleaners, had already left for their early morning shifts.
Four months earlier, on Feb. 26, a 12-year-old girl lost her life in a blaze at a villa in Seo-gu, Incheon.
The fire broke out around 10:43 a.m. while her father was at the hospital for dialysis treatment, and her mother had gone to work at a restaurant.
Growing calls for legal protection
Home is no longer a safe place for children left unattended.
Out of the 108,759 child safety incidents reported between 2021 and 2023, nearly half (50,906) took place at home, according to the National Fire Agency, far outnumbering the 9,515 cases that occurred in schools, according to the National Fire Agency.
But many children are left home alone after school, waiting for parents who are out working.
According to a 2020 survey by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, 23.1 percent of elementary school students nationwide spent time alone at home after school. The survey was conducted among 5,050 parents.
There is no existing legislation in South Korea that bans parents from leaving their children at home alone, but a recent string of fire accidents has reignited demands for such a law.
"Korean society has long treated the reality of children being left home alone as unavoidable, often putting the burden of earning a living ahead of child safety. But recent tragedies force us to ask: Should making a living ever come before a child's life?" said Choi Seo-jeong, a 27-year-old graduate student in Seoul.
In the United States, leaving a child alone is considered a form of child neglect and is legally prohibited. For instance, in Maryland, it is illegal to leave a child under the age of 8 unattended, while Illinois prohibits leaving children under 14 alone. If a child left alone is injured or killed in a fire or other accident, the parent may face criminal charges.
Some local legal experts support the idea of similar legislation here, not to punish parents after accidents, but to prevent such tragedies from happening in the first place.
'The law should clearly define the age below which children cannot be left home alone, and that definition needs to consider differences in maturity and development,' Jeon Min-kyung, an attorney at the law firm Onyul, told The Korea Herald.
She also stressed the importance of including exceptions in the law, especially for vulnerable families such as single mothers or households where grandparents are primary caregivera, saying "Without thoughtful exemptions, the law could end up hurting the very families it's meant to protect.'
'If a law mandating that children not be left alone is introduced with specific and reasonable conditions, it could help expand public support systems like nighttime or weekend child care services," she added.
