Under the campaign name “Seoul Kids OK Zone,” an increasing number of restaurants and cafes in Seoul are declaring themselves child-friendly by joining a campaign, led by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, to expand facilities accepting customers with toddlers or young children.
The campaign began last September when the city government started accepting applications from private businesses in the food and beverage industry interested in helping the city’s initiative by serving children and their parents.
According to the Happy Parenting Division under the government’s Women and Family Policy Affairs Office, the campaign went viral and ended up designating 349 businesses in just one month. With additional applicants rolling in, a total of 504 businesses have earned the designation as of Tuesday. The businesses include 258 Korean restaurants, 78 hamburger and other fast foods joints, 59 cafes, 43 Chinese restaurants and 36 Western restaurants.
There are basic requirements to qualify as a Seoul Kids OK Zone.
The establishment’s floor area should be at least 80 square meters. Its menu should include food and beverages that children can enjoy and there should be utensils, dishes and furniture of a suitable size for young children to use. Businesses meeting with those conditions can apply for the designation at a local district office. The government then inspects the premises and, if all the conditions are met, registers the designation.
Some businesses went beyond the basic requirements to better cater to families by covering tabletops with paper and crayons so young patrons can draw at their tables while waiting for their meals and opening outdoor play areas for children, while some have built indoor playgrounds with slides and jungle gyms adjacent to dining areas.
The campaign is satisfying both patrons and business owners. Parents are content knowing there are places to dine without having to worry about their children disturbing other patrons.
One relieved parent who visited a child-friendly designated restaurant in central Seoul’s Yongsan District said her child used to watch videos on a smartphone as a distraction while waiting for food, but didn’t ask for the phone this time and instead drew on the paper tablecloth. Some business owners also said their revenues increased after their establishments became a haven for parents to visit with their children.
Entrepreneurs who register their businesses as Seoul Kids OK Zones said they empathized with parents who couldn’t access some businesses. Other business operators said child-free zones fail to place the appropriate value of children, in a country where the fertility rate is one of the worst in the world.
One of the reasons behind the rising emergence of child-free zones in the country was that an increasing number of business owners didn’t want to be held responsible for accidents involving child patrons inside their establishments. Putting up a sign that bans children ― and effectively their parents as well ― at least appeared as a legitimate reason for “concerned” owners.
But the rise of the Seoul Kids OK Zones throughout the city could indicate that entrepreneurs concerned about rowdy young patrons are on the decline while giving a reciprocal boost to the number of those who are happy to accept children on their premises. The rising number of child-friendly entrepreneurs said many children nowadays are more disciplined and well-mannered when outside their homes than before.
Another merit to signing up for the Seoul Kids OK Zone is that businesses can receive distinguished tags on the Smart Seoul Map, an online city map that shows categorized locations based on user preferences. Business owners said this feature gives them more public exposure and thus drew more customers.
Kim Seon-sun, head of the Women and Family Policy Affairs Office, said she was thankful for the increase in the number of child-friendly zones in the city. She said the city government plans to accept more private businesses as child-friendly to benefit more parents experiencing difficulties accessing services with their children.
