The afterimage remains for a very long time. If the children’s last scene, that bad scene, remains in your head, you have to carry it with you until you die.”
Lee Jeong-min, who lost his son, the late Lee Joo-young, in an alley in Itaewon on October 29 last year, said this in a phone call with Yonhap News.
Mr. Lee added, “I tell other bereaved families not to look at videos and photos from that time,” adding, “It only makes them think about the nightmare of that time, and it doesn’t help in recovery.”
On the 28th, a day before the first anniversary of the Itaewon disaster, videos of the disaster scene can still be easily found on social media ( SNS ) ‘X’ ( formerly Twitter), raising concerns that the trauma of the bereaved families may increase.
When I searched ‘Itaewon Halloween scene’ on
The one-minute post video posted in November of last year clearly showed people being crushed, receiving CPR, and even the crowd unable to move just before the disaster. When I clicked on the YouTube link posted in this post, a notice appeared saying, ‘The YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated and the video can no longer be viewed.’ However, at X, anyone could still access it even after a year.
In addition to this video, on
Victims’ families and Itaewon merchants were outraged that the gruesome videos of the time had not been deleted until the first anniversary of the disaster.
Lee Jeong-min was frustrated, saying, “It’s not a situation where we can do anything. If we can’t stop secondary attacks against the bereaved family, how can we stop the deletion of the video?”
Itaewon World Food Street merchants also reacted negatively to the video that is still circulating on social media .
A merchant who has run a restaurant on this street for eight years shook his head and said, “When the video is uploaded, the number of customers decreases, but as someone who saw the scene, I feel bad, so I don’t watch it as much as possible.” He said, “How difficult must it be for the bereaved families? I wish all such videos would be taken down.”
Salina (46), a foreign employee working at a restaurant in Itaewon, said굿모닝토토, “I was in South Africa at the time of the disaster, so I couldn’t see the scene in person, but I watched a lot of videos. It’s near my work space, so I feel so sad every time I see it.”
Immediately after the disaster, he felt as if someone was asking him for help every time he passed the street while commuting to work. He frowned and said, “I don’t have that heavy feeling now, but when I watch the video, I feel like I’m getting traumatized again.”
As of last month, the Korea Communications Standards Commission had taken measures such as deleting posts or blocking access to a total of 1,783 videos and photos related to the Itaewon disaster, but it is not enough to delete all the videos flooding the Internet.
As videos from the time of the disaster are still distributed online, it is pointed out that the trauma of the general public, in addition to the bereaved families, may continue to linger.
Baek Jong-woo, a professor of psychiatry at Kyung Hee University, said, “Watching videos of disasters can have a very negative impact on mental health,” and added, “It will be difficult to review all the videos, but efforts are needed on the level of SNS operators and the government . “
Lim Myeong-ho, professor of psychotherapy at Dankook University, said, “Our society has lacked healing through proper commemoration since the Itaewon disaster,” adding, “We are making efforts to create a socially safe society so that citizens can escape the fear of ‘I could end up like that, too.’ “We need to be able to gain trust,” he emphasized.
Professor Lee Hae-guk of the Department of Psychiatry at Uijeongbu St. Mary’s Hospital also said, “Establishing a natural time or space to sufficiently grieve, remember, and mourn can prevent various unspecified psychological reactions.” He added, “Then, naturally, the video will be distributed, searched for, and viewed. “I think things will decrease,” he advised.
An official from the National Defense Commission said, “We are conducting continuous monitoring and are also requesting self-regulation from platform operators to prevent the spread. As we approach the first anniversary of the Itaewon disaster, there are concerns about additional distribution, so we are focusing on monitoring. “There is,” he said.