Website That Helps Korean-Filipino Children Find Fathers Stirs Controversy Over Infringement Of Privacy

A website, called "KopinoFather," helps Filipino women locate Korean men who abandoned Kopinos or Korean-Filipino children. PASEI reported Thursday that the identity and information of these Korean men are being disclosed in the website, which has stirred controversy over privacy violation.

Creator of the website said he wanted to help a friend who was looking for the father of her Kopino son.

"I had a Filipina friend who was looking for the father of her Kopino son," Goo Bon Chang said. "The father left her with a fake address. She had no means to find him and I wanted to help her."

He also founded a civic group, called "We Love Kopino," where Filipino women can submit photos of Korean men who fathered their children. These photos are being posted on the website, which started in April 2015.

Although the website was created out of good intention, Goo reportedly has been receiving threats after coming up with the idea, which some perceived as a violation to one's privacy.

"In fact, three people threatened to sue me. How could they? What they did to these children is incomparable to what I have done to them," the 54-year-old creator said.

Goo's concept received social media backlash, while some others said it was a good initiative.

One commented: "Wow, good job revealing these people's identities to the world. You should do it again and again [to ruin even more lives]," Soompi noted Jan. 10.

Korea Times noted Tuesday that a total of 42 pictures have already been posted on the website since it was launched. Further reports revealed that 30 Kopino children found their Korean fathers because of the website.

In addition to this, Kopino reportedly has been a long-standing issue and has been considered as a social problem. Non-government organizations in the Philippines and Korea said there are approximately 30,000 Kopino children.