Horseracing authority takes down 'sexual' YouTube content after controversy

The government-affiliated horse racing authority recently deleted a YouTube video depicting its horses as anime-style woman, after complaints that the content was sexually-suggestive.

Rep. Yi Byeong-jin of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea confirmed Tuesday that the Korea Racing Authority has deleted the video introducing its racehorses. The video featuring horses illustrated as anime-style women wearing skimpy outfits, is thought to be inspired by a mobile game that also depicted racehorses as attractive women.

"The KRA claimed that it deleted the content because of copyrights issues, but (the video) shows that the KRA has serious problems concerning its sexual awareness," Yi said.

The lawmaker made the revelation in the National Assembly's Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee, urging the government for measures to prevent such incidents in the future. He also pointed out that one of the "horse" characters was wearing what appears to be a school uniform, blasting the KRA for being oblivious to the problem of sexualizing minors.

"No member (of the KRA) saw a problem with distributing an image of a horse depicted as a girl wearing school uniform ... I cannot but wonder if such an incident would've happened if there was a female board member in the group," he said.

The group's data submitted to Yi showed that none of the full-time directors of the KRA were women. It also revealed that an overwhelming majority of its high-ranking officials were men.