This is the natural extension of a culmination of issues that were only allowed to fester for this long because fans continue to ignore and deflect from the problem so they can keep uncritically consuming their content. I mean, just look at the number of comments from people who "aren’t excusing" debuting little kids, but who are posting about all the underage idols who debuted in the past, ignoring the fact that they were the exception in their groups most of the time rather than the majority of it and people had issues with that even back then.

It keeps happening because companies know they can get away with it and the debut age is just going to keep getting lower because it’s apparently incredibly lucrative. I don’t think there will be any change until something awful happens publicly — and even then, I doubt the change will be anything but the bare minimum.