I can't belive that I knew them since they were children

As SUPER DRAGON debuted, their youngest 2 memeber were only 11 years old and now they are 18 and even tho they are active for 7 years by now their oldest member is only 23.

(EDIT: I only just now noticed that one member is missing on this photo)

Quote from proudorbit

Thats kinda scary

cause there is a fair number of Idols that are 18 currently

but have been in the industry for a less amount of time compared to senior members of BIGBANG

One of SUPER DRAGON is with their company since he was 6 or 7 years old since he used to be trainee for a few years. Another one since he was 9 years old. IDK about the other members

Quote from proudorbit

Wow. I am just shocked...I hope they are happy with what they are doing

This seems to be normal for some people. In their company someone who as in a group that disbanded a while ago used to be trainee for 11 years and it was said he actually begun to visit his company as he was 5 years old and they were just scouting kids for dance events back than. This dude was in the company for almost 20 years at the end before he left. He was the first ever trainee the company had since it was said after they realised how good of a dancer he was, they wanted to form a professional dance group and not just different kids who only apear 1-2 times in a event. It took a long time to finish the group and they than debuted in 2013 but he left in 2018 wich was 2 years before the group disbanded. They were btw not the first group under the company cause later on they started to scout and audition with more kids and so had 1 boygroup that debuted 2 years before that.

Sometimes there is a list online of new trainees (it's not allways acurate since groups can debut with people you never heard off before) and it mostly reads stuff like age 5-10 from the new trainees.

Other companies seem to be doing the same sometimes. Another group I like has some members who trained for 6-11 years and there is one member who became trainee under another company when he was 7.

Japan also has a lot child groups, especially in the "underground" music scene. A former JPop-idol said in an interview that she once performed on an event as 22 year old woman who was just new as singer and the artist before her was a group of 6-9 year old girls who allready performed for over 2 years.

Sure, there are also a lot idols with lesser training who may be 16 with just 2 months of training when they debut, wich also caused the confusion where people think that nobody in JPop ever trained, but actually many people got a training. The longest I know was a dude who trained 17 years (I'm not even joking, you can look it up, Fujiwara Joichiro)

Quote from proudorbit

I can't imagine what other things other children would have to go to if they didnt end out as lucky as some other kids did

Depends from company to company.

LDH for example has a row of artists in their groups who actually failed their audition. I forgot who exactly but one dude for example auditioned but failed, than he went back to train dancing in a dance academy (wich is owned by the company) and 2 years later his dance teacher said he improved and should try to audition again and than he was taken. Another one failed his audition, but since his older brother is member of a group in this company he went straight to the CEO and asked if they could give his little brother a 2nd chance and than he was taken. I read it at a few of the artist-profiles that they failed their audition but got scouted later on or tried to audition a 2nd time. Sometimes it also is the case that they fail to audition for another group but still get taken as trainee to debut in another group later on.