Controversy over youth social media regulation, Korean social media regulation
40% of teenagers are ‘overdependent on smartphones’
National Assembly proposes usage time-age restriction law
There is also an opinion that “legislation tailored to the country is necessary”
As movements to regulate youth use of social media increase overseas, arguments are being raised that related regulations need to be introduced domestically as well. Experts agreed that effective measures are urgently needed as Korean youth use social media for a long time and the side effects caused by this continue to increase.
According to a survey on smartphone overdependence published by the Ministry of Science and ICT last year, 40.1% of domestic youth were found to be at risk for smartphone overdependence. This means that 4 out of 10 people may experience physical, psychological, and social problems in their daily lives due to excessive use of smartphones.
In this survey, 34.7% of children under the age of 10 and 36% of teenagers under the age of 19 answered that they “cannot control” their viewing of ‘short form’ videos. This figure is much higher than that of adult users (23%).
This year, the National Assembly continued to propose bills related to youth social media regulation. People Power Party lawmaker Jo Jeong-hoon proposed an amendment to the Information Protection Act in August that would set a daily limit on social media use by youth under 16. In July, Rep. Yoon Geon-young of the Democratic Party of Korea proposed an amendment to the Information and Communications Network Act that would require social media businesses to refuse membership to children under the age of 14. In addition, the ‘Youth Filter Bubble Prevention Act’, proposed by People Power Party lawmaker Kim Jang-gyeom, requires parental consent in the case of addictive content, and in cases where parental consent is not provided, the content is exposed in chronological order rather than algorithm.
Domestic public opinion is also in favor of regulating youth social media use. According to a survey of 23,754 people from 30 countries around the world conducted by public opinion research agency Ipsos in August, about 57% of respondents in Korea answered, “I am in favor of banning the use of social media by children under the age of 14.”
However, experts emphasized that a more sophisticated approach is needed in the process of preparing laws and policies to prevent this movement from becoming a meaningless regulation like the ‘game shutdown system’ of the past. The game shutdown system, introduced in 2011, prohibits Internet games from midnight to 6 a.m. to prevent youth addiction to online games. However, it was not difficult to avoid regulations when using a virtual private network (VPN). There was also criticism that it violated youth rights, and it was eventually abolished in 2022.
Yoo Jae-jae, a professor in the Department of Communication at Sogang University, said, “In Korea, where smartphone use among teenagers is high, it is difficult to expect a bill that unilaterally regulates technology that has already become part of daily life to be effective,” adding, “We need to think about how platform monitoring will be possible.” “He advised. Kim Ok-tae, a professor at the Department of Media and Visual Arts at the Korea Open University, said, “Following overseas cases like a fad will not be effective,” and added, “We need to prepare specific policies and laws tailored to our situation.”
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![Discussion on introducing youth use regulations… There are concerns that we may follow the footsteps of the ‘shutdown system’[글로벌 포커스]](https://image.donga.com/donga_v1/images/img_series_bg03.png "Discussion on introducing youth use regulations… There are concerns that we may follow the footsteps of the ‘shutdown system’[글로벌 포커스]")
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