Calls are growing for national-level rules and technical safeguards to regulate teenagers’ use of social media, with experts warning that simple screen-time limits cannot solve overdependence.
At a National Assembly seminar on April 22 titled “Seeking responses to trends in regulating children and adolescents’ social media,” participants debated both the direction and limits of youth-protection policies.
Yoon Hye-kyung, a researcher at Korea University’s law school, said childhood and adolescence require a “function of forgetting” that allows young people to learn from mistakes and recover emotionally, but the digital environment can block those opportunities. She said regulation should be phased to match developmental stages rather than imposed as a blanket ban.
Yoon cited overseas cases to highlight limits of current approaches. In Australia, she said, measures introduced in the name of protecting youth have drawn criticism for potentially restricting freedom of expression and opportunities for creative activity. She also pointed to risks of personal data leaks during age verification and said tech-savvy teens can often bypass controls, undermining effectiveness.
She said legislation in some U.S. states has also faced setbacks. In Ohio, which enacted a parental-consent law for social media controls, the requirement was viewed as an excessive restriction because it could block access to beneficial information as well, violating the principle against overbroad limits.
California, which introduced an “age-appropriate design code” requiring child protections at the platform-design stage, also received a ruling finding it unconstitutional, she said. Issues included insufficient proof that protections would work and concerns that age checks could drive the collection of even more personal data.
Yoon listed key tasks as introducing tailored, age-based phased regulation; making digital safety education a legal requirement; and building a cooperative governance framework between platforms and the government. “Rather than simply blocking teens from using social media, we need detailed regulatory design, education and a social consultative body,” she said.
In a subsequent discussion, speakers also urged stronger platform responsibility. Jin Min-jung, a researcher at the Korea Press Foundation, said smartphones are “teenagers’ life itself,” where friendships, information searches and leisure all take place. “Kids are already skilled at finding ways around restrictions, so simple time limits have clear limits,” she said.
Jin said the approach should focus on changing structures that encourage addiction, emphasizing improvements in platform design, including technical measures that limit functions based on age and developmental stage.
The Korea Communications Commission’s Broadcasting Media and Communications Committee also voiced agreement with that view. Choi Seon-kyung, director of the committee’s User Policy Division, said the root cause of social media overdependence is “intentional design” by platform operators seeking to increase time spent for profit. She said the committee is closely watching court precedents in California and New Mexico.
Choi added that the committee will actively support seven bills currently pending in the National Assembly.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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