As countries overseas move to restrict social media use among young people, Korea's Broadcasting Media Communications Commission (BMCC) is gathering opinions from teenagers to develop effective measures against social media overuse.
BMCC Chairman Kim Jong-chul held a forum on social media dependency at the Korea Communications Agency on Sunday, meeting with members of the Youth Special Committee and the Korea Youth Press Corps, the commission said Monday.
"Seven out of 10 Korean teenagers use social media, and more than half use it daily," Kim said in his opening remarks. "With concerns rising about youth social media addiction and the spread of confirmation bias, we need to establish protective measures."
According to the Korea Press Foundation's 2024 survey on teenage media use, 70.1 percent of Korean adolescents use social media, with 48.8 percent accessing it daily.
Students at the forum cited connectivity with peers, quick access to information, and relief from boredom as benefits of social media, reporting usage ranging from one to two hours to four to five hours daily.
A ninth-grade student surnamed Oh said Instagram and KakaoTalk were the most popular platforms. "I surveyed 25 peers myself—KakaoTalk had a 95.8 percent usage rate, Instagram 79.2 percent, and X (formerly Twitter) 37.5 percent. No one used Facebook," she said.
While acknowledging the benefits, students also noted harmful effects, saying platform-provided guidelines were insufficient and additional education was needed.
Oh pointed out that negative terms such as "youngforty" (영포티) and "tteuldak" (틀딱) have spread to younger generations. An 11th-grade student surnamed Kim said, "Seeing constant celebrity diet content and thin body images on Instagram, some of my friends stopped eating and ended up in emergency rooms."
However, students argued that outright bans would not solve the underlying issues. Australia enacted the Social Media Minimum Age Act in December, prohibiting social media access for children under 16 to protect their mental and physical health.
Regarding Australia's approach, Kim said, "I recently attended a Model United Nations event and found Australian teens are strongly opposed, with many using illegal workarounds. Rather than outright bans, policies encouraging reduced usage would be better."
Chairman Kim responded, "I believe improving systems to reduce usage time should take priority over blocking access entirely. We will develop policies by gathering agenda items and seeking input from teenagers through debates on pros and cons."