'I couldn't lose another friend': Korean teen calls for social media algorithm rules

Choi Kyung-jun, left, and Rep. Kim Sun-min of the Rebuilding Korea Party, center, hold a press conference at the National Assembly Communication Hall on Aug. 11 to call on social media companies to help prevent social media overdependence among teenagers. Courtesy of Rep. Kim Sun-min’s office

A petition was submitted to the National Assembly for a bill aimed at preventing teenage addiction to social networking services (SNS) and placing greater responsibility on platform service providers. The petitioner was 18-year-old Choi Kyung-jun.

“While companies come up with ways to keep teens addicted to SNS, the responsibility for overcoming that addiction falls on parents and teens themselves,” Choi said.

He wrote a letter to Rep. Kim Sun-min of the Rebuilding Korea Party, calling for more regulations of algorithms used by social media, saying he could not risk losing another friend to them.

The Korean government, for its part, has introduced multiple measures to curb teenage addiction to smartphones and SNS. Among them are “smartphone-free schools” and a ban on teens under 14 accessing SNS. But such measures, according to Choi, effectively hold teens accountable for algorithms designed and developed by companies to lure users into spending as much time as possible on their platforms.

"The reason I submitted the petition was a frustration with regulations that focus only on teenagers and not on the algorithms," Choi said Monday during a phone interview with the Hankook Ilbo.

Choi left school last summer but he still recalls occasionally hearing news of his peers taking their own lives because of stress. Many others had sunken eyes and dark circles after spending two or three hours every night staring at their phones, gripped by the algorithms.

A particularly serious problem arises when algorithms repeatedly recommend content that provokes negative thoughts, including material about depression or self-harm, according to Choi. Once a teenager encounters content about depression, eating disorders, self-harm or suicide, the algorithm wastes no time in recommending a flurry of similar content, trapping the teenager and making it very difficult to escape negative thoughts.

Efforts to control teens have clear limitations. The school he attended confiscated students’ phones during the day and had them use educational devices, but it was largely ineffective.

“Those familiar with computers could easily break through or bypass locks preventing them from using certain apps,” Choi said. “Ultimately, regulating the algorithms is the direction we need to take.”

The bill he petitioned for includes a mandatory “protection mode” for all teenage social media accounts. The mode would block content that could potentially encourage self-harm or suicide, as well as other problematic material, including sexually exploitative content and content promoting violence or hatred against specific groups. Companies that fail to comply would be subject to graduated sanctions, including corrective orders and administrative fines.

“In Australia, a law imposing administrative fines on platform service providers is already in effect, while calls for algorithm regulation are growing in Europe,” Rep. Kim said. “Korea also needs to actively discuss ways to sanction platform service providers, including through administrative fines.”

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.