South Korea bans smartphones in classrooms amid rising youth social media addiction

Smartphones

South Korea has voted to ban mobile phones and digital devices in classrooms nationwide, stepping up efforts to curb what lawmakers describe as a growing crisis of youth social media addiction. The measure, which takes effect in March 2026, won bipartisan support in parliament on Wednesday.

Lawmaker Cho Jung-hun of the opposition People Power Party, who sponsored the bill, warned that children were increasingly glued to Instagram and TikTok late into the night. “Our kids, their eyes are red every morning. They are on Instagram until 2 or 3 a.m.,” he said.

The move follows similar restrictions elsewhere. Australia recently expanded its pioneering social media ban for teenagers, while Dutch schools reported improved student focus after curbing phone use.

Surveys underline the scale of South Korea’s digital saturation: 99% of its citizens are online and 98% own a smartphone—the highest rates among 27 countries studied by the Pew Research Center in 2022–23. Last year, the Education Ministry found that 37% of middle- and high-school students said social media affected their daily lives, while 22% admitted feeling anxious when unable to access their accounts.

Many schools already restrict phones during class hours, but the new law formalises those rules nationwide. Exceptions will be made for students with disabilities and for educational use.

Not everyone supports the crackdown. Some youth advocacy groups argue that banning smartphones violates children’s rights and risks shutting them out of an increasingly digital world.