SEOUL – Seven in 10 South Koreans said they support the introduction of a policy restricting social media use by teenagers, a poll showed Tuesday, amid growing concerns over the excessive use of such platforms.
In the survey conducted on 1,000 respondents aged 14 to 58, 70.7 percent said they support such a policy, while 29.3 percent said they oppose it, according to the poll conducted by the Korea Press Foundation last month.
But among teen respondents, who accounted for one-fifth of the total, 59 percent said they oppose the plan, while 41 percent said they support it.
When asked about what would be the appropriate age to impose such a restriction, 16.8 percent of all the respondents picked 15, followed by 14.9 percent who picked 18, and 13.1 percent who picked 11 and younger.
A majority of the respondents, however, said even introducing such a policy would have limitations in restricting social media use by teens, citing the possibility of adolescent users using other people’s accounts or moving onto new, unrestricted platforms.
Against such a backdrop, 59.8 percent said platforms should do more to create a safe environment for social media usage rather than imposing a restriction on its users, the poll showed.
In July, the country’s media watchdog floated the idea of imposing a social media restriction against children aged 14 and younger, noting that excessive social media use by teenagers has become a worldwide problem.
