South Korea bans telephones at school lecture rooms nationwide

[ad_1] Suhnwook Lee BBC Korean, Seoul

Fan Wang BBC Information, Singapore

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/8e64/live/8d9f9490-830b-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/8e64/live/8d9f9490-830b-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/8e64/live/8d9f9490-830b-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/8e64/live/8d9f9490-830b-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/8e64/live/8d9f9490-830b-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/8e64/live/8d9f9490-830b-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/8e64/live/8d9f9490-830b-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/8e64/live/8d9f9490-830b-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="Getty Images A South Korean schoolboy, wearing a school uniform and glasses, scrolls on his phone while sitting in a plastic chair outside a convenience store. Another boy in the same uniform leans over from his own chair to watch the screen." class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> Getty Photos South Korea turns into the most recent nation to limit cellphone use in colleges

South Korea has handed a invoice banning the usage of cell phones and sensible gadgets throughout class hours in colleges - changing into the most recent nation to limit cellphone use amongst kids and teenagers.

The regulation, which comes into impact from the subsequent faculty 12 months in March 2026, is the results of a bi-partisan effort to curb smartphone dependancy, as extra analysis factors to its dangerous results.

Lawmakers, dad and mom and lecturers argue that smartphone use is affecting college students' educational efficiency and takes away time they might have spent finding out.

The ban has its sceptics, together with college students, who query how it might work, its wider implications and whether or not it's addressing the foundation explanation for dependancy.

The invoice handed convincingly on Wednesday afternoon, with 115 votes in favour out of 163 members current.

Most South Korean colleges have already carried out some type of a smartphone ban. And they aren't the primary to take action.

Some nations like Finland and France have banned telephones on a smaller scale, making use of the restriction solely to colleges for youthful kids. Others like Italy, the Netherlands and China have restricted cellphone use in all colleges.

However South Korea is among the many few to enshrine such a ban in regulation.

Youngsters as of late "simply can not seem to put their smartphones down," says Choi Eun-young, mom of a 14-year-old in Seoul.

It isn't simply kids although. Almost 1 / 4 of the nation's 51 million individuals rely upon their telephones an excessive amount of, based on a 2024 authorities survey. However that determine greater than doubles - to 43% - for these between the ages of 10 and 19. And it has been rising over time.

Greater than a 3rd of teenagers additionally say they battle to manage the period of time they spend scrolling by way of movies on social media. And oldsters worry that that is getting in the way in which of all the things else they might be doing with their time.

"Once they go to high school, they're supposed to review, but additionally construct friendships and participate in varied actions. But they're unable to concentrate on these issues," says Ms Choi. "Even once they're chatting with mates, they rapidly return to their telephones, and naturally this interferes with studying as effectively."

Some dad and mom, like Kim Solar, whose two daughters are in main faculty, are additionally frightened about bullying on social media, the place "children throw round unthinkably harsh insults" at one another.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/80d0/live/9f03f140-830b-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/80d0/live/9f03f140-830b-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/80d0/live/9f03f140-830b-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/80d0/live/9f03f140-830b-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/80d0/live/9f03f140-830b-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/80d0/live/9f03f140-830b-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/80d0/live/9f03f140-830b-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/80d0/live/9f03f140-830b-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Getty Images A group of women smile and look at a mobile phone one of them is holding up as they pose for a selfie before the Banpo bridge on October 13, 2016. They are sitting on a blanket on a patch of grass, dressed in warm clothes. In front of them are food containers and their bags. Behind them is a lake and the Seoul city skyline. " class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> Getty Photos Almost 1 / 4 of South Koreans rely upon their telephones an excessive amount of, based on authorities analysis

Cho Jung-hun, an MP from the opposition Individuals Energy Get together who launched the invoice, says he was inspired to behave as different nations made comparable strikes. He says there may be "vital scientific and medical proof" that smartphone dependancy has "extraordinarily dangerous results on college students' mind improvement and emotional progress".

Though it solely bans cellphone use throughout class hours, the regulation offers lecturers the facility to cease college students from utilizing their telephones on faculty premises. It additionally asks colleges to teach college students concerning the correct use of sensible gadgets.

There are some exemptions. The invoice permits college students with disabilities or particular instructional wants to make use of assistive gadgets, and permits use for instructional functions or throughout emergencies.

Lecturers, nonetheless, look like divided over the ban. Of the 2 main lecturers' teams within the nation, solely the conservative Korean Federation of Lecturers' Affiliation backed the invoice, saying it offers "a a lot firmer authorized foundation" for limiting telephones in lecture rooms.

A spokesperson for the group mentioned that, based on their inside survey, almost 70% of lecturers had reported classroom disruptions due to smartphone use, with some college students "unable to manage their feelings within the second [when teachers restrict phone use], swearing at and even assaulting the lecturers".

The opposite group, Korean Lecturers and Instructional Employees' Union, mentioned it didn't have an official stand on the regulation - it mentioned some members had been involved that the regulation violates college students' proper to entry their smartphones.

"Within the present actuality, college students don't have any place to satisfy mates outdoors of cram colleges besides by way of KakaoTalk [a communication app] or Instagram, and they're consistently pushed into competitors at college," says Cho Younger-sun, a highschool instructor who believes the invoice targets telephones relatively than the actual problem college students face - the nation's notoriously aggressive school entrance examination.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/898e/live/19c24bf0-830e-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/898e/live/19c24bf0-830e-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/898e/live/19c24bf0-830e-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/898e/live/19c24bf0-830e-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/898e/live/19c24bf0-830e-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/898e/live/19c24bf0-830e-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/898e/live/19c24bf0-830e-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/898e/live/19c24bf0-830e-11f0-8e5d-356ffeb548eb.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Getty Images A student (R) arrives to sit for the annual college entrance exam, known locally as 'Suneung', outside the Ehwa Girls Foreign Language High School in Seoul on November 17, 2022. She is wearing a white puffer jacket, a mask and a backpack while looking at her phone. Next to her is an older woman, with her arm around her, holding a blue pouch and a phone. " class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> Getty Photos South Korean college students spend a lot of their time making ready for a extremely aggressive school-leaving examination

Referred to as Suneung, it's an eight-hour marathon of back-to-back exams that many Koreans consider seals their destiny. The rating performs a serious function in figuring out whether or not they go to college and, in the event that they do, which one will probably be, and that, in flip, decides their job prospects and earnings.

Korean kids start making ready for the examination from their first day of faculty. A 13-year-old pupil, who didn't wish to be named, advised the BBC that he merely would not have time to be hooked on his cellphone, as personal tutoring periods and homework after faculty often preserve him up previous midnight every single day.

"Somewhat than merely taking telephones away, I believe step one needs to be instructing college students what they will do with out them," says Website positioning Min-joon, an 18 year-old excessive schooler who has been talking up in opposition to the smartphone ban.

Banning the telephones throughout class hours would not obtain a lot, he argues, as a result of "college students would nonetheless be on their telephones whereas commuting or mendacity in mattress at evening".