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Busan Metropolitan City Holds Policy Forum on Preventing Smartphone and Social Media Addiction Among Youth

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□ Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced that it will hold the “2025 Policy Forum on Preventing Smartphone and Social Media Service (SNS) Addiction Among Youth in Busan Metropolitan City” (hereinafter referred to as the Forum) at 2:00 p.m. today (December 17) in the International Conference Hall at City Hall to discuss policy directions for responding to youth digital addiction and online risk environments.

○ The Forum was organized in response to the lowering age of smartphone and social media service (SNS) use, along with the spread of digital-based risks such as random chat services, deepfakes*, cyber violence, and illegal gambling, with the aim of exploring a social response system to protect youth.

• ●Deepfake: A type of manipulated video created by combining or synthesizing a person’s face or specific body parts using artificial intelligence technology (deep learning); a compound word of “deep learning” and “fake.”

○ The Forum is jointly hosted by the City and the Busan Association of Youth Training Facilities, and organized by a consortium of five youth addiction prevention–related organizations, including the Jeonpo General Social Welfare Center.

□ The Forum will be attended by approximately 200 participants, including representatives from the Busan Family Court, the Office of Education, the Police Agency, parents, children and youth, and related social welfare organizations, and will proceed in the following order: opening ceremony, keynote speech, presentations on cases from other regions, sharing of project outcomes, and a policy discussion.

○ The keynote speech will be delivered by Judge Park Won-cheol, Presiding Judge of the Juvenile Division of the Busan Family Court, under the theme “Youth Smartphone Delinquency and Addiction: What Needs to Change.” Judge Park will explain, based on juvenile trial cases, that youth digital delinquency does not stem solely from individual deviance but occurs within environmental and structural factors, emphasizing the limitations of post-punishment–centered responses and the need to shift toward prevention-oriented policies.

○ This will be followed by the sharing of intervention cases related to youth smartphone use and the outcomes of prevention activities, forming a consensus that youth digital environment issues should be approached from the perspective of protection and support rather than regulation or control.

□ The policy discussion will be held under the theme “Joint Response Strategies by Families, Schools, and Related Institutions to Prevent Smartphone and Social Media Service (SNS) Addiction Among Youth in Busan Metropolitan City,” featuring a discussion led by a moderator and panelists.

○ Oh Young-seok, Director of the Jeonpo General Social Welfare Center, will serve as moderator. Panelists will include representatives from the City Council, the Metropolitan Office of Education, the Busan Family Court, the Busan Police Agency, departments in charge of youth policy within the City, and the Busan Federation of School Parents’ Associations.

○ Participants will share the limitations of management in school settings and the importance of early intervention in digital crimes, and discuss the necessity of addressing youth digital issues not as the sole responsibility of individual families or schools, but through a coordinated response system linking families, schools, and local communities.

□ Prior to the Forum, a pre-event special program—a mini talk concert titled “Parenting in the Smartphone Era: Real Stories”—will be held from 1:20 p.m.

○ The event will feature comedian Oh Jung-tae, an ambassador for promoting the prevention of smartphone and social media service (SNS) addiction among youth, along with parent Baek A-young.

○ Participants will candidly share family conflicts and real-life parenting experiences surrounding smartphone use, and discuss the importance of changes in parents’ roles and attitudes in guiding their children’s digital use.

□ Through this Forum, the City plans to strengthen cooperation among relevant departments and related institutions, discuss prevention-oriented policies, and continuously identify and develop related projects.

□ Park Seol-yeon, Director General of the Women and Family Bureau of the City, stated, “Issues related to youth smartphone and social media service (SNS) addiction and exposure to digital crimes are not problems of individuals or families alone, but challenges that society as a whole must take responsibility for and address together,” adding, “Busan Metropolitan City will continue its policy efforts to establish a prevention-centered protection system in which schools, families, the judiciary, the police, and local communities work closely together, so that youth can grow up healthily in a safe digital environment.”