After Meta agreed to an up-to-$18 billion settlement and new limits on teen use of Facebook and Instagram in the U.S., South Korea’s Media and Communications Commission says those feature changes should ideally protect young users everywhere as Seoul considers its own tougher rules.
KMCC says Meta’s corrective measures for youth — limits on use, notification restrictions, age checks, non-algorithmic feeds, hiding likes — should ideally be applied to youth users worldwide.
South Korea is reviewing seven parliamentary bills to strengthen online youth protections, including restricting access for under-14s and limiting recommendation algorithms for ages 14–19.
Debate in South Korea balances calls for tighter controls on minors’ social media with privacy and enforcement concerns.
South Korea's media regulator has called for the youth-focused product changes Meta agreed to in a U.S. settlement to be extended globally, and it is pushing domestic lawmakers to pass new rules that would limit features known to encourage excessive use among minors.
Why the KMCC is pressing for global application
KMCC officials tied their comments to ongoing domestic policy work. Chairman Kim Jong-cheol briefed President Lee Jae Myung in July and said the commission is reviewing phased restrictions on minors. The KMCC identified seven draft bills before the National Assembly that would tighten youth protections on social platforms.
The proposals under discussion include two concrete items: restricting social media access for users under 14, and limiting algorithmic recommendation systems and other features for teenagers aged 14 to 19 that could lead to excessive use. A KMCC spokesperson said the commission supports advancing the bills through public discussion and consultation.
What Meta agreed to in the U.S. settlement
Under the U.S. agreement referenced by KMCC, Meta will adopt several product-level limits for youth accounts. The reported measures include:
KMCC reaction reflects broader global momentum
Points of contention and open questions
Policymakers face trade-offs. Proposed restrictions on minors' access and on algorithms raise questions around privacy, technical enforcement, and how to verify age without creating new privacy risks. Critics have raised those concerns in other jurisdictions, and South Korean lawmakers will have to balance them against public health and child-safety objectives.
Seoul wants global platform fixes rather than piecemeal national outcomes: Korean regulators are moving to translate the U.S. settlement's technical remedies into domestic law and to press for those remedies to protect young users everywhere.
South Korea’s media regulator has said that Meta’s new protections for young users should ideally apply worldwide rather than only in the markets that forced them, which is a modest-sounding statement with a substantial ask inside it. The measures in question come from Meta’s settlement with US state attorneys general,
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