June 1, 2015
ASIA / PACIFIC
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
Prying parents: Phone monitoring apps flourish in South Korea
MONITORING MINORS. Cho Jaehyun, a South Korean senior year
high school student, speaks during an interview in Seoul, South Korea.
Cho received his smartphone at age 10. His parents had control of his
phone for a few months through an app when he was young, but being
monitored didn’t teach him to use his smartphone wisely, he says. (AP
Photo/Lee Jin-man)
By Youkyung Lee
AP Technology Writer
S
EOUL, South Korea — Lee Chang-june can be
miles from his 12-year-old son but still know when
he plays a smartphone game. With the press of an
app he can see his son’s phone activity, disable apps, or
totally shut down the smartphone.
The app, Smart Sheriff, was funded by the South
Korean government primarily to block access to por-
nography and other offensive content online, but its
features go well beyond that.
Smart Sheriff and at least 14 other apps allow parents
to monitor how long their kids use their smartphones, how
many times they use apps, and which websites they visit.
Some send a child’s location data to parents and issue an
alert when a child searches keywords such as “suicide,”
“pregnancy,” and “bully” or receives messages with those
words.
In South Korea, the apps have been downloaded at least
480,000 times.
And the number will likely go up. In April, South
Korea’s Korea Communications Commission, which has
sweeping powers covering the telecommunications
industry, required telecom companies and parents to
ensure Smart Sheriff or one of the other monitoring apps
is installed when anyone 18 years old or younger receives
a new smartphone. The measure doesn’t apply to old
EMBARRASSMENT BACKLASH. An army representative dozes
off at a parliament session in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. Journalists negotiated
with Myanmar officials last week to restore their access to the parliament
chamber after being pushed out because pictures of snoozing lawmakers
were published online. Reporters in the capital were told they would have
to watch the proceedings on television from the corridor. The pictures of
sleeping MPs were the main reason cited by Kyaw Soe, director general
of the Union Parliament, which handles administrative duties. (AP Photo/
Khin Maung Win)
Myanmar restricts journalists
after photos show sleeping MPs
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Journalists negotiated
with Myanmar officials last week to restore their access to
the parliament chamber after being pushed out because
pictures of snoozing lawmakers were published online.
Reporters in the capital, Naypyitaw, were told they
would have to watch the proceedings on television from
the corridor. The pictures of sleeping MPs were the main
reason cited by Kyaw Soe, director general of the Union
Parliament, which handles administrative duties.
Other embarrassing pictures have circulated showing
lawmakers using iPad devices while in session. Another
appeared to show an army representative leaning over to
press a voting button for a missing lawmaker.
In a minor victory, the journalists were told they could
occupy the upper floor of the chamber. While the new
location was sufficient for text reporters, it gave visual
journalists only a distant, back view of the MPs. Officials
offered to provide handout images instead, but
independent media considered that unacceptable.
“The restriction is totally unacceptable. Press freedom
is not guaranteed in the country, but only in the hands of
those in power. They can revoke press freedom any time
they like,” said Zaw Thet Htway, a former political
prisoner and editor in chief of Tomorrow weekly journal.
Myanmar started moving from a half-century of
military rule to democracy in 2011 and many of its
political reforms, such as media freedom, have stalled.
About 10 journalists have been jailed and nearly a dozen
are facing trials.
The constitution also allots a quarter of the seats in
parliament to the military, a number that gives it veto
power over constitutional amendments.
smartphones, but most schools have sent out letters to
parents encouraging them to install the software anyway.
Many countries have safety filtering tools for the
internet, but it is rare to enforce them by law. Japan
enacted a law in 2009, but unlike South Korea, it allows
parents to opt out.
South Korea’s new system is by no means impervious.
For one, it can only be fully applied to Android phones, not
Apple Inc. phones. But cybersecurity experts and internet
advocacy groups argue the monitoring infringes too far on
privacy and free speech. Some warn it will produce a
generation inured to intrusive surveillance.
“It is the same as installing a surveillance camera in
teenagers’ smartphones,” said Kim Kha Yeun, a general
counsel at Open Net Korea, a nonprofit organization that
is appealing the regulator’s ordinance to South Korea’s
Constitutional Court. “We are going to raise people who
are accustomed to surveillance.”
South Korea, one of Asia’s richest nations, is
crisscrossed by cheap, fast internet and smartphone use is
ubiquitous. Many Koreans get their first smartphone
when they are young. Eight out of 10 South Koreans 18
years old and younger own a smartphone, according to
government data. Some 72 percent of elementary school
students owned a smartphone in 2013, a jump from 20
percent in 2011.
How technology is affecting the young has become a
national obsession. The government and parent groups
have pushed numerous initiatives to limit device and
internet use as well as prevent excessive gaming. Many
parents welcome the ability to peer inside their children’s
online world.
Lee, who worked in the online game industry for nearly
a decade, said that having control over his son’s smart-
phone has been positive and increased dialogue in the
family. His son plays a mobile game for about two hours on
weekends. If he wants to play a mobile game outside those
hours, he comes up to dad and talks about why.
“What is important is that parents and children talk to
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