South Korea to set spyware into teenagers' phones

South Korean authorities introduce new regulations over smartphones usage.

Specially developed spyware is required to be installed into the phones of those under 19 years old.

Such a pattern of control is widely used by its Northern neighbour.

However, the Seoul Communications Commission claims that it requires telecom companies and parents to ensure a monitoring app for the sake of children's security.

New software is intended to block access to pornography, 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.

The measure is reported to slowly come into force over the next few years as it doesn't require old smartphones be updated, but most schools in South Korea send out letters to parents encouraging them to install the software anyway.

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