- MOGEF releases the “youth policy direction for an inclusive nation.”
▸ “Special Youth Council” and “Online Youth Forum” are open to anyone wishing to make policy recommendations or engage in the youth policy-making process.
▸ The National Youth Center runs “the Digital Experience Program” and the VR and AR Center.
▸ The center’s youth training facility has been renamed “Youth Center” and given greater autonomy and flexibility in operating the facility.
▸ “The Integrated At-Risk Youth Information System” will be introduced to ensure that youth services are provided seamlessly by different organizations.
▸ “The mobile youth worker protection center” will be set up at individual schools to promote a safe working environment.
▸ Major government ministries will appoint a youth policy adviser to promote the importance of youth policy and inter-ministry cooperation.
□ MOGEF (Minister Lee Jung-ok) discussed the “Youth Policy Direction for an Inclusive Nation” at the 5th ministerial meeting for social affairs and released a joint statement on Monday, May 11, 2020.
ㅇ This policy initiative, taken in celebration of the month of youth, is based on the consensus that a grand shift in youth policy including lowering the voting age is needed in order to accommodate social changes and help young people actively lead their life in a fair, safe society and grow into adults possessing qualities and competencies.
□ Under the slogan “Youth, the Leaders of the Next 100 Years,” the new youth policy includes 4 major strategies: ① shifting to a youth-centered policy; ②ensuring equal opportunities for growth for the youth; ③creating a safe environment where the youth can engage in various activities; and ④ re-establishing the foundation for youth policy to create a new society. Under the 4 strategies, 12 core tasks and 30 specific projects have been developed.
□ Below are the specific actions that will be taken to implement the four major strategies.
□ (Encourage the youth to engage in the policymaking process) The government will build a framework that will make it easy for the youth to make policy recommendations without time restrictions and to engage in the policymaking process.
ㅇ First, at the local community level, the government will create and spread the “model for greater youth involvement in the local community“ wherein the youth develop and discuss policy agenda for their local community and engage in the policymaking process, thereby facilitating and expanding youth participation in the local community.
ㅇ At the government level, the Special Youth Council and the Youth Policy Committee (chaired by the Minister of Gender Equality and Family) will work together even more closely* to ensure the youth’s right to participate in the policymaking process and promote the use of “online portals for youth participation,” which will eliminate time and space restrictions.
* Youth members of the Special Youth Council will attend the Youth Policy Committee meetings, make policy recommendations, and collect opinions.
ㅇ The Korea-ASEAN Youth Summit is scheduled to be held in Seoul in November 2020 to provide opportunities for the youth to voice their issues as members of the international community. This event is expected to provide a forum for youths from different countries to share opinions and promote Korea’s forward-looking youth policy globally.
* A total of 110 youths (10 from each country) will attend the Korea-ASEAN Summit, which will be held annually.
□ (Create a youth-friendly facility environment) In keeping with the latest trends of digitalization and globalization, youth-related facilities will be revamped to fit the needs of the youth and transformed into places that the youth want to visit.
ㅇ Among state-run facilities, the National Youth Center will take the lead in setting the trends by opening a digital experience center in Pyeongchang in 2020 and run a Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) center. The National Youth Center and the Ministry of Science and Technology will jointly run the VR & AR center, which is scheduled to open in the second half of 2020. These new facilities will provide the youth with opportunities to gain hands-on experiences with the core content of the 5G era, and more of these facilities will be set up at other public and private youth training facilities.
- In 2021, MOGEF and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) will work together to open the Global Citizens' Education Center within the National Youth Center to offer programs aimed at enhancing the youth’s sense of global citizenship.
ㅇ As for public and private facilities, MOGEF will establish the criteria for opening a youth center in different locations that the youth can easily access and ensure that the youth centers -- which is scheduled for 2021 -- will be user-friendly facilities.
ㅇ There are 93 youth shelters as of 2020 across the country, and they will be remodeled or improved as necessary to provide a pleasant, safe living environment for runaway youths who are at risk while the government plans to increase steadily the number of shelters* designed specifically to fit the unique characteristics and needs of out-of-school youths (OSYs). There are 20 of these shelters exclusively for OSYs as of 2020.
* These shelters have a creativity space where the youth can start a business, create content, and share ideas, a cultural experience space where they can view films, produce media programs, play musical instruments, and work with multimedia, a learning space, a job experience space, a book cafe, and a craft workshop.
□ (Raise the youth’s awareness of gender equality) MOGEF will enhance education on gender equality and expand related programs to help the youth take the initiative in promoting public awareness of gender equality from the youth’s perspective.
ㅇ MOGEF will expand “gender equality awareness campaigns”* wherein the youth play a leading role in resolving gender conflicts. Youth members of the Youth Steering Committee will monitor and evaluate youth programs from the viewpoint of gender equality.
* (Projects open to public participation) MOGEF is running 7 gender equality awareness programs including campaigns and education programs in 2020.
- Education content on gender equality for elementary and middle school students will be developed and distributed for use at youth organizations and facilities across the country. The content should include gender sensitivity education for those who participate in major activity programs*.
* Youth after-school programs, cross-border youth exchange programs, overseas volunteer programs, etc.
□ (Increased support for at-risk youth) MOGEF will keep improving programs for identifying, supporting, and protecting at-risk youth while concentrating efforts on strengthening the ability to respond to high-risk youth including those who are at risk of suicide, juvenile delinquency, and depression.
ㅇ The number of at-risk youth support units set up within local governments, which currently stands at 9, will be further increased to secure public responsibility for helping at-risk youth.
- “The Integrated At-Risk Youth Information System” will be built over the next three years from 2020 to 2022 to allow different ministries and organizations to work together and provide seamless support services in a continuous, effective manner.
ㅇ MOGEF plans to expand specialized programs customized for dealing with different types of risk facing the youth to help high-risk youths for whom emergency intervention is required.
- Specifically, one-on-one customized support will be provided to youths who are at high risk of committing suicide or hurting themselves, and specialized psychological tests and timely referrals to hospitals and specialized institutions will be made available.
- Special focus will be placed on offering customized support through the youth safety network by working closely with the police* to prevent young offenders and juvenile delinquents from relapsing into crime or delinquency.
* Information on the youths who have completed the correction program of the police will be shared via the youth safety network of local governments.
□ (Increase support fine-tuned to meet the needs of the youth with diverse backgrounds) MOGEF will work to eliminate blind spots in providing support for the youth under different circumstances including out-of-school youths, adolescent parents, and youths from migrating families and to increase customized support.
ㅇ First, the government will launch a system that automatically transfers data on drop-outs to the out-of-school youths (OSYs) support center in the second half of 2020 to identify as many OSYs as possible.
- Learning and cultural activity support will also be made available to youths referred to the center in order to bridge the gap in support between these youths and in-school youths. In addition, MOGEF will run career and job experience programs, demand for which is growing.
ㅇ MOGEF will actively develop support policies for parents of youths* who have been left out of support and work one-on-one with single parents of youths who are determined to become self-reliant to help them get ready to achieve self-sufficiency and eventually become able to maintain a stable life.
* Support policies include care, education and counseling services, and linkage to services based on local resources.
- In particular, the government will be responsible for providing single parents who are raising youths with psychological and emotional support throughout their entire life cycle by making available the services of the Youth Counseling and Welfare Center and the Healthy Family and Multicultural Family Center.
ㅇ Furthermore, MOGEF will run a “pilot project for connecting children and youths from migrant families to local support institutions” in areas with a relatively large population of migrants in 2020 and 2021 and spread exemplary models to help the youth from migrant families smoothly integrate into Korean society and grow without being discriminated against.
* ① Moving Rainbow School (Korean language education, etc. ② Local Youth from Migrant Families Support Center)③ Form and operate a private-public-academic council for connection to local resources, ④ subsidy for school meals, etc.
□ (More support for emerging adulthood) In order to resolve youth problems that have been worsening in recent years, taking preventive measures for emerging adulthood is important. Thus, the government will continue to increase comprehensive support to this end, including expanding programs for those in emerging adulthood.
ㅇ The Youth Counseling and Welfare Center and other youth organizations will assign counselors exclusively responsible for emerging adulthood to help youths experiencing difficulty moving to adulthood adapt to and integrate into society.
- MOGEF will expand the “Life Coaching Program” aimed at helping the youth become self-reliant and plan their future.
* The Youth Self-Reliance Support Center will be expanded to the Youth Shelter and Youth Counseling and Welfare Center starting 2021.
- In addition, MOGEF will run its youth programs in closer collaboration with the various youth projects of other ministries to provide substantial support for the youth to obtain experiences in culture, art, career development, and business startup.
□ (Protecting children and youths from online sex crimes) In addition to implementing “measures for the eradication of digital sex crimes” announced in April, MOGEF will take stronger actions to prevent youth runaway and help runaway youths who are particularly vulnerable to crimes.
ㅇ Street counseling and cyber outreach programs will be further expanded to prevent runaway youths from falling victim to sex crimes, thereby guiding them back into the framework of safety and protection.
- Youths entering a shelter will be obligated to receive education on prevention guidelines, and facility employees will also be required to receive on-line and off-line education on a regular basis as part of efforts to strengthen prevention education.
ㅇ In order to make shelters more accessible and easy to use, the criteria will be eased in such a way that more shelters will be opened and which will make it easy to open shelters. In addition, shelters will be given greater operational autonomy and flexibility to help the youth better in stabilizing their life.
ㅇ A cooperation system* will be set up to enable youth counseling and welfare facilities and sex crime victims support facilities to work together to provide greater support for victimized youths.
* MOGEF will publish and distribute the manual for youth facility employees, which requires that, if anyone using a youth shelter or a counseling and welfare facility finds a youth who is (or suspected to be) a victim of a sex crime, the victim should be sent to a specialized organization immediately.
- MOGEF also plans to make free legal support available to runaway youths who are at high risk of being exposed to crimes but cannot receive help from their family or friends.
□ (Protecting the youth from new and emerging risks) Chatting apps and other risk factors that can cause, encourage, or act as a bridge for inappropriate meetings involving children and youths will be monitored and regulated in order to build a safe media environment, and tougher actions will be taken against cyber gambling and other activities that are harmful to the youth.
ㅇ Random chatting apps do not require authentication, and they are available to use if users simply enter fake personal information including nickname, gender, and age. These apps are often used for crimes because users can remain anonymous. For this reason, some random chatting apps that can be used to encourage or lead to inappropriate meetings including sex trafficking will be designated as “harmful media for the youth,” and the list of these apps will be released in an administrative notice in May.
* ① self-identification, ② message-saving option (screen capture) ③ built-in reporting tool
- The Youth Media Environment Protection Center will be reorganized in a way that enables it to respond to new and emerging harmful media and videos on the Internet in a professional, timely manner, including constant monitoring.
ㅇ Measures will be taken to protect the youth from “proxy deposit,” a new financial scam conducted on social media wherein the youth are offered small-sum loans at high interest rates.
* The Youth Protection Act will be amended to ban lenders from charging youth interest rates higher than the legally allowed rate.
- Stronger actions will also be taken to block illegal gambling sites to prevent the youth from being exposed to illegal gambling, and substantial and practical support will be provided to youths at risk of addiction to gambling.
□ (Protect the youth’s right to work) An “Online Youth Work Protection Platform” will be built, with more youth education on labor rights to be provided to create a safe working environment for the youth.
ㅇ MOGEF will create a website wherein the youth can access all the information regarding labor protection, including specific cases regarding the violation of labor safety rules and labor rights and relief.
- A “Mobile Youth Work Protection Center*” will be set up within schools to offer customized counseling services and other services that the youth need the most. The “moving labor rights class” will also be made available to business owners starting this year.
* The center will be dedicated solely to providing work-related counseling services to the students of the school where the center belongs. Worksite helpers will work with schools to visit the worksite for counseling, if necessary.
ㅇ Youths will be allowed to work in the tourist accommodation service area including hotels for education and training purposes only. MOGEF will work with other ministries to ensure that the youth can learn and work in a safe, sound environment.
□ (Overhaul youth laws) The current youth laws fail to keep up with rapid social changes and include many elements that are not consistent with the goal of encouraging youth leadership, including outdated legal framework, terms, and regulations. These laws will be amended to lay a new foundation on which effective youth policies for the new era will be developed.
ㅇ First, the Framework Act on Youth includes terms that may discourage youth leadership and initiative such as “nurturing,” “instruction,” and “training.” These terms will be replaced with words that focus on leadership and active roles of the youth, such as “support for growth” and “experience.”
- In line with recent trends including lowering the voting age, the act will be revised to address the new subject of “promoting the rights and participation of youths” and introduce specific provisions stipulating basic rights, types of discriminations prohibited by law, and role of the youth as responsible members of society.
ㅇ Next, the Youth Activity Promotion Act will also be amended under the principle of promoting youth-centered policies to re-categorize youth facilities in a way that can meet the evolving demands of the times and maximize the use of the facilities.
- The existing four types of youth facilities including youth training centers will be integrated into “Youth Centers” that will be divided into three categories instead of six, and local governments will be given considerable autonomy and flexibility in building and managing these facilities.
ㅇ The Youth Welfare Support Act will also be changed to create a legal basis for building and operating the At-Risk Youth Integrated Information Network and Integrated Youth Support Deliberation Committee* with the aim of strengthening the legal foundation for raising the effectiveness of at-risk youth support programs.
* The committee is made up of essential youth-related organizations including police, Office of Education, Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Center, and Probation Office.
□ (Strengthening the youth policy-implementing system) An institutional framework will be built to expand the role of MOGEF in coordinating youth policies, and MOGEF will expand support to help local governments develop expertise in designing and implementing youth policies.
ㅇ Major ministries* that are closely involved in youth policies will appoint “youth policy advisers” to expand inter-ministry cooperation further.
* Ministry of Education/Ministry of Health and Welfare/Ministry of Employment and Labor/Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism/Ministry of Science and ICT, etc.
- MOGEF plans to recommend that ministries of the central government and committees* of local governments dealing with youth issues and policies appoint youth members.
* “Special Youth Committee” of the National Education Committee, “Local Youth Support Committee” of local governments, etc.
ㅇ MOGEF will continue to work with local governments to increase the number of government officials exclusively responsible for youth policies as part of efforts to enhance their capacity to coordinate and implement youth policies.
□ (Revise systems based on input from the youth) MOGEF will listen to the voices of the youth and revise systems and policy from the perspective of the youth in order to increase the effectiveness of youth policies. In particular, ways will be actively sought to stimulate youth activities that will likely be discouraged as a result of recent changes to education policies.
ㅇ Greater support and counseling and therapy services will be made available to parents so that they can play a more active, effective role in preventing their children from becoming overly dependent on media including Internet games; thus establishing a healthy Internet game-consuming culture.
- MOGEF will work to exempt only members of the Korea e-Sports Association from “the shutdown rule” in order to help the youth plan their future and expand career options.
(MOGEF is working to amend the Youth Protection Act in 2020)
ㅇ Public and private sectors will work together and come up with new benefits* for youth card holders to increase user convenience as well as the number of card users.
* ① Culture and leisure: Youth card holders will be able to receive discounts at movie theaters, large bookstores, amusement parks, and convenient stores, which are frequently used by the youth. ② Financial services: Banks will deposit a certain amount of money to accounts opened by youth card holders.
ㅇ When a youth is admitted to a shelter, his/her parent(s) must be notified accordingly. This rule has been one of the reasons the youth have been reluctant to use a youth shelter. Thus, more flexibility will be applied in enforcing this rule so that youth shelters can be more accessible and easy to use.
- In order to facilitate and speed up medical checkups for out-of-school youths (OSYs), The OSYs Support Center will develop a system for directly entering the information of checkup applicant OSYs into the computer system of National Health Insurance Corporation. Once the system is put in place, they will be able to receive a medical checkup packet within approximately one week instead of 4 weeks.
ㅇ The local community will play a central role in creating a close-knit cooperation system to get rid of fragmented and overlapping support for youth activities and educational programs.
- A group tentatively named “Local Youth Activity Support Council*” led by local governments will be formed to promote youth activities by bringing together the Office of Education including its regional branches, youth facilities, and youth organizations. The council will also be responsible for developing and promoting models for cooperation wherein schools and local communities can work together.
* The council will be set up initially in metropolitan areas and later in local governments.
** (Example) ① Schools will create and operate a youth services platform that allows schools and local communities to communicate regularly. ② Youth facilities (groups), local communities, and schools will work together to provide extracurricular activities during school semesters. ③ Support will be made available for youth activity projects after school or during vacation.
- To link youth activities to the High School Credit Program scheduled to start in 2025, MOGEF will create content that can be linked to youth activities, including career development and new learning experiences for the short term. For the long term, youth activities will be used as part of the individually customized education course designed to fit the career path and aptitude of individual students.
□ According to Minister Lee Jung-ok, in light of the drastic changes that are currently taking place, the youth possess the greatest potential to create a new future and a new culture.
ㅇ “MOGEF will listen to the voices of the youth and increase opportunities for the youth to engage in the policymaking process to ensure that youth policies are made by the youth for the youth as we work together toward creating an inclusive society where no youths are left out or discriminated against,” she added.
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